A public library is predicated on an ethos of sharing and egalitarianism. It is nonjudgmental. It stands in stark opposition to the materialism and individualism that otherwise define our culture. It is defiantly, proudly, communal. The sociologist Eric Klinenberg reminds us that libraries were once called palaces for the people. Klinenberg is interested in the ways that common spaces can repair our fractious and polarized civic life. And though he argues in his new book that playgrounds, sporting clubs, diners, parks, farmer’s markets, and churches—anything, really, that puts people in close contact with one another—have the capacity to strengthen what Tocqueville called the cross-cutting ties that bind us to those who in many ways are different from us, he suggests that libraries may be the most effective.

Back in the 1950s, when every domestic scandal and nightmare, political or familial, wasn't the subject of a television show, the library was my peephole into the mysteries of the adult universe. The key question,

They may not exactly be socialism, but they’re a model of good publicly-run institutions.

A National Book Award finalist writes on how she helped change one in her hometown

Last week we discussed the new “cost-per-circulation” (CPC) model for public libraries — in which they can make e-books available to patrons and pay the publisher per “loan&…

Wayne A. Wiegand shares some of the stories of activists who risked their lives to desegregate libraries during the civil rights era.

A brief history of some of the civil rights sit-ins and protests that happened in libraries.

How the New York Public Library reviewed and re-drafted its privacy policy to address online data collection and make it more visible and inviting to read.

Why were no librarians involved in New York's sidewalk Internet-access kiosks?

At the request of Sno-Isle Libraries, WA, OverDrive has developed a demand-driven acquisition (DDA) model for popular ebooks, enabling patrons to discover thousands of titles for which the library has not yet purchased a license. When a user checks out one of these titles, Sno-Isle is invoiced, and the ebook is added to the library’s collection in a transaction that appears seamless to the patron.

One of the things I really enjoy about working in the public sector is the opportunity to innovate, YES I said the I word.  For a deeper dive on Innovation in the Public sector check out my post Is Public Sector Innovation an Oxymoron ? Today I want to look into the future of Open Data and for that

A man recently defecated in the stairwell of a local library, shocking the public. But  no one who has ever worked in a public library was surprised.

Wisconsin's more-than 400 hundred public libraries remain popular destinations for many state residents, but as more of the world goes digital, the libraries face the challenge of keeping up with the

Sue Perry likens her role at the Windsor Public Library to that of a midwife.

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. On Thursday, Nov. 12, Future Tense will...