The Story of Libraries: From the Invention of Writing to the Computer Age

by Fred Lerner

In this fully updated edition, this book continues to explore the ways in which men and women collect and organize the records of human experience.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Librarianship, Textbooks, Read For School, Education, Information Science

276 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Meg]

Lerner is a chauvinist jerk with a hard-on for Melvil Dewey.

Other than that it's a pretty good intro to the history of American and European libraries.

[Agnes Silfverswärd]

If I had to spend a whole weekend reading this book, it’s damn well gonna go towards my yearly tracking

[Erin]

I read this for a course in International Librarianship. It was, in my opinion, one of the only redeeming moments in the course. I love history in the first place and this book was very detailed and informative and INCREDIBLY readable. I would actually read parts of it out loud to my boyfriend when we went camping this summer and he was also interested in it. He's going to read it now that I'm done.

[Emi]

Lo dicho, las lecturas que necesitaba para hacer mi trabajo son fascinantes. Algunos libros, como éste, sólo los he mirado por encima y he leído capítulos sueltos, pero me he quedado con ganas de leerlos con calma más adelante.

Hacer el trabajo de final de grado ha sido muy duro, pero las lecturas han sido muy interesantes y entretenidas. He tenido muuuuucha suerte con eso.

[Christen]

This book provides a good historical foundation for libraries, their roles in the world and how they've developed alongside technology over the centuries. It's quite interesting!

[Lovisa ✨️]

Om jag kommer räkna min kurslitteratur i mitt reading goal? Absolut.

[K]

This book attempts cover the topic of libraries globally throughout history, so it's a big ask. You can feel how big the ask in in the later chapters, which strain to address giant topics in modern library science as easily digestible chunks. The earlier chapters, which break down topics by global location and/or time period, are more readable - but given quotes like "As the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America produce their own scientific and technological infrastructure, they will make their own contributions to increasing [the volume of literature's] bulk" (which, admittedly, is from the end of the book) you have to wonder how effective the rest of the "global" coverage is.

[Ezekiel Levy]

Necesito para mis estudios

[LaMarx]

I only read part of the book for a course. I plan to back around to the unread chapters at a later date.

[Doc Kinne]

This was a better book than the reviews give it credit for, in my opinion (either that or the other books on the subject are really going to be fantastic!). The overview of library history was very readable, and the second half of the book that dealt with library issues - including modern library issues - was a good high level overview as well. This book won't teach an MLS anything new, but its a good overview for those of us with an interest in libraries, but no formal background in the subject.

[alekz]

I do not like the fact that he sort of blames the bad status of the librarian profession on women and their allowance to work as a librarian, there's so much more to this whole thing.
But other than that, a pretty interesting book. (I read this for school.)

[Gwen]

to review for Information Today

[Kharla Graham]

Interesting progression of how we came to have the books and libraries we have now

[Alice Chau-Ginguene]

It's a very interesting book but very academic. I think it will be a good reference book rather than for leisure read.

[Steve]

I'm game for reading anything about the history of libraries, and this one is a good, solid, survey.

[darce vader]

A problematic text for me. Only gives two paragraphs to the mention of women. Very male-centric.

[Lindsay]

This book was sexist, elitist, and pretentious. It was very American-centric, with Britain as a runner up. It was torture to read, but I had to for school.

[James]

Worldcon library panel recommendation

[Kyla Belvedere]

I've finally finished my "sleepy" book, which I have been pulling out in the middle of the night when my imagination won't let me sleep, as no book has ever made my eyes heavy like this one. It was required reading.