The nature and purposes of the library in all its multiform manifestations are explored by scholars of library science, literature, and history. Their topics include subscription libraries and commercial circulating libraries in colonial Philadelphia and New York, 1898 and the Hispanic Society of America, women writers and their libraries during the 1920s, and preserving the past in a digital era. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)