"In commemoration of the American Philosophical Society's 275th anniversary, the Society's Library, along with the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), hosted an interdisciplinary and international conference that explored the history of libraries, the present opportunities for libraries (especially independent research libraries and those with special collections), and the potential future for libraries as they continue to evolve in the 21st century"--

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.

Provides a list of subject headings for use in smaller libraries.

Argues against the futuristic idea of virtual libraries because it is devastating to the societal mission of libraries, proposing instead a balanced, human-oriented approach to technology that complements print, community library buildings, and user-friendly librarians.

""Future libraries" rassemble d'émérites avocats, historiens, informaticiens, linguistes, et architectes pour aborder le futur des bibliothèques, des livres et de l'écrit dans l'ère électronique.

This thought-provoking collection will challenge librarians at every kind of institution to start planning today for the library of tomorrow.

As we enter a new millennium, librarianship and other information professions are swept up in a period of rapid, almost frantic, change. But while there is widespread recognition that libraries in the future will be vastly different from what we know today, precisely how this change will occur is and always has been a matter of considerable speculation. To this end, Gregg Sapp has analyzed library-based predictions made between 1978, the year F.W. Lancaster published Toward Paperless Information Systems, and 1999;and compared them with seminal works published since 1876, the publication of the first issue of American Library Journal. Includes [between 500 and 700] annotated entries.

Originally written in the late 1970s, this book was untouched for more than 35 years. McLuhan passed away before it went to press, but Logan always intended to finish it. Looking at the future of the library from the perspective of McLuhan's original vision, Logan has carefully updated the text to address the impact of the Internet and other digital technologies on the library.

Jeffrey Schnapp and Matthew Battles reflect on what libraries have been in order to speculate about what they will become: hybrid places that intermingle books and ebooks, analog and digital formats, paper and pixels. They combine the cultural history of libraries with innovations at metaLAB, a research group at the forefront of digital humanities.