Regional Reading Places

I spend a week in Door County, Wisconsin, every summer and so was interested to open Reading Places: Literacy, Democracy, and the Public Library in Cold War America and find out it is based on events in Door County in the 1950s. A regional library consisting of seven existing libraries and two new bookmobiles was established in 1950 in an experiment to expand services in Door and neighboring Kewaunee counties. Sounds like a good thing, but in fact the Door-Kewaunee Regional Demonstration was controversial and ended after just three years when a referendum to continue it failed. Christine Pawley examines why, using a small piece of library history as a springboard to delve into larger questions related to rural reading habits, cultural differences, and the development of public libraries and librarianship. The debates back then about whether libraries serve a purpose or are a waste of tax dollars find their echoes today.

Indexed. 325p. PBK $28.95 from University of Massachusetts Press (978-1-55849-822-8)