Although new technologies appear poised to alter it, the library remains a powerful site for discovery, and its form is still determined by the geometry of the book and the architectural spaces devised to store and display it. American Libraries provides a history and panorama of these much-loved structures, inside and out, encompassing the small personal collection, the vast university library, and everything in between.

Through 500 photographs and plans selected from the encyclopedic collections of the Library of Congress, Kenneth Breisch traces the development of libraries in the United States, from roots in such iconic examples as the British Library and Paris’s Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève to institutions imbued with their own American mythology.

• Kenneth Breisch directs the historic preservation program at the University of Southern California. He is the author of numerous publications on American architectural history, especially in the areas of library design and vernacular building.

• Carla Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress.

“Librarians will be gratified to read Breisch’s discussion of the ways in which librarians became critics of library planning, pushing for designs that were more practical. … American Libraries has a wider focus than many other books on this subject.” ―Libraries: Culture, History & Society

"An impressively informative history of the evolution of the library in America." ―Midwest Book Review

• Foreword
• The Library in America
• 1 Private Collections
• 2 Academic Libraries
• 3 The Library of Congress
• 4 Large Urban Libraries
• 5 Small Public Libraries
• 6 The Carnegie Era
• Afterword
• Bibliography
• Index