Wayne Wiegand
Central Library 201 W. Mifflin St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library
Wayne Wiegand
Community Room 301 & 302
Despite dire predictions in the late twentieth century that public libraries would not survive the turn of the millennium, their numbers have only increased. Two of three Americans frequent a public library at least once a year, and nearly that many are registered borrowers. Although library authorities have argued that the public library functions primarily as a civic institution necessary for maintaining democracy, generations of library patrons tell a different story.