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Published: 1991

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The only comprehensive treatment of American library architecture, this work details the evolution of the modern public library from 1850 to the present. Donald E. Oehlerts provides a broad, historical perspective of the field of library architecture, examining the influences on the professions of public architecture and librarianship that shaped America's library buildings. Oehlerts examines the planning and construction of the largest public library buildings from 1850 through 1989, presenting the contributions that architects, librarians, and others have made to improvements in design and arrangement. He also explores the development of public architecture and librarianship to determine the sources of influence on these two emerging professions in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This work, which features illustrations of several important buildings, is valuable to professionals, students, and scholars of architecture and library management and facilities.

?In Books and Blueprints: Building America's Public Libraries, Donald Oehlerts provides us with some sound historical insights into the history of American public library architecture since 1850. The original version was, as might be expected, a dissertation; it was completed in 1974 and covers the subject from 1850 through 1940. Here, Oehlerts has polished the narrative and brought his history up to 1989. Strengths of his work are that he places the development of public library architecture into the perspective of American library history, provides a substantial amount of important statistical and tabular data (e.g., the costs of large public libraries built from 1850 to 1893), and summarizes what we now know about such important issues as the location and design of such buildings. There are also a substantial number of snapshot portraits of the construction of major individual libraries as well as several portraits of architects whose work is of special significance, like Edward L. Tilton, who gets a whole brief chapter. Much of that information is extremely brief and, thus, of lesser value. He offers, alas, few judgments, but the carefully assembled and well-organized data that he presents make this a substantial addition to the literature of library history. Moreover, his narrative highlights numerous areas--such as a study of the work of individual architects like William Patton, who designed at least twenty Carnegie libraries in Indiana--for further investigation by other library historians.?-Wilson Library Bulletin

ISBN: 9780313265709
ISBN-10: 0313265704
Series: Contributions in Librarianship & Information Science S.
Audience: Tertiary; University or College
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 200
Published: 1991
Publisher: ABC-Clio
Volume Number: 69
Dimensions (cm): 23.4 x 15.6  x 1.2
Weight (kg): 0.49