Countless histories can be found on library shelves, including histories of libraries themselves. Reading library history can help us not only avoid repeating history but also better understand how libraries are shaped and how our profession has changed over time, helping us to create better stories for the future.
The Library: A Fragile History
By Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
The global history recounted in this six-part title demonstrates the role information access plays in societies, with the final two sections focusing on the US and the West. Although its length may seem overwhelming, this is a straightforward read whose clear message that libraries are rooted in their dependence on people and communities should resonate with anyone interested in the history of our institutions.
Basic Books, 2021. 544 p. $22.99. PBK. 978-1-5416-0372-1. (Also available as an ebook.)
Questioning Library Neutrality: Essays from Progressive Librarian
Edited by Alison Lewis
By organizing previously published essays from the Progressive Librarians Guild chronologically, this volume illustrates the history of the ongoing debates around library neutrality and offers a look into how libraries have historically approached intellectual freedom, censorship, and social justice. Selected essays share stories going back to the 1960s, including those of a Florida librarian who was contacted by the FBI during the height of the Patriot Act, and E. J. Josey, a Black librarian and activist who was denied membership to his state’s library association because of his race.
Library Juice Press, 2008. 152 p. $35. PBK. 978-0-9778-6177-4.
Confronting the Democratic Discourse of Librarianship: A Marxist Approach
By Sam Popowich
Following the history of libraries and capitalism in tandem, Popowich pairs theory and history to challenge assumptions about libraries as a democratic ideal. While perhaps more philosophical than traditionally historical, the approach allows readers to see how systems of power have affected current library practices. Theory is used here to construct and deconstruct received ideas about libraries, including those about their origins. This book is especially relevant for understanding the debates and challenges libraries face today.
Library Juice Press, 2019. 334 p. $45. PBK. 978-1-6340-0087-1.
Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People
Edited by Sanford Berman
Much can be learned from the changes and challenges to Library of Congress subject headings. First published in 1971, this 2013 reprint includes an updated foreword and reflections on its impact. Berman’s seminal text examines bias in library cataloging and description, the ways that controlled vocabularies affect how librarians see and organize the world, and the power and responsibility that comes with this task. Though now more than a decade old, the reprint demonstrates how library description is not a static history but one that requires constant evaluation and rectification.
McFarland & Company, 2013. 229 p. $29.95. 978-0-7864-9352-4.
The Promise of Access: Technology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope
By Daniel Greene
While not about the history of libraries per se, this text examines the history of the supposed digital divide and policies to increase digital access. Greene explores how technochauvinism, the belief that technology is the best fix for a problem, offers lackluster solutions to social and economic inequality that don’t address systemic issues. Rather, these solutions transform processes and places for internet access, especially schools and public libraries. For readers interested in library history, this study provides additional context for the ways digital access policies have led to library initiatives and affected operations.
MIT Press, 2021. 272 p. $35. PBK. 978-0-2625-4233-3.
Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow
By Cheryl Knott
It is tempting to romanticize libraries and their histories. But, as many of the books on this list reveal, libraries can uphold—and in some cases, further—oppressive social systems. Knott explores the segregation efforts of primarily white middle-class women in the pre–Civil Rights Act South and the efforts of Black Americans to create their own information spaces. Knott’s historical study encourages readers to contemplate who libraries are for and what purposes they really serve.
University of Massachusetts Press, 2015. 322 p. $29.95. PBK. 978-1-6253-4178-5.
