Librarianship in Gilded Age America : an anthology of writings, 1868-1901

The gilded age was a formative period in the development and extension of American libraries. Between 1868 and 1901, the field of librarianship saw many notable changes, including the founding of the American Library Association, the introduction of the Dewey decimal classification system, and the establishment of the pioneer library school at Columbia University, among other key developments. This book brings together the writings of foundational figures in Gilded Age librarianship, including Charles Ammi Cutter, Melvil Dewey, Andrew Carnegie and Richard Rogers Bowker. Featuring seminal works of library scholarship alongside previously unpublished letters and reprints of long forgotten journal articles, the book places each selection in chronological order and includes an introductory narrative for each entry.

Harvard College Library / Charles Ammi Cutter -- American library journal / Melvil Dewey -- Interlibrary loans / Samuel Swett Green -- Publishers' slips for librarians / Charles A. Nelson -- The work of librarians / John Fiske -- The American Library Association / Melvil Dewey -- The profession / Melvil Dewey -- Communication / Melvil Dewey -- Classification / Josephus N. Larned -- The progress of library architecture / William Frederick Poole -- Selecting and training library assistants / James L. Whitney -- Report on the reading of the young / Mary Abbie Bean -- The work of the nineteenth-century librarian for the librarian of the twentieth century / Richard Rogers Bowker -- The free public library in the United States : evolution and function / Moses Coit Tyler -- The young writer's use of a library / William E. Foster -- Report of librarian on the Enoch Pratt Free Library to the board of trustees / Lewis H. Steiner -- Report of the state librarian to the New Hampshire Legislature / William H. Kimball -- Melvil Dewey to Whitelaw Reid / Melvil Dewey -- Library philanthropy / Andrew Carnegie -- Are public libraries public blessings? / James M. Hubbard -- Theodore Roosevelt to George H. Putnam / Theodore Roosevelt -- Being a librarian / Ernest C. Richardson -- Library work / William Frederick Poole -- Mary Abbie Bean to Charles Evans / Mary Abbie Bean -- The duties of trustees and their relations to librarians / Samuel Swett Green -- The function of libraries and schools in education / William T. Harris -- Promoting the free library movement / Grover Cleveland -- Uniformity versus individuality in the arrangement and administration of public libraries / Lewis H. Steiner -- University libraries : an address at the opening of the Sage Library of Cornell University / David Coit Gilman -- Presidential address / William Isaac Fletcher -- The salaries of women librarians / Mary Salome Cutler -- The library of the United States / Ainsworth Rand Spofford -- Shelving pamphlets in libraries / Willard Austen -- The future of local libraries / Justin Winsor -- Books and readers in public libraries / Caleb B. Tillinghast -- School libraries / Horace E. Scudder -- Bookbindings of the present / Brander Matthews -- Hear the other side / John Cotton Dana -- The new building for the Library of Congress / Bernard R. Green -- Public documents / Francis A. Crandall -- The public and its public library / John Cotton Dana -- Address of the president / William Howard Brett -- The care of special collections / Wilberforce Eames -- The care of manuscripts / Herbert Friedenwald -- College libraries in the United States / Ashton R. Willard -- The moral and literary responsibility of librarians in selecting books for a public library / Richard Jones -- Free public libraries and the community / Herbert Putnam -- Special training for college librarians / George T. Little -- Ainsworth Rand Spofford to William McKinley / Ainsworth Rand Spofford -- Herbert Putnam to John Addison Porter / Herbert Putnam -- The bookbinding of American publishers / Ellen D. Biscoe -- Letter of resignation / Melvil Dewey -- The Library of Congress / Herbert Putnam -- Azariah Smith Root to Askel G.S. Josephson / Azariah Smith Root -- Ten years of American library progress : address of the president / Reuben Gold Thwaites -- Summer vacation cards / Sam Walter Foss -- The qualifications of a librarian / Ainsworth Rand Spofford -- Open shelves and public morals / Isabel Ely Lord -- Collection development and best books / Charles Ammi Cutter -- Herbert Putnam to Theodore Roosevelt / Herbert Putnam -- Timeline, 1860-1902.