Institutions of Reading: The Social Life of Libraries in the United States

Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book

by Thomas Augst (Editor), Kenneth E. Carpenter (Editor)

Tracing the evolution of the library as a modern institution from the late eighteenth century to the digital era, this book explores the diverse practices by which Americans have shared reading matter for instruction, edification, and pleasure. Writing from a rich variety of perspectives, the contributors raise important questions about the material forms and social shapes of American culture. What is a library? How have libraries fostered communities of readers and influenced the practice of reading in particular communities? How did the development of modern libraries alter the boundaries of individual and social experience, and define new kinds of public culture? To what extent have libraries served as commercial enterprises, as centers of power, and as places of empowerment for African Americans, women, and immigrants? Institutions of Reading offers at once a social history of literacy and leisure, an intellectual history of institutional and technological innovations that facilitated the mass distribution and consumption of printed books and periodicals, and a cultural history of the symbolic meanings and practical uses of reading in American life. In addition to the editors, contributors include Elizabeth Amann, Michael Baenen, James Green, Elizabeth McHenry, Barbara Mitchell, Christine Pawley, Janice Radway, James Raven, Karin Roffman, and Roy Rosenzweig.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Academic

392 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of this edited collection was uniformly good, though the vast majority of the contributions were more historically interesting than theoretically provoking. Nonetheless, the book covers topics as chronologically diverse as social libraries in 18th century New England to contemporary concerns of digital archivists. Along the way, the various authors expose their own affinities for libraries (they aren't all librarians, but I would venture they are all accomplished users of their resources) by engaging with a vast array of relevant archives. Personally speaking, I'm still attempting to tease out the relationship that libraries (as institutions) play in the practices of individual book collectors, but these essays helped me to formulate the question underlying this relationship in different ways, prompting me to think about how the ways information is cataloged or chosen for a library controls the type of work likely to be conducted within it. The tensions (still felt) between the role of the library as a democratic space which might reflect the desires of its patrons versus a formative space that might influence the public tastes persist even as collections become increasingly virtual. Regardless of the fate of the codex book in our digital age, libraries will remain vital in the cultivation and preservation of scholarship. This collection nicely demonstrates both how and why libraries have always occupied roles of such importance, while simultaneously promoting the necessity for their continued prominence in the future.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great study of libraries in American culture. Solid methodology and discussion in this compilation. Useful to anybody interested in American book history.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this book three stars for how it compares as a textbook, which is the context in which I read it. It's fairly pleasant to read, and some of the chapters cover topics that were truly new and interesting to me. If I was reading this book for pleasure, however, it would be too dry to finish. It would feel too much like reading, well, a textbook.