Critique de The Library par Josh

This one of those books that will be enjoyed by people who enjoy this type of thing. If a history of libraries sounds mind-numbingly dull to you, don't read it. A few unstructured notes: * The book is relatively Eurocentric (shifting to U.S.centric in the final chapters). I'm not sure how much of that is editorial choice vs. lack of sourcing in English on libraries elsewhere. But folks interested in the history of Indian, Chinese or other non-European libraries should look elsewhere (it's briefly noted that these nations had great libraries but few details are provided). * While libraries today are associated with open and accessible information, for most of their history they were focused on limiting access. Books were expensive and rare making them a status symbol. They also represented the secret knowledge that justified the status of its holders. Much of what differentiated the comfortable monks from the slaves or serfs who grew their food and served them was that the monks could read and had access to books while the slaves could not. * Along the same lines, libraries today are generally expected to be, more or less in their selection of books. The fact that a public library contains a book says nothing about whether the librarian likes the book or agrees with its contents. By contrast, in many historial times and places that was exactly what it meant - librarians actively sought to weed out books they judged to be bad. In the 19th century amidst a moral panic about novel reading, some libraries refused to stock fiction, considering it frivolous. Others kept fiction locked away so the librarian could assess the worthiness of a patron to view it. * Pettegree acknowledge that public libraries have fall on hard times of late as their raison d'etre has largely faded away. The internet and rise of e-books is the most recent threat, but their decline began long before. This was largely because of the steady drop in the price of books. Historically many people patronized libraries for financial reasons - books were simply too expensive for all but the very wealthy to purchase, but by the 20th century even poor folks could generally afford them.