Carnegie and the Carnegie Corporation provided funding for 1,681 public library buildings in 1,412 U.S. communities between 1889 and 1923. This philanthropy had a great impact on the growth of public library development in the United States. Free public libraries supported by local taxation had begun with Boston in 1849 and slowly spread throughout the country. The Carnegie benefactions made them leap forward. This internationally famous celebrity chose libraries as one of the primary sources for his philanthropy. He also attached two conditions to his offer of money for a public library building--the local community had to provide a suitable site and formally agree to continuously support the library through local tax funds. The latter solidified acceptance of the concept of tax support for libraries.

First Published in 1994. This book focuses on the historical development of the library as an institution. Its contents assume no single theoretical foundation or philosophical perspective but instead reflect the richly diverse opinions of its many contributors. This text is intended to serve as a reference tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in library history, for library school educators whose teaching requires knowledge of the historical development of library institutions, services, and user groups, and for practicing library professionals.

The circulation of books was the motor of classical civilization. However, books were both expensive and rare, and so libraries - private and public, royal and civic - played key roles in articulating intellectual life. This collection, written by an international team of scholars, presents a fundamental reassessment of how ancient libraries came into being, how they were organized and how they were used. Drawing on papyrology and archaeology, and on accounts written by those who read and wrote in them, it presents new research on reading cultures, on book collecting and on the origins of monumental library buildings. Many of the traditional stories told about ancient libraries are challenged. Few were really enormous, none were designed as research centres, and occasional conflagrations do not explain the loss of most ancient texts. But the central place of libraries in Greco-Roman culture emerges more clearly than ever.

LONGLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library' Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge under Attack Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes or filled with bean bags and children's drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied and stuffed full of incident. In this, the first major history of its kind, Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen explore the contested and dramatic history of the library, from the famous collections of the ancient world to the embattled public resources we cherish today. Along the way, they introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of fashions and tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanours committed in pursuit of rare and valuable manuscripts.

A History of Medical Libraries and Librarianship in the United States: From John Shaw Billingsto the Digital Era presents a history of the profession from the beginnings of the Army Surgeon General’s Library in 1836 to today’s era of the digital health sciences library. The purpose of this book is not only to make this history available to the profession’s practitioners, but also to provide context as medical librarians and libraries enter a new age in their history as the digital information environment has undercut the medical library’s previous role as the depository of the print based KBI/information base. The book divides the profession’s history is divided into seven eras: 1. The Era of the Library of the Office of the Army Surgeon General and John Shaw Billings – 1836 – 1898 2. The Era of the Gentleman Physician Librarian – 1898 to 1945 3. The Era of the Development of the Clinical Research Infrastructure (NIH), the Rapid Expansion in Funded and Published Clinical Research and the Emergence of Medical Librarianship as a Profession – 1945 – 1962 4. The Era of the Development of the National Library of Medicine, Online digital Subject Searching (Medline) and the Creation of the National Health Science Library Infrastructure– 1962 – 1975 5. The Medline Era – A Golden Age for Medical Libraries – 1975 – 1995 6. The Era of Universal Access to Information and the Transition from Paper to Digitally Based Medical Libraries – 1995 – 2015 7. The Era of the Digital Health Sciences Library – 2015 – Each era is reviewed through discussing the developments in the field and the factors which drove those developments. The book will provide current and future medical librarians and information specialists an understanding of the development of their profession and some insights into its future.

Contains complete text of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2d ed., 1998 rev., including all amendments, all appendices, a fully searchable table of contents and index, a tutorial, and Folio Views Infobase.

This edition of the History of Libraries in the Western World represents a substantial revision of the earlier edition, taking into account the information revolution that has swept the West since 1945 and the political revolution that swept across Europe beginning in 1986.