Notes from a Simple Librarian: Book Review: The Library: a Fragile History

Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, The Library: a Fragile History. New York: Basic Books, 2021. ISBN: 9781541600775.

Genre: libraries

Subgenre: history, world history

Format: hardcover

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College

On reading this book, I was reminded that while Americans today have very romantic views of libraries, in reality much of their "support" for them is barely words. As others have said, public libraries would not likely be created today given Americans' complete disregard for the idea of a common good. But I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's look at the book.

This book aims to be a history of libraries from antiquity to the modern era. It is not just about libraries. It is also about books, collectors, book sellers, a lot of wealthy people, and folks who had the title of librarian, whether they deserved it or not. The book is also about defining what a library is, the idea and concept of a library. In this history, the authors strive to show and document how libraries were conceived and how they evolved over time.

The book is arranged in six major parts, and it has three chapters per part. We also get a prologue, a postscript, notes, and a bibliography.

This is a very ambitious book. The history takes us from ancient times through today. Along the way we learn about Roman libraries, which were mainly vanity projects for some wealthy folks. We go through the Middle Ages, monasticism, the Renaissance, the invention of printing, and a lot more. Though the book is very much Western centered, we do get nods and acknowledgement of libraries and book collections in other parts of the world.

The book's most interesting parts are the older history. The authors pay a lot of attention to details, and you do get a good amount of depth. The story is interesting, more so if you are a bibliophile. However, the text at times can be a bit dense. This is not a book to rush through.

A big takeaway from the book is that libraries have not really been "communal" spaces or assets. More often than not they are very dependent on the largesse of the rich, and even then most libraries were not open to the general public. The idea of public libraries as we know them today took a very long time to evolve and mature. Even today where the idea is in place, public libraries as we known them are still in danger. The dependence on certain interests also means that libraries and librarians have not always been virtuous, to put it mildly. Librarians have often been heroes as well as villains in this history.

Overall, this is an interesting but also dense book. Some chapters can be a bit slow. It is an ambitious work that strives to cover a lot of ground, and it does so in a relatively coherent way. This is a very good selection for academic libraries, and it is a must have for LIS academic programs. It may be a good selection for public libraries for their history readers, especially if they enjoy Western and world history overviews. In the end, I really liked this one.

4 out of 5 stars

* * * * *

Additional reading notes:

The uncomfortable truth of libraries over the ages:

"What Naudé did not discuss in his writings was the uncomfortable truth of libraries throughout the ages: no society has ever been satisfied with the collections inherited from previous generations. What we will frequently see in this book is not so much the apparently wanton destruction of beautiful artifacts so lamented by previous studies of library history but neglect and redundancy, as books and collections that represented the values and interests of one generation fail to speak to the one that follows. The fate of many collections was to degrade in abandoned attics and ruined buildings, even if only as prelude to renewal and rebirth in the most unexpected places" (2).

For all the bitching and moaning certain people, usually the clueless, do, there are solid reasons why libraries need to be properly weeded on a regular basis.

Some important principles about libraries, still of value today, from monastic medieval libraries:

". . .the library as a sanctuary and storehouse of culture; the fixity of stock; the role of the Christian Church in the recovery of the antique; the library as a place of work and silent contemplation. All this was distinctly uncongenial to the Young Turks of the early Renaissance, impatient and urbane, looking for personal advancement in the glittering new courts of the Italian city-states and the emerging monarchies" (50-51).

Interesting how things never change as we have Young Turks in librarianship today, often impatient and urbane, looking for advancement by denigrating libraries in favor of things like flashy, but not always long term reliable, technology, community centers without books, and iSchools.

Again, on libraries from one generation to the next:

"One man's passion project would be nothing but a burden to those to whom the responsibility was passed on" (100).

An essential problem of book collecting from Alexandria to today. This can also be applicable to other collector hobbies:

". . .no one cares about a library collection as much as the person who has assembled it. Only the library's creator records the place of a fortuitous purchase, the identity of kind donors, or remembers how a particular text changed their lives or opinions. Only they experienced the joy of tracking down a long-desired edition and the network of friends that helped in the quest" (140).

Notice the above assumes that the books, some at least, may have some monetary value. We need to be honest here, so I am going to break it to you: most books people "collect" have no monetary value other than what the collector paid, and that is likely to decrease to zero value over time. This is yet another reason libraries do NOT want your old encyclopedias, National Geographics, etc. Your "donation" is nothing more than junk, junk that libraries will end up turning around and tossing in the dumpster. An actual antiquarian book collector more likely has a plan in place for their collection in the future. As for the rest of you, here is the reality:

"Collectors always find it difficult to conceive that what they have created, at great expense and effort, may hold little value to others" (191).

Libraries weaponized, as agents of conflict:

"At the same time, both within Europe and throughout its new acquired colonies, books and libraries have frequently been the advanced guard in campaigns to impose on a population a new kind of society, promote a new religion, or win back territory lost to a rival ideology. These libraries were ideological weapons with a specific mission: boldly planted in hostile or (from the view of colonisers) uncharted territory, libraries became intellectual castles and fortresses, and an encapsulation of the values of the settlers who had crossed the seas to seize and subdue" (161).

ALA's less than lackluster record on important issues:

"The issue of segregation in the American South posed the greatest challenge to the American Library Association, and one it conspicuously failed to meet" (387).

Some titles from the bibliography I may want to read (in no particular order). Book links to WorldCat record unless noted otherwise: