Books and Blueprints: Building America's Public Libraries

The only comprehensive treatment of American library architecture, this work details the evolution of the modern public library from 1850 to the present. Donald E. Oehlerts provides a broad, historical perspective of the field of library architecture, examining the influences on the professions of public architecture and librarianship that shaped America's library buildings.

Oehlerts examines the planning and construction of the largest public library buildings from 1850 through 1989, presenting the contributions that architects, librarians, and others have made to improvements in design and arrangement. He also explores the development of public architecture and librarianship to determine the sources of influence on these two emerging professions in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This work, which features illustrations of several important buildings, is valuable to professionals, students, and scholars of architecture and library management and facilities.

Author: Donald E. Oehlerts
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 12/11/1991
Pages: 200
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 9.57h x 6.35w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9780313265709

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/1992 pg. 1427

About the Author

DONALD E. OEHLERTS is a faculty member at the School of Library and Information Studies, Clark Atlanta University. He is author of two books and contributed chapters on librarianship to Austerity Management in Academic Libraries and Leaders in American Academic Librarianship: 1925-1975.