"So when I learned about What Middletown Read, a database that tracks the borrowing records of the Muncie Public Library between 1891 and 1902, I had some of the same feelings physicists probably have when new subatomic particles show up in their cloud chambers. Could you see how many times a particular book had been taken out? Could you find out when? And by whom? Yes, yes, and yes. You could also find out who those patrons were: their age, race, gender, occupation (and whether that made them blue or white collar, skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled), and their names and how they signed them."
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One of the legendary triumphs of philanthropy was Andrew Carnegie’s construction of more than 2,500 libraries around the world. It’s renowned as a stimulus to learning that can never be matched — except that, numerically, it has already been surpassed several times over by an American man you’ve probably never heard of.
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BOOKS ACQUIRED
- A Preface To Paradise Lost, CS Lewis. 2011.10.06
- The Strange Story Of The Quantum, Banesh Hoffmann. 2011.10.06
- Tristan And Iseult. Retold by Joseph Bedier, Trans. Hilaire Belloc & Completed by Paul Rosenfeld. ISBN 0394702719 (Vintage Books, 1965. Review copy). 2011.10.06
- The Watch That Ends The Night, Hugh MacLennan. 2011.10.19
- Return Of The Sphinx, Hugh MacLennan. 2011.10.19
- Understanding Tolkien And The Lord Of The Rings, William Ready. 2011.10.19
- Flashing Swords #5: Demons And Daggers, Ed. Lin Carter, by Roger Zelazny, CJ Cherryh, Diane Duane, Craig Shaw Gardner, Tanith Lee. 2011.10.19
- The Children's Treasure House Of Stories: Over 50 Great Tales By Famous Authors. 2011.10.21
BOOKS READ
- The Golden Treasury Of Children's Literature, Ed. Bryna & Louis Untermeyer. 2011.10.19
- Michael Foreman's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll. 2011.10.26
