The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson

Taking a moment for self reflection this month, I thought I would journey through  Robert Dawson’s photographic essay that celebrates the institution of the public library in all of its many forms.   Full-color photographs of libraries large and small , open and closed, are interspersed with essays from names like Dr. Seuss and Amy Tan on the meaning and value of public libraries.  Does the book come to a conclusion?  Only that the story of the public library continues to unfold even today, and that it represents a common man’s revolution; the equity of knowledge across any and all barriers.  It’s a dream that has been fully realized in the public library and now chronicled in this book, one which Toni Morrison herself calls “profound and heartbreakingly beautiful.”