Ten papers examine the role of libraries in the communities they serve and in the lives of readers. They specifically discuss the library's relationship to noise, elitism, democracy, health, and gender. Particular attention is given to the library's position in different parts of the United States and during different historical periods. Contributors include scholars of American studies, library science, English, history, and communication.

There is no index. There's a small discrepancy in the title shown on the cover and the one on the title page, which reads: "The Library as an Agency of Culture."

American libraries and agencies of culture / Thomas Augst -- Sound of the civic : reading noise at the New York Public Library / Ari Kelman -- High culture, low culture : the singular duality of the Library of Congress / Elizabeth Jane Aikin -- Home libraries and the institutionalization of everyday practices among antebellum New Englanders / Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracno Zboray -- Reading versus the red bull : cultural constructions of democracy and the public library in Cold War Wisconsin / Christine Pawley -- Celebration of health in the Celebration Library / Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb -- Exploring the American idea at the New York Public Library / Jean L. Preer -- "We have become too tender-hearted" : the language of gender in the public library, 1880-1920 / Jacalyn Eddy -- Roosevelt Presidential Library : a shift in commemoration / Benjamin Hufbauer -- Antebellum libraries in Richmond and New Orleans and the search for the practices and preferences of "real" readers / Emily B. Todd.