KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL

An overview of the astonishing range of vital community services public libraries offer (and have offered) in the United States.

Tracing their origin back to 18th-century subscription libraries, Loonin chronicles the growth of public libraries and library systems in this country—but her focus remains fairly steadily on highlighting their founding principles of open access in the service of promoting informed citizenship and their central roles as “third places” (after homes and schools or workplaces), where communities can gather to exchange values and views. She’s refreshingly frank about library benefactor Andrew Carnegie’s harsh anti-labor tactics, systemic flaws in the Dewey Decimal System, the personal failings of its inventor, Melvil Dewey, and instances where libraries haven’t lived up to their “free to all” ideals, due to censorship demands or prejudice against racial and immigrant groups. But Loonin can rightly claim that in general, public libraries have a proud history of resisting such pressures in defense of both intellectual freedom and freedom of opportunity. The book includes a dazzling recounting of services and programs promoting job skills and multiple types of literacy, special children’s and teen spaces and services, lending libraries of tools and other objects, and outreach to underserved populations (from the Appalachian packhorse librarians to efforts to bridge the digital divide). Photos show diverse library users and library settings.

A nuanced and overall celebratory story.