The American Public Library and the Problem of Purpose
http://amzn.to/2hWCocX
The problem of purpose in the title is the 130-year debate within the library community over the proper place for the library in society. Chapters discuss roles for public libraries from the founding of the Boston Public Library with its clear educational purpose through attempts at rational planning for library roles in the 1980s. The controversy about the place of popular fiction in American libraries in the late 19th century; the militant outreach efforts during the early decades of the 20th century; the adult education phase during the 1920s to 1940s; and the library as an information nexus for the people during the late 1960s and 1970s are additional topics covered. The style is highly readable and provides important historical insights that should be of interest not only to library educators and students, but to any public librarian concerned with current service roles.
You can see the table of contents and read the preface here.
An older text
If anybody is looking to borrow a copy of this text from 1988, Worldcat.org does have some listings.
1988
>>If anybody is looking to borrow a copy of this text from 1988, Worldcat.org does have some listings.
The book is from 88 but it is talking about public libraries from the 1800’s, 1920s, 1940s, 1950s. A book from 88 can do this as well as a newer text. Comment above may not have been a critique but anyone that questions this book because of it’s age I wanted to respond.