Snag The Public Library: A Photographic Essay Translated By Robert Dawson Accessible In Publication

Great look at the public libraries across America! Very cool to see all the different libraries, Nice way to spend a few hours leafing through a book, The library means something different to every individual, For me, its hallowed ground, its where my mom shared her

love of reading and I always feel close to her when I walk into a library.
When I move to a new town, its the first place I seek out, Robert Dawson's photo essay about libraries points out what libraries mean to us as a nation, Its a source of freedom for most of us and in some cases a refuge, A lot of the time its the only place where someone has access to the internet or a child has access to books.
My favorite essay was about a bookmobile that traveled the remote areas of Northeastern Nevada where he makesstops everyweeks, The driver/librarian felt it was his mission to get books into people's hands, Some of the libraries photographed are closed and abandoned and some look more like art museums, The main message I came away with is that we need to do better about supporting our libraries and preserving their place in our society.
Libraries and the gift of books and education have always been important to me, I grew up going to libraries and it was one of the few places in the community I looked forward to going to every week.
I felt safe and loved there and the librarians made me feel special, I even made my own personal book collection into a "library" as a child and rented titles out to my family and friends.
Appropriately, I now work in a library, and still feel strongly about the importance of libraries in the community, Robert Dawson has taken some incredible photographs that show the wide range and importance of libraries in our country, The essays from different authors complete these photos in a special way and show the necessity of having this institution everywhere, and what it means to different people.
A must read. Beautiful and inspirational. I loved seeing the photos of libraries new and old, and reading the stories of easily recognizable names, talking about what the library means to them.
Gorgeous. Definitely recommended to anyone and everyone, I love this book I love this book I love this book! Also, just a fun fact: I checked out The Public Library from my public library, creating a small tear in the timespace continuum and leading to a fun conversation with my mom.
"What a beautiful book! Who gave it to you" "It's a library book, " "I can see that. Who gave it to you" tee hee The Public Library is not only filled with beautiful photos of libraries all over our nation, but all filled with essays by such literary greats as Isaac Asimov, Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, and more, about how the public library has impacted them.
Finally, in the captions I found many, many fun facts about lots of libraries,

The author, Robert Dawson, worked on this photographic essay for eighteen years, Turns out there's a bajillion libraries in America, and it can take a little bit to get around to photographing a good selection of them.
"Bajillion" may be a slight exaggeration, It's actually closer to,. I got that number from the American Library Association's website, which I trust to be really close to the mark, There are big libraries and there are tiny libraries, There are incredibly affluent libraries and there are incredibly poor libraries, There are libraries in their own building there are libraries that share space with post offices, There are libraries of books and libraries of seeds and libraries of tools, In short: a library can be nearly any place where people can come together to share ideas and knowledge and materials,

The Public Library is a gorgeous book to spend time with, Robert Dawson mentions his camera a few times in the books as being a large format camera I'm not a photographer and don't know exactly what that means, but I can tell you that it leads to crystalclear images with loads of details.


Of course there were photographs of the big, beautiful libraries: New York and Salt Lake City and Los Angeles and Seattle.
In fact, I've heard so much about the Salt Lake City Library that I now want to go there just to visit! Too bad it's thousands of miles away from me, and the hubby says that a single library isn't quite enough reason to plan an entire vacation out west.
But there's also the stories of survival librarianship, There's a photo of a tiny little building on an Indian reservation the only tiny library for hundreds of miles the only library for a reservation with a population of,people the home of the only internetconnected computer for,people.
And it's being threatened with closure, There's also a library in Mississippi with a sign on the door informing the patrons that there would be no internet available that day the librarian had turned off all the lights and the computers in attempt to curb rising temperatures, as the library's air conditioner was broken and had been for over a year.
In Mississippi! I want to give some kind of Congressional medal to my colleagues in those trenches,

Finally, the essays: these eloquent essays by wellknown authors intersperse the chapters, expounding on their love of libraries and their support for continuation of library sources.
They are penned by Amy Tan, Isaac Asimov, Dr, Seuss, E. B. White, Barbara Kingsolver, Luis Herrara, Anne Lamott, and Ann Patchett, among others, They're onlypages each, but they speak volumes, I can't recommend this book enough, and am adding to my "wish list" to own myself someday, As the title obviously suggests, this book is mostly pictures of libraries around America with one essay per chapter, written by various kind of people from popular authors to political activist to librarians to journalist to Robert Dawson's own son, who helped his dad to complete this project.
Seeing the photos, all kind of emotions came to me, Sometimes, I was in awe looking at the beautiful structure of the libraries, Sometimes sad when looking at abandoned/closed libraries and glad seeing some libraries are still crowded with their patrons, It also, more or less, opened my eyes, A library could be much more than a center for books, information, or reading, Once, I was a snob who looks down on my local library because from my past experience, their collection consists of small local published books and mostly classics.
After years of buying and hoarding books, my space for books became less and less and my mom actually asked me to stop buying books, I tried to look for an alternative.
Earlier this year, I tried browsing the library and to my surprise, their collections got bigger and better, With various activities for young patrons every week, either at the main library or at their branches, Looking at my young fellow library users, I'm thinking of donating a few of my books to the library, It's better than the books sitting on my shelf gathering dust, And now, I think I've become someone who has strong feelings of ownership towards the institution, .