Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age [Hardcover]

Redmond Kathleen Molz (Author), Phyllis Dain (Author), Kathleen Molz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262133466 | ISBN-13: 978-0262133463 | Publication Date: March 5, 1999

Quintessentially American institutions, symbols of community spirit and the American faith in education, public libraries are ubiquitous in the United States. Close to a billion library visits are made each year, and more children join summer reading programs than little league baseball. Public libraries are local institutions, as different as the communities they serve. Yet their basic services, techniques, and professional credo are essentially similar; and they offer, through technology and cooperative agreements, myriad materials and information far beyond their own walls.In Civic Space/Cyberspace, Redmond Kathleen Molz and Phyllis Dain assess the current condition and direction of the American public library. They consider the challenges and opportunities presented by new electronic technologies, changing public policy, fiscal realities, and cultural trends. They draw on site visits and interviews conducted across the country; extensive reading of reports, surveys, and other documents; and their long-standing interest in the library's place in the social and civic structure. The book uniquely combines a scholarly, humanistic, and historical approach to public libraries with a clear-eyed look at their problems and prospects, including their role in the emerging national information infrastructure.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Molz, currently professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and Dain, now emeritus, were colleagues at the now-defunct Columbia School of Library Service. Both are also celebrated library historians. Dain's The New York Public Library: A History of Its Founding and Early Years (NYPL, 1972) is a definitive account of that august institution. Molz's National Planning for Library Service, 1935-1975 (ALA, 1984), one of my favorites, is a readable, fundamental work on the subject of the federal role in library support. The curiously inconclusive work under review here is a detailed overview of modern public library history combined with a trip through contemporary (to 1998) developments. It is a great feat of evidence and witness collecting and thus will become an important work of record. The portrait of the public library that emerges from five perspectives sees conflict over the mission, funding, and governance; difficulty maintaining the case for a federal responsibility for library service; and uncertainty over the impact of technology on the institution's future. Despite overwhelming evidence of a spirited movement that propels library service to the great majority of Americans, adults and children alike, Dain and Molz seem ambivalent about the future of libraries and fearful that technology may replace the book. Their volume is a must read, if only for the rich detail of its rendition of the condition of the modern library, but, fellow librarians, don't expect reassurance that its glorious history and current strength makes the future of the public library secure. All Dain and Molz will conclude is that it "is intensely interesting."AJohn Berry, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Civic Space/Cyberspace provides a seminal work that places libraries in the emergent cyberculture of our time....Professors Molz and Dain have written an important, lively, entertaining, provocative book. It deserves to be read widely across the information professions and used in the education of future information scientists and professionals." - Richard J. Cox, Journal of the American Society for Information Science; "Concise, coherent, and readable....Molz and Dain have succeeded in providing an excellent primer on the social, political, and economic forces shaping the public library." - Alan R. Earls, Connection" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262133466
• ISBN-13: 978-0262133463
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,037,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid overview of public libraries and issues they face, April 19, 2002

By 

Anna M Smith (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age (Hardcover)

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The subtitle is: the American public library in the information age.

The main strength of this book is in the historical perspective it offers. The authors give a broad, national overview of the public library as an institution, its governance and funding, and U.S. national information policy generally. This historical, research based approach makes for somewhat dense reading, but also makes the book a valuable resource.

The main drawback of Civic space/cyberspace is that the authors really do not provide much detail about the site visits to 22 libraries and other institutions which also shaped their thinking on the subject.

I found it frustrating that the book's generally postive comments about the future of public libraries and the ways that they are adapting to information technology were second guessed by the very last paragraphs of the book.

I would recommend this book mainly for librarians, library school students, or those significantly involved with public libraries in some way.