Winners Announced from Pool of Dissertation Survey Respondents

 The sun is setting soon on 2020 and that means submitting the finished draft of my dissertation. Entitled "Gift of the Gab: Exploring the Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library," the work has been a survey of how American libraries value audio literature and social programming/events. As promised, there was a lottery held for participating libraries; all were eligible for 1 of 4 gift certificates of 25USD each for a Starbucks or for a favorite cafe.

Portrait of Mrs. Jeannette de Lange (1900) by Jan Toorop. Original from the Rijksmuseum.
Digitally enhance by rawpixel. Public Domain.

Out of sixteen libraries who participated in my research, the 4 winners are listed below:

- The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

- New York Society Library

- Providence Athenaeum 

- Charleston Library Society

Exterior of The Athenaeum of Philadelphia 

Photo Credit: Tom Crane

Gift certificates will be delivered via email. Thank you, kindly, to all of you librarians who took the survey!

As for the dissertation, more information will be forthcoming on how to view it. Getting published in a peer-reviewed journal would be a dream but I also want to get it out to the world quickly. Stay tuned!

Two Preliminary Findings from Dissertation Survey (Aesthetics Matter!)

 Happy December in a turbulent year.

I know my blog has gone dark for 6 months but it's only because I've been feverishly writing up my dissertation. "Gift of the Gab: The Audiobook and the Festive Direction in the American Library" is 99% finished. I am just applying cosmetic touches and trying to temper expectations.

Launching research during a pandemic year has been interesting. One preliminary finding I can share is that, as of October of 2020, none of the public and/or membership libraries surveyed have shut their doors for good. This is more impressive than it sounds. Restaurants and movie theatres, as The New York Times is constantly reminding us, have faced devastation. Seemingly permanent devastation.

The typical response, you may be thinking, is that no politician is going to shut down a public library. And that a public library is a shared utility like sunlight or drinking water or the music of The Carpenters. But closures do happen. My hometown neighborhood library branch was shuttered in 2009 when the town's main branch got a makeover. Sure it was a bit cramped and damp but I had my share of fond memories inside that brick edifice. The closure was a political and financial decision. Now it just sits there waiting for its next act.

East Milton Public Library (Defunct)

Photo Credit: Jon Cronin

In my own survey of sixteen American public and membership libraries, the fate of the structures is much more secure. You could even call them celebrated spaces. Nearly 50% of the libraries surveyed use their own buildings as venues for galas and fundraisers.  Holding a fundraiser in-house is a superb way for a library to leverage its historical space. It speaks not only to the wonderful vision of Andrew Carnegie but also to the role of aesthetics in literature and education and, frankly, society.

"The John Rylands Library Reading Room Enclave" by michael_d_beckwith 

is marked with CC0 1.0

There will be other findings and insights from my research over the next couple of months. Stay tuned.