The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History

Published by Princeton University Press 2015

The Meaning of the Library

A Cultural History

Edited by: Alice Crawford

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400865741

Overview
Contents

About this book

From Greek and Roman times to the digital era, the library has remained central to knowledge, scholarship, and the imagination. The Meaning of the Library is a generously illustrated examination of this key institution of Western culture. Tracing what the library has meant since its beginning, examining how its significance has shifted, and pondering its importance in the twenty-first century, notable contributors—including the Librarian of Congress and the former executive director of the HathiTrust—present a cultural history of the library. In an informative introduction, Alice Crawford sets out the book's purpose and scope, and an international array of scholars, librarians, writers, and critics offer vivid perspectives about the library through their chosen fields. The Meaning of the Library will appeal to all who are interested in this vital institution's heritage and ongoing legacy.

Author / Editor information

Alice Crawford is digital humanities research librarian at the University of St Andrews Library in Scotland. Her books include Paradise Pursued: The Novels of Rose Macaulay.

Reviews

"The library as a topic is currently of increasing cultural interest. I enjoyed The Meaning of the Library and learned a lot from the book's eclectic and interesting mix of essays."—Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian, University of Oxford

[F]or both scholar and general reader, comprehensive bibliographic notes constitute a multilingual gold mine of historical resources on libraries.

A wonderfully informative, erudite and entertaining collection of essays.---Alberto Manguel, Times Literary Supplement

This excellent volume, well produced and with an extensive bibliography, is not standard library history, but it is delightful reading, whether consumed as a whole or used to browse in. It should provide any library historians with new insights into their discipline and can be highly recommended.---Peter Hoare, Library & Information History

"This wide-ranging survey of the long and tumultuous history of libraries contains at least a dozen tantalizing bits of information per page. I was fascinated and enriched. And because these essays began as lectures delivered in a library, they illustrate beautifully one of the library's most important roles—as a stage set for writers to share what they've learned about various subjects, including Roman bathhouses, Victorian fumigators, plunder, lust, and the eighteenth-century librarian upon whose death, it was said, ‘The books are grievin, ‘mang themselves.'"—Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

As a history and an assessment of an inestimable resource and a force for good in the world,The Meaning of the Libraryis a timely and thought-provoking compilation.---Patricia Craig, Independent

Each essay is excellently written and researched; each new perspective illuminates a different fact in great and mind-expanding detail. . . . Bibliophiles, especially, will love [The Meaning of the Library] as it focuses attention on the deeper importance book collections hold.---Gretchen Wagner, San Francisco Book Review

These pleasant peregrinations exploring the role that libraries . . . have played as preservers, proponents, and providers of culture will appeal widely to library scholars and bibliophiles.

The Meaning of the Libraryis a riveting and deeply satisfying work that is bound to leave the reader not only far more aware of the sociocultural importance of the institution as a reservoir of heritage and learning, but also inspired to think of issues that lie beyond the earthly and temporal realm.---Lois C. Henderson, Bookpleasures.com

"The Meaning of the Library covers the history of the library from antiquity to the present day. This is a very good collection of essays."—Colin Burrow, editor of Metaphysical Poetry

A marvelous survey of Western libraries and books from Greek and Roman times to today. . . . It is a lovely book, handsomely designed with endnotes, author bios, bibliography, index, and an eight-page, four-color insert-illustrations of ancient and medieval book cabinets.---Wally Wood, Bookpleasures.com,

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
list of illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Introduction Alice Crawford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Part 1. The Library through Time
Chapter 1. Adventures in Ancient Greek and Roman Libraries Edith Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2. The Image of the Medieval Library Richard Gameson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter 3. The Renaissance Library and the Challenge of Print Andrew Pettegree Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Chapter 4. From Printing Shop to Bookshelves How Books Began the Journey to Enlightenment Libraries Robert Darnton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Chapter 5. “The Advantages of Literature” The Subscription Library in Georgian Britain David Allan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter 6. Literature and the Library in the Nineteenth Century John Sutherland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
Part 2. The Library in Imagination
Chapter 7. The Library in Fiction Marina Warner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Chapter 8. The Library in Poetry Robert Crawford Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Chapter 9. The Library in Film Order and Mystery Laura Marcus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Part 3. The Library Now and in the Future
Chapter 10. “Casting and Gathering” Libraries, Archives, and the Modern Writer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Chapter 11. Meanings of the Library Today John P. Wilkin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	236
Chapter 12. The Modern Library and Global Democracy James H. Billington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285

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