20th Century Information Architecture

One hundred years ago the country was in the middle of a riot of library construction. Andrew Carnegie’s name is nearly synonymous with the period, largely due to his funding for over 1,500 libraries between 1883 and 1929, but architectural historian Abigail Van Slyck notes that the late 19th century was marked by widespread interest in community development, with broad recognition of libraries as a means of promoting individual development.

“For library patrons, male and female, young and old, the new library offered a pleasant surprise.” Libraries became recognizable landmarks, and recognizably public. “Readers could enter freely, safe in the knowledge that they were welcome.”

And inside the library the barriers were coming down. Where once a user needed to request materials from the librarian, open stacks became increasingly common with libraries constructed near the turn of the century. Historian Walter Langsam praised the development this way:

The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse. The open stacks were more democratic. People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read. The libraries were meant to be for people of all walks of life.

(Van Slyck notes that Carnegie insistence on open stacks developed after the turn of the century.)

And while the widespread construction of libraries may have begun as “gifts of men grown wealthy during the [Civil] war,” they soon became valued institutions of the people.

libraries, information architecture, history, architecture, Carnegie libraries, Andrew Carnegie, 20th century, 19th century

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 This entry was written by Casey and posted on June 21, 2007 at 11:12 am and filed under Libraries & Networked Information, Technology with the following tags: , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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  1. By Scriblio » Small Steps on 21 Jun 2007 at 1:41 pm

    [...] Carnegie libraries defined our public information architecture of the 20th century: open stacks in an identifiably public building that welcomed all to come in and learn. This [...]

  2. By » Quaint vs. Libraries on 04 Mar 2008 at 10:26 am

    [...] robber baron who sought wash his name in this grand notion, and the 19th and 20th centuries saw tremendous growth of physical architecture for libraries. But libraries are greater than that. Before they became buildings, libraries were the means by [...]

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