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Abstract: The history of Chicago Public Library as seen from the archives, with a community informatics lens, and from China
This paper is both history and historiography. It is a contribution to library theory, to empirical methods, and to international approaches.
The Chicago Public Library was for many decades neck and neck with Boston Public Library as the best, biggest, most-circulatingest public library in the US. It burned down and rose like a phoenix. But to our knowledge its full history has never been written.
Starting from the viewpoint of community informatics –how local communities use technology – we found a leader-librarian named Patrick Dewey. We traced his achievements as the first person to set up a public computer in a branch library, in 1981, as well as writing 20 books explaining how libraries could use computers. This first computer for public use in CPL marked for us the end of an era and the start of what we call the public computing library. As Dewey himself wrote in 1984,
[One] possible evolution would be the incorporation of [this technology] as part of other mainframe activities within the overall CPL system. However, much of the fun and excitement this staff has experienced has been due to the fact that this operation has had to sink or swim on its own: this tiny branch has pioneered.
To understand CPL’s history, we constructed trend data out of years of detailed annual reports by the chief librarian. This method needs applying across the country, to discover patterns and differences city to city. We were also able to periodize the history to make it understandable by examining the city’s history as well; this method needs applying as well because so many of our cities are in the storm of change, and librarians have to understand in order to maintain their bearings.
Finally, we took advantage of our international research group and drew from the literature on China’s public libraries in order to draw comparisons and insights that might be useful not just for US librarians and scholars, but our colleagues in China and elsewhere.
Our findings include the following:
1. The library’s history includes three major periods of Chicago history: the social libraries serving agro-commercial Chicago; the public library, central library, branch library system, multimedia library, and then the embattled library serving industrial Chicago; and finally the public computing library serving today’s informational and global Chicago
2. The library was shaped by forces inside and outside, notably the patrons themselves. The library had to adjust to their demand for various services. Connected to this, the library was shaped by elites and grassroots. It was a force for social control and for liberation.
3. The Chinese literature, or the literature on China’s public libraries, affirms the influence of U.S. practices and professionals, but also uncovers deeply Chinese origins and imperatives that have driven library development there.
Our 15,000 word paper is complete except for adding the reflections based on the Chinese experience, which will be complete this summer.
The Chicago Public Library was for many decades neck and neck with Boston Public Library as the best, biggest, most-circulatingest public library in the US. It burned down and rose like a phoenix. But to our knowledge its full history has never been written.
Starting from the viewpoint of community informatics –how local communities use technology – we found a leader-librarian named Patrick Dewey. We traced his achievements as the first person to set up a public computer in a branch library, in 1981, as well as writing 20 books explaining how libraries could use computers. This first computer for public use in CPL marked for us the end of an era and the start of what we call the public computing library. As Dewey himself wrote in 1984,
[One] possible evolution would be the incorporation of [this technology] as part of other mainframe activities within the overall CPL system. However, much of the fun and excitement this staff has experienced has been due to the fact that this operation has had to sink or swim on its own: this tiny branch has pioneered.
To understand CPL’s history, we constructed trend data out of years of detailed annual reports by the chief librarian. This method needs applying across the country, to discover patterns and differences city to city. We were also able to periodize the history to make it understandable by examining the city’s history as well; this method needs applying as well because so many of our cities are in the storm of change, and librarians have to understand in order to maintain their bearings.
Finally, we took advantage of our international research group and drew from the literature on China’s public libraries in order to draw comparisons and insights that might be useful not just for US librarians and scholars, but our colleagues in China and elsewhere.
Our findings include the following:
1. The library’s history includes three major periods of Chicago history: the social libraries serving agro-commercial Chicago; the public library, central library, branch library system, multimedia library, and then the embattled library serving industrial Chicago; and finally the public computing library serving today’s informational and global Chicago
2. The library was shaped by forces inside and outside, notably the patrons themselves. The library had to adjust to their demand for various services. Connected to this, the library was shaped by elites and grassroots. It was a force for social control and for liberation.
3. The Chinese literature, or the literature on China’s public libraries, affirms the influence of U.S. practices and professionals, but also uncovers deeply Chinese origins and imperatives that have driven library development there.
Our 15,000 word paper is complete except for adding the reflections based on the Chinese experience, which will be complete this summer.