For most library users, the idea of a public library is something that has always been a part of their daily experience. But actually, the concept of a publically funded community space devoted to the collection and maintenance of reading materials for all to access is only a little more than 150 years old. In the Anglophone world the public library officially began in the United Kingdom with the Public Libraries Act of 1850, and in America with the founding of the Peterborough Town Library in 1833. But for at least two centuries prior to this, there were libraries for the public and those libraries—in all their variety—are the subject of this excellent collection of essays smoothly edited by Mark Towsey (University of St. Andrews) and Kyle Roberts (University of Pennsylvania).
The essays in Before the Public Library represent some of the research that has come out of a collective...
