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    The Public Library: A Photographic Essay
    Unavailable
    The Public Library: A Photographic Essay
    Unavailable
    The Public Library: A Photographic Essay
    Ebook235 pages1 hour

    The Public Library: A Photographic Essay

    By Robert Dawson, Bill Moyers and Ann Patchett

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A gorgeous visual celebration of America's public libraries including 150 photos, plus essays by Bill Moyers, Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, and many more.

    Many of us have vivid recollections of childhood visits to a public library: the unmistakable musty scent, the excitement of checking out a stack of newly discovered books. Today, the more than 17,000 libraries in America also function as de facto community centers offering free access to the internet, job-hunting assistance, or a warm place to take shelter. And yet, across the country, cities large and small are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operation. Over the last eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson has crisscrossed the country documenting hundreds of these endangered institutions. The Public Library presents a wide selection of Dawson's photographs— from the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library to Allensworth, California's one-room Tulare County Free Library built by former slaves. Accompanying Dawson's revealing photographs are essays, letters, and poetry by some of America's most celebrated writers. A foreword by Bill Moyers and an afterword by Ann Patchett bookend this important survey of a treasured American institution.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton Architectural Press
    Release dateMay 27, 2014
    ISBN9781616893545
    Unavailable
    The Public Library: A Photographic Essay
    Author

    Robert Dawson

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    Reviews for The Public Library

    4.5/5

    54 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      fantastic photographs and great short stories about libraries.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful book, about our greatest public institution. Makes me want to travel around the country and see some of these libraries for myself.
    • 1/5
      Thought this was a book about public library history.
      Wrong.... It's about virtue signaling race bashers..... who also happen to go to libraries and read books.
      My mistake.
    • 5/5
      I readily admit that I’m a library geek. When I go on vacation I visit libraries. I also collect books about libraries, primarily photo essays. So, of course I’d end up reading The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson. Over a decade in the making, this book has photos of public libraries, big and small, fancy and plain. Some are Carnegie libraries. Some are shopping mall libraries. Some libraries were once gas stations or prisons or churches. One was even a bank and in the vault they show movies. Some are log cabins. There’s a seed library and a tool library. Some had air conditioning and some didn’t. Not every library is as well stocked as the suburban libraries that we’re familiar with. One library was founded by a widow, using the books her husband had.This is an eye-opening and moving book. The captions explain the libraries, and mention those that have closed after having been photographed. There are way too many of these. There are essays by writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan and Ann Patchett examining what libraries mean to them and what the closing of libraries means, as well. There’s an essay from a Bookomobile driver explaining the satisfaction he gets from putting books in the hands of children and adults alike.I remember going to Freeport, Maine one year to go to L.L. Bean. Walking down the main street I noticed that what once was the local public library was currently an Ann Taylor store. How disappointing!!!In this economic climate, many libraries are shortening hours and are on the brink of closing. I marveled at the citizens who banded together to make sure their public libraries remain open.The Public Library: A Photographic Essay is a marvelous book and I highly recommend it to library lovers and book lovers.

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