Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library

345 Pages·2015·7.718 MB·English

by  Wayne A. Wiegand

Part of Our Lives

Part of
Our Lives
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAN PUBLIC LIBR ARY
Wayne A. Wiegand
1
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiegand, Wayne A., 1946–
Part of our lives : a people’s history of the American public library / Wayne A. Wiegand.
pages cm
ISBN 978–0–19–024800–0 (hardback)
1. Public libraries—United States—History. 2. Libraries—United States—Public opinion—
History. 3. Public opinion—United States—History. 4. Library users—United States—
Attitudes—History. 5. Public libraries—Social aspects—United States—History. 6. Libraries
and community—United States—History. 7. Libraries and society—United States—History.
8. Books and reading—United States—History. I. Title.
Z731.W734 2015
027.473—dc 3
2015014209
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Shirl:
Who introduced me to a world of love
I never would have discovered by myself.
June 19, 2015
Our Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary

Contents

Introduction: So Much More Than Information 1

1. “Improv’d the General Conversation of Americans”: Social
Libraries before 1854 7

2. For “Plain People”: The American Public Library,
1854–1876 30

3. “The Best Reading for the Greatest Number at the Least
Cost”: 1876–1893 53

4. “The Liberty to Read What They Will and When”: The
Carnegie Era, 1893–1917 75

5. “Habitations on a Literary Map”: 1917–1929 106

6. “One Island of Refuge”: The Great Depression and World
War II, 1929–1945 136

7. “Winning the Battles of Daily Life”: 1945–1964 165

8. “An Individual Meaning to Each User”: 1964–1980 193

9. “Library Paste Is a Precious Part of Social
Glue”: 1981–2000 221

10. Information, Reading, and Place: 2001–Present 250

Acknowledgments 271

Notes 273

Index 311

INTRODUCTION
So Much More Than Information

It’s an indisputable fact—Americans love their public libraries. They
always have, and evidence to support this statement abounds. First, the
rhetoric: “The three most important documents a free society gives,” wrote
author E. L. Doctorow in 1994, “are a birth certificate, a passport, and
a library card.” “In this room,” Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David
McCullough said as he swept his arm around the Tulsa Public Library’s
auditorium in 1995, “we are at dead center in the absolute heart of the
best institution in our society—the free library.” “The America I loved
still exists,” said Kurt Vonnegut in 2005, albeit not in government or the
media. “The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public
libraries.”1
Next, the research: A 2013 report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet
and American Life Project noted that in the previous decade “every other
major institution (government, churches, banks, corporations) has fallen
in public esteem except libraries, the military, and first responders.” The
study also found that 91 percent of those surveyed who were more than
sixteen years old said libraries are “very” or “somewhat” important to their
communities, and 98 percent identified their public library experience as
“very” or “mostly positive.” Another Pew study found that 94 percent of
parents believe libraries are important for their children, and 84 percent
said this was because libraries develop a love of reading and books.2
Although in the 1980s many evangelists of information technology
predicted the demise of public libraries by the turn of the century, as of
this writing their numbers have not dropped. In fact, in 2012 the United