Dissertation Information for Ralph BlasingameNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Ambiguous Title: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS AN URBAN PHENOMENON
Abstract: The position is taken that the American public library as distinguished from the earlier social libraries, was a product of the urban-industrial society of the seocnd half of the 19th Century. During that period the process of urbanization manifested itself in the evolution of the city as the locus of a new culture. The public library which emerges in that culture became a prototype with discernable characteristics; for example, it was a local rather than a state agency, governed by an elite board, bureaucractic in form, and monocratic in administrative style. This prototype strongly influenced the devlopment of public libraries thereafter, large and small; it also provided a basis for development of the profession of librarianship and training for entrance into the profession. The characteristics of the prototype library were checked through interviews with librarians, members of boards of trustees, and other persons in positions of responsibility, and it is asserted that they still hold, despite major changes in the urban process through which the city has lost its dominant position socially and culturally. |
MPACT Scores for Ralph BlasingameA = 24 Advisors and Advisees Graph |