The public library : a photographic essay

Resource Information

The work The public library : a photographic essay represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in San Francisco Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The public library : a photographic essay

Title remainder

a photographic essay

Statement of responsibility

by Robert Dawson ; foreword by Bill Moyers ; afterword by Ann Patchett ; with reflections by Isaac Asimov, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Philip Levine, Dr. Seuss, Charles Simic, Amy Tan, E.B. White, and others

Contributor

• Dawson, Robert, 1950-

Subject

• Libraries and community -- United States
• Libraries and society -- United States
• Library users -- United States
• Public libraries -- United States
• Public libraries -- United States -- Pictorial works

Genre

• Pictorial works

Language

eng

Summary

"Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to the public library: the unmistakable, slightly musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly-discovered books. Today's libraries also function as de facto community centers, and offer free access to the Internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter along with the endless possibilities that spark your imagination the moment you open the cover of a book. There are more than 17,000 public libraries in America. Over the last eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson has traveled the nation, documenting hundreds of these institutions--from Alaska to Florida, New England to the West Coast. The Public Library presents a wide selection of Dawson's photographs, revealing a vibrant, essential, yet seriously threatened system. Essays, letters, and poetry by a collection of America's most celebrated writers--including E. B. White, Isaac Asimov, Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Charles Simic, Dr. Seuss, and Philip Levine, as well as the voices of dedicated librarians working today--are woven with photographs of the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library; the one-room Tulare County Free Library built by former slaves, in Allensworth, California; the architectural wonder of Seattle's glass and steel Central Library; and the Berkeley, California tool lending library; among many others. A foreword by Bill Moyers and an afterword by Ann Patchett bookend this important survey of a treasured American institution"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

027.40973

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

LC call number

Z731

LC item number

.P9265 2014

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography