Reading Publics

Tom Glynn's Reading Publics moves from New York City's colonial period and the founding of the first libraries to the official opening of the central building of the New York Public Library (nypl) in 1911. The book comprises nine relatively short chapters devoted to each of the major libraries or types of library that eventually became or contributed to the development of the nypl, bracketed by an introduction and an afterword. The introduction examines the concept of “public library” and provides context for the changing relationship among the city, its libraries, and private and public readers. The afterword focuses on the difficulty of discovering who readers were and what they read at any given time, emphasizing the problematic topic of fiction. The meat of the well-researched and lively (though name-laden) text is the evolution of, conjunction of, and tension between republicanism and liberalism as these ways of looking at social institutions developed while the artisan and his apprentices gave way to factory and office and as the hereditary elite evolved to wealthy businessman. The New York Society Library, founded in 1754, hung on to its identity as a site for the privileged, as did other libraries the early New York City gentry established, such as the New-York Historical Society Library and the American Bible Society's biblical library. Their charters claimed public status for the purpose of procuring whatever funds might be available, but they in no way intended to serve the entire citizenry of New York City. For many years the libraries did not admit women as readers, and their hours precluded access to any but those with wealth and leisure. The Apprentices' Library of New York City did serve artisans' employees who were trying to improve themselves, but, like the others, it required a membership fee. Jewish and Catholic libraries also served limited publics

Media studies · Political science · Politics · Publics · Reading (process · Sociology · History · Law · Library Science and Administration

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