The Public Libraries Act of 1850 founded a tradition of public provision and service which continues today, and national and academic libraries have grown and multiplied accordingly. Libraries have become an industry rather than a localized phenomenon, and librarianship has developed from a scholarly craft to a scientific profession. The essays in this volume present a picture of great diversity, covering public, national, academic, subscription and private libraries. The users of libraries are an important part of their history and are considered here in detail, alongside the development of...
The Public Libraries Act of 1850 founded a tradition of public provision and service which continues today, and national and academic libraries have g...
For the first hundred years or so of their history, public libraries in Britain were built in an array of revivalist architectural styles. This backward-looking tradition was decisively broken in the 1960s as many new libraries were erected up and down the country.
In this new Routledge book, Alistair Black argues that the architectural modernism of the post-war years was symptomatic of the age s spirit of renewal. In the 1960s, public libraries truly became libraries of light, and Black further explains how this phrase not only describes the shining new library designs with...
For the first hundred years or so of their history, public libraries in Britain were built in an array of revivalist architectural styles. This bac...