The Spiritual Climate of the American Public Library

Abstract

The spiritual climate of the American public library may be explained from the aspect of the American idea on the “public” and the “private”, which supports the American democracy (or so-called pure democracy) and her constitutionalism as well. This idea differs from that in Europe and the Far East. In Europe and the Far East, the “public” and the “private” seem absolutely contradictory to each other, while in America they compose a continuum without any intermedium; according to John Dewey, “the line between private and public is to be drawn on the basis of the extent and scope of the consequences of acts…”⁽¹⁾ and there occurs a reciprocal infiltration between these two domains.
It is said that the American concept of the public library is very equivocal and confused, but I assume that it can be apprehended as a wide oscillation of the concept in the course of development from the town library (People's common library) in the colonial period to the social and public library “in the strict sense of the word” prescribed by George Ticknor⁽²⁾, of modern times.
These particular characteristics seem to have a vital relevance to American democracy and its effects can be found throughout the library laws and regulations of every state in America even today, when the pure democracy is thought to be a mythical system. These effects shall be proved in this essay.
(1) The Public and its Problems.
(2) Report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston.