04996cam a2200493 i 4500 17486823 BJBSDDR 20260306122122.0 a|||||r|||| 00| 0 ta 121008s2013 wiua rb s001 0 eng c 2012040073 9780299293246 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0299293246 (pbk. : alk. paper) 9780299293239 (e-book) 17486823 WU/DLC eng WU rda DLC eng pcc n-us--- Z 731 L697 2013 027.473 Libraries and the reading public in twentieth-century America / edited by Christine Pawley and Louise S. Robbins. Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. viii, 281 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. text rdacontent unmediated rdamedia volume rdacarrier Print culture history in modern America Includes bibliographical references and index. Preface Introduction — Christine Pawley Part 1: Methods and Evidence Community Places and Reading Spaces: Main Street Public Library in the Rural Heartland, 1876–1956 — Wayne A. Wiegand Reading Library Records: Constructing and Using the What Middletown Read Database — Frank Felsenstein, John Straw, Katharine Leigh, and James J. Connolly "Story Develops Badly, Could Not Finish": Member Book Reviews at the Boston Athenæum in the 1920s — Ross Harvey "A Search for Better Ways into the Future": The Library of Congress and Its Users in the Interwar Period — Jane Aikin Part 2: Public Libraries, Readers, and Localities Going to “America”: Italian Neighborhoods and the Newark Free Public Library, 1900–1920 — Ellen M. Pozzi "A Liberal and Dignified Approach": The John Toman Branch of the Chicago Public Library and the Making of Americans, 1927–1940 — Joyce M. Latham Counter Culture: The World as Viewed from Inside the Indianapolis Public Library, 1944–1956 — Jean Preer Part 3: Intellectual Freedom Censorship in the Heartland: Eastern Iowa Libraries during World War I — Julia Skinner Locating the Library in the Nonlibrary Censorship of the 1950s: Ideological Negotiations in the Professional Record — Joan Bessman Taylor “Is Your Public Library Family Friendly?”: Libraries as a Site of Conservative Activism, 1992–2002 — Loretta M. Gaffney The Challengers of West Bend: The Library as a Community Institution — Emily Knox Part 4: Librarians and the Alternative Press Meta-Radicalism: The Alternative Press by and for Activist Librarians — Alycia Sellie From the Underground to the Stacks and Beyond: Girl Zines, Zine Librarians, and the Importance of Itineraries through Print Culture — Janice A. Radway Contributors Index For well over one hundred years, libraries open to the public have played a crucial part in fostering in Americans the skills and habits of reading and writing, by routinely providing access to standard forms of print: informational genres such as newspapers, pamphlets, textbooks, and other reference books, and literary genres including poetry, plays, and novels. In the early twenty-first century, the American Library Association reports that there are more public library branches than McDonald's restaurants in the United States. Much has been written about libraries from professional and managerial points of view, but less so from the perspectives of those most intimately involved -- patrons and librarians. Drawing on circulation records, patron reviews, and other archived materials, this collection underscores the evolving roles that libraries have played in the lives of American readers. Each essay examines a historical circumstance related to reading in libraries. The essays are organized in sections on methods of researching the history of reading in libraries; immigrants and localities; censorship issues; and the role of libraries in providing access to alternative, nonmainstream publications. The volume shows public libraries as living spaces where individuals and groups with diverse backgrounds, needs, and desires encountered and used a great variety of texts, images, and other media throughout the twentieth century Public libraries United States History 20th century. Bibliotecas públicas Estados Unidos Siglo XX 37158 Books and reading United States History 20th century. Libros y lectura Historia Estados Unidos Siglo XX 47367 Pawley, Christine, 1945- 44979 editor Robbins, Louise S., 1944- 44980 editor Print culture history in modern America 47368 7 cbc orignew 1 ecip 20 y-gencatlg lcc BK LLH 125260 125260 0 0 lcc 0 0 HU BJB BJB HU 2025-09-17 0 Z 731 L697 2013 00000193982 2025-09-17 20:56:00 1 2025-09-17 BK