The Library

September 9, 2009
It is difficult for librarians not to warm to a book about libraries, but this study by Murray (America's Song) is something of a puzzle. The coverage is ambitious: 12 chapters take the reader around the globe from 3000 B.C.E. to the present. The final section provides brief descriptions of 50 extant libraries; not quite a Michelin guide but perhaps of interest to travelers. Given the breadth of coverage, the treatment is necessarily cursory, and this quality makes the book of limited use for students. It is well illustrated, but the writing is clumsy, with facts more piled on than woven together. Murray includes the high and low points of library history but provides little analysis or reflection. Verdict This is not an essential purchase for libraries, but it may be of some interest for library gift shops.-Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2009
As this volume pictures, libraries have played a central role in civilization ever since people found it necessary to document and preserve records of their deeds and thoughts. The first libraries held tablets that recorded laws, decrees, and commercial accounts as well as religious and literary works. After the invention of paper and the printing press, libraries popped up all over the planet. Library buildings became as remarkable as the treasures they housed, and these buildings, both present and absent, form the basis for many of the books illustrations. Murray gives prominence to libraries in India and China as well as to those of Islamic origins. He concludes with an inventory of significant public, academic, private, and government library institutions around the world. As more and more of human knowledge is digitized and otherwise reduced to binary code, the question arises as to how long there will be any library standing to photograph.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)