Includes indexes.

Introduction: Alexandria is still burning -- America's first lending library: The Library Company of Philadelphia -- A library of mud: Steve Tinney and the Tablet Room at the University of Pennsylvania -- To serve everybody: Nick Higgins, Rikers Island, and the Brooklyn Public Library -- The little library that tried: Mary Anne Antonellis and the M. N. Spear Memorial Library, Shutesbury, Massachusetts -- History you can hold: Julie Bartlett Nelson and the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library, Northampton Massachusetts -- The American Girl: Briony Zlomke Beckstrom and the Franklin Public Library, Franklin, Wisconsin -- Bringing the library to you: Bretagne Byrd and the Lewis & Clark Bookmobile, Montana -- A Public Space: Tina Ely and the Greybull Public Library, Wyoming -- The Cathedral of Learning: Candice Mack and the Los Angeles Central Library -- Archiving the past: Texas A&M and the University of Iowa: plus George R. R. Martin gives me some thoughts on libraries -- Afterword: Home again -- Words from guest authors: Neil Gaiman; Amy Dickinson; Cory Doctorow; Jeff Vandermeer; John Scalzi; Jude Deveraux; Amanda Palmer; Nancy Pearl; Paula Poundstone; Sara Farizan; Peter Sagal; Samira Ahmed; Sangu Mandanna.