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Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974 (review)

based upon academic observation: “public libraries are grounded in the public service ideal” (151), “the institutions of modernity are everywhere under threat, and the public library is no exception” (159), and “privatisation and commercialisation of public services held much less appeal for librarians” in the Thatcher years (151). This is a highly stimulating book that should be read by both historians and observers of contemporary public libraries. One criticism may be made, however, of the book’s title: despite its use of “Britain,” the book deals mostly with the “English” public library. The British Library is to be congratulated for publishing this very important work. Alistair Black is to be congratulated for producing the book in only two years. The only comparable work in the English language is Lowell A. Martin’s Enrichment: A History of the Public Library in the United States in the Twentieth Century (Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1998), which is much more narrowly focused. Alistair Black is a reader in the School of Information Management at the Leeds Metropolitan University and was formerly chair of the Library History Group of the Library Association. Each chapter of the book is closely footnoted, with a “Select Bibliography” that lists 150 titles. A frontispiece and thirteen glossy blackand-white photographs complement the text. There is a place and name index.