Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.

"This lively, nuanced history of New York City's early public libraries traces their evolution within the political, social, and cultural worlds that supported them. On May 11, 1911, the New York Public Library opened its "marble palace for book lovers" on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. This was the city's first public library in the modern sense, a tax-supported, circulating collection free to every citizen. Since before the Revolution, however, New York's reading publics had access to a range of "public libraries" as the term was understood by contemporaries. In its most basic sense a public library in the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries simply meant a shared collection of books that was available to the general public and promoted the public good. From the founding in 1754 of the New York Society Library up to 1911, public libraries took a variety of forms. Some of them were free, charitable institutions, while others required a membership or an annual subscription. Some, such as the Biblical Library of the American Bible Society, were highly specialized; others, like the Astor Library, developed extensive, inclusive collections. What all the public libraries of this period had in common, at least ostensibly, was the conviction that good books helped ensure a productive, virtuous, orderly republic-that good reading promoted the public good. Tom Glynn's vivid, deeply researched history of New York City's public libraries over the course of more than a century and a half illuminates how the public and private functions of reading changed over time and how shared collections of books could serve both public and private ends. Reading Publics examines how books and reading helped construct social identities and how print functioned within and across groups, including but not limited to socioeconomic classes. The author offers an accessible while scholarly exploration of how republican and liberal values, shifting understandings of "public" and "private," and the debate over fiction influenced the development and character of New York City's public libraries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Reading Publics is an important contribution to the social and cultural history of New York City that firmly places the city's early public libraries within the history of reading and print culture in the United States"--

Everyone who has a library card (and those who don't will want one after reading this book) will love this fascinating account of how libraries have evolved. From camels delivering books in Kenya to information compression today, this is a book that's long overdue! Award-winning librarian Maureen Sawa takes readers on a breathless ride from the origins of libraries to the first bookshelves, from pack-horse librarians in Kentucky to the revolution that was vertical shelving. She presents familiar library heroes like Gutenberg and Benjamin Franklin and the more obscure ones, such as Hypatia, the great female librarian of Alexandria killed by a mob for opposing the teachings of Plato, and Vizier Abdul Kasem Ismail, the Persian bibliophile who traveled with forty camels carrying 117,000 books in alphabetical order. Libraries, past, present, and future, have a history as fascinating as the books they house. A must-have for every reader!

Illustrations and brief text present all kinds of libraries, from bookmobiles and home libraries to the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.

Many consider libraries to be immutable institutions, deeply entrenched in the past, full of dusty tomes and musty staff. In truth, libraries are and historically have been sites of innovation and disruption. Originally presented at the Library History Seminar XII: Libraries: Traditions and Innovations, this collection of essays offers examples of the enduring and evolving aspects of libraries and librarianship. Whether belonging to a Caliph in 10th-century Spain, built for 19th-century mechanics, or intended for the segregated Southern United States, libraries serve as both a reflection and a contestation of their context. These essays illustrate that libraries are places of turmoil, where real social and cultural controversies are explored and resolved, where invention takes place, and where identities are challenged and defined, reinforcing tradition and commanding innovation.

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 ...

Gives a history of the public libraries in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and describes the steps and work done to design and build the new Central Library in the city over the period from 2000 to 2006.

Everyone knows that New York maintains one of the great library systems in the world - the two lions that guard the 42nd street library among the most important icons in the city. Less well known are a host of specialty libraries that have grown up around the rich intellectual and cultural life of New York City. There are a number of libraries that serve genealogical researchers, but also libraries catering to Spanish, German, French and Russian speakers. There is a library of books about dogs and one that is based on the work of Carl Jung. A library in Staten Island checks out tools to homeowners rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy. Fifty Specialty Libraries of New York City will be a tour of highly specialized but publicly accessible libraries in Manhattan and the Outer Boroughs. In each case, access is described, and an interview with the director or supervisor is presented. This book is a unique information source for all those librarians and researchers interested in the rich cultural heritage of New York's libraries. - Goes beyond the directory format to give thoughtful commentary and interview material on each library - Refers the reader to current information - Written by a librarian with 50 years' experience of public, academic, and special libraries, and with a deep feeling for New York - Gives an account of 50 speciality libraries of New York City, from small subscription libraries to the UN Library - Presents information on libraries that are little-known and widely useful in New York

The New York Public Library comprises simultaneously a set of scholarly research collections that rank with those of the British Library, the Library of Congress, and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, as well as a network of community libraries with vast popular neighborhood collections -- and all of its resources are open to all visitors, a degree of access perhaps unique in the world. How it came to be, how it grew and developed its unique character, and how it came to be a refuge and essential resource for generations of New Yorkers and scholars from around the world are some of the pieces of the fascinating story told here.