The Academic Library in the United States: Historical Perspectives

by Mark L. McCallon (Editor), John Mark Tucker (Editor)

Overview

This book advances the belief that the library—more than any other cultural institution—collects, curates and distributes the results of human thought. Essays broaden the debate about academic libraries beyond only professional circles, promoting the library as a vital resource for the whole of higher education. Topics range from library histories to explorations of changing media. Essayists connect modern libraries to the remarkable dream of Alexandria's ancient library—facilitating groundbreaking research in every imaginable field of human interest, past, present and future.

Academic librarians who are most familiar with historical traditions are best qualified to promote the library as an important aspect of teaching and learning, as well as to develop resources that will enlighten future generations of readers. The intellectual tools for compelling, constructive conversation come from the narrative of the library in its many iterations, from the largest research university to the smallest liberal arts or community college.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786495870
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	10/10/2022
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.59(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark L. McCallon is a professor and associate dean for library information services at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. His interests include electronic resources management, the history and biography of reading and librarianship. John Mark Tucker, professor emeritus from Purdue University, served as Humanities, Social Science, and Education Librarian at Purdue and, later, as dean of library and information resources at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Foreword
John M. Budd
From the Bequest of John Harvard to the Dream of Alexandria: Historiography of the Academic Library in the United States, 1638–2015
Mark L. McCallon and John Mark Tucker
Introductory Essays
The Development of the Academic Library in American Higher Education and the Role of the Academic Librarian
Beverly P. Lynch
Perceptions of the Academic Library: Midwestern College Libraries as They Have Been Depicted in College Histories
John Caldwell
Book Collections and Classical Training, 1638–1799
Books Across the Atlantic
Eric Glasgow
Libraries in America to 1850: College Libraries
Elmer D. Johnson and Michael H. Harris
Liberal Arts Colleges and Professional Education, 1800–1875
The American College Library, 1800–1860
Howard Clayton
Formation of the University, 1876–1919
The Transformation of American Scholarship, 1875–1917
Arthur E. Bestor, Jr.
Research Libraries, the Ideology of Reading, and Scholarly Communication, 1876–1900
Wayne A. Wiegand
Experimentation and Redefinition, 1920–1945
Private Dominance in Black Academic Libraries, 1916–1938
James E. Hooper
Toward a New Cultural Design: The American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, and Libraries in the 1930s
Kenneth Carpenter
Expansion, Science, and Technology, 1946–1988, Part I
The Influence of Computer Technology on Academic Library Buildings: A Slice of Recent History
Philip D. Leighton and David C. Weber
Diversity and Retrenchment, 1946–1988, Part II
In the Eye of the Storm: Academic Libraries in the Sixties
Fay M. Blake
ACRL’s Fiftieth Anniversary: For Reflection, for Celebration, and for Anticipation
Edward G. Holley
Digital Expansion, 1989–2015
Context and Background [on the Transformation of Scholarly Communication]
Rikk Mulligan
Historiographical Futures
Historiographical Futures for Library History: Conceptual Observations for Future Historians
­­­Jean-Pierre V.M. Hérubel
Further Reading
The Academic Library in the United States: Selected Historical Readings
Jean-Pierre V.M. Hérubel, Mark L. McCallon, and John Mark Tucker
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

This well-researched book demonstrates impressive scholarship from beginning to end. The editors are to be applauded for stitching together the right voices in a volume that will be referenced for years to come. Santayana’s 1905 maxim, mentioned in this book’s foreword—‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’—certainly applies here, as the editors are committed to learning from the lessons of the past....This comprehensive and important work will be deeply appreciated by librarians and historians; a welcome addition to any higher-education library.”—Library Journal; “The introductory chapter [is] a tour de force of scholarship. This is the book I have been waiting for! [It] will become an instant classic and a seminal work in the historiography of libraries and librarianship.”—Edward A. Goedeken, professor of library and information science, library collections coordinator, Iowa State University

From the Publisher