I don’t believe I’d ever heard of package libraries before I came across this a couple weeks ago. In the case of Indiana University, it appears that the Bureau of Public Discussion (whose mission precedes the table of contents in this bulletin), distributed such packages. According to this document, the University of Wisconsin pioneered the Package Library movement.
I want to know more. I’ve found one other document in the library so far. If anyone has any knowledge of these libraries, please share!
Click on the image to view a pdf. (I seem to be rather inept at getting a pdf into this blog, so you’ll have to rotate it to read it…sorry.)
Package libraries (click to view pdf)
September 4, 2008 at 1:08 am
Sounds a lot like the traveling libraries and the mail libraries.
September 5, 2008 at 2:15 am
Sort of, but the audiences were teachers who would share the materials with their students, clubs, and researchers. Certainly, the goal of reaching remote and underserved regions is common to various outreach programs, as is the promotion of education. I also think it’s interesting that they are distributed by academic institutions. It seems like this would have been quite a production and investment.
January 25, 2009 at 9:43 am
I think they are ready-made alternatives to in-house collections of trade literature.