Civic Librarianship: Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library / Edition 200

by Ronald B. McCabe

Overview

After decades of cultural warfare and political gridlock, the U.S. is beginning to find its balance thanks to a major cultural shift toward strengthening communities and other endangered social structures. Civic Librarianship explores the ideas of this new community movement and shows how they can transform public libraries by offering a renewed sense of purpose and powerful new strategies for development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810839052
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/13/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.74(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ronald B. McCabe (M.L.S. University of Kentucky) is Library Director, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI. He has presented widely on community building in libraries and has served as a consultant to Sarah Long, ALA President, 1999-2000, on her theme "Libraries Build Community."

Editorial Reviews

Libraries equip citizens for civic participation and enable civil society. This important and essential role is illuminated in Ron McCabe's exciting new book on civic librarianship which provides us an historic and theoretical framework for understanding the ways in which libraries enhance citizen involvement in renewing and strengthening our communities....

Nancy Kranich

Ronald McCabe skillfully diagnoses the malaise that grips the public library in his highly useful Civic Librarianship...it will doubtless take its place in library history.

Information & Culture

Ron McCabe is one of the few public library practitioners who is putting his thoughts about public librarianship into words for all to read. He has something to say —a lot to say—in this slim work from Scarecrow. McCabe draws a clear distinction between "The Libertarian Public Library" and "Civic Librarianship." This is a good book. Every public librarian and library trustee should read it and think about it and discuss it. It is well worth the price.

Public Library Quarterly

This book will challenge your thinking about public libraries. It places public librarianship in a broader societal context. It calls for the renewal of the public library's traditional social mission as the foundation for library development in the new century. Ron McCabe has given us a thoughtful philosophical treatise on public libraries in America. I commend his work to you.

Sarah Ann Long

This book is an outstanding treatment of the library as a pivotal social institution, a community center, and an essential component of the civil society. Anyone concerned with the future of either libraries or our society will be sure to not miss studying this valuable text.

Amitai Etzioni

Ronald McCabe skillfully diagnoses the malaise that grips the public library in his highly useful Civic Librarianship...it will doubtless take its place in library history.

Libraries and Culture

In this dense, very sophisticated tome by the director of the McMillan Memorial Library (Wisconsin Rapids), readers will find (through determined, diligent reading) a reaffirmation of the author's perspective on the traditional mission of the public library which is to serve as a pivotal social institution, a community center, and an essential component of the civil society. Thanks to the growing communitarian movement that is strengthening communities and other endangered social institutions, this has presented public libraries with an opportunity to again avow to their constituency their primary purpose. Drawing heavily on sociologist Amitai Etzioni's works on communitarianism (The Spirit of Community), McCabe links powerful communitarian principles to the potential strength inherent in the fundamental rationale behind public libraries. He emphasizes reestablishing the social authority of public librarians to influence their communities to support education for a democratic society. Following a pedantic beginning discussing America's cultural civil war and its effect on public libraries, McCabe offers a general description of community movement ideas, civic librarianship defined in terms of the institutional reforms this new approach makes possible, and an exploration of the implications that civic librarianship might have for the future of the public library. While McCabe's theme is praiseworthy and relevant for those working hard to define their libraries as something beyond little bookworm programs and keeping up with the newest bodice rippers, his text is so academically arcane as to be mostly relevant for graduate MLIS programs. Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

McBare (director, McMillan Memorial Library) describes the library as a community gathering place, an institution of public education, and a pillar of democracy, with consideration to the library's position in an often anti-intellectual and individualist culture. He advocates for an approach to librarianship rooted in a strong sense of civic duty, with a renewed focus on education. Specific policy recommendations and professional concerns are included. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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