George H. Locke, chief librarian of the Toronto Public Library between 1908 and 1937, was Canada’s foremost library administrator in the first part of the twentieth century. During this period, free public libraries and librarianship in Ontario expanded rapidly due to the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie, improvements in library education, and the influence of American library services. Locke was closely associated with all these trends; however, his outlook was primarily guided by his Methodist upbringing, the Anglo-Canadian academic tradition of British Idealism, and his association with John Dewey’s contribution to American progressive education. These religious and intellectual strands encouraged personal action to improve social conditions. As director of Toronto’s libraries, he brought his ambitious ideas to bear in many ways: the building of neighbourhood branches, library service for children, formal education for librarians, suitable reading for immigrants and young adults, and the idea of the public library as a municipal partner in the self-education of adult Canadians. By 1930, Toronto’s public library system was recognized as one of the best in North America and George Locke’s reputation as a visionary leader had vaulted him to the Presidency of the American Library Association. Although he had created a large organization that might have succumbed to bureaucratic practices and formalized centralization, Locke resisted this development. He remained faithful to his moral, intellectual, and humanistic values acquired during his early schooling and university career. For Locke, libraries and librarians were less about organization and formal duties. Both needed to be faithful to the main principle of serving the public interest by delivering knowledge and by guiding individual self-development through experiential learning and transcendent ideals.

Pioneers in Librarianship profiles sixty notable librarians who made significant contributions to the field. Librarians chosen for inclusion in this volume met one or more of these three criteria: The librarian conceived a new method for improving library services, invented their own method of book cataloging, or devised an administrative system for libraries to operate under. The librarian is historically famous because he/she was notable historically. The librarian was the first woman or minority to make significant achievements within the field of LIS. The achievements of the librarians profiled here are important because they shaped the field. Many of their theories, ideas, and contributions are still being utilized in libraries today. Librarians profiled here include Melvil Dewey, Carla Hayden, S. R. Ranganathan, Justin Winsor, Charles Coffin Jewett, Katharine Sharp, Pura Belpré, Allie Beth Martin, and John Cotton Dana.

The core of the book revolves around the shifting nature of Ontario’s political landscape. In many ways this is a story of successive governments, ambitious politicians, diligent bureaucrats, and endless library reports straddling the decades. Their aim appears to have been making even better a system that, despite weaknesses, was clearly the best in Canada. Three distinctive trends emerged in Ontario librarianship after the 1930s: first, a growing sense of professionalism in librarianship; second, an enhanced sense of belonging to a pan-Canadian library movement that in 1946 would result in the formation of the Canadian Library Association; and third, a heightened awareness of the competing demands of high culture and popular culture. Public libraries became an important vehicle for promoting community, albeit with competing visions of “space and place,” as Canada generally and Ontario specifically experienced post-World War II immigration and the baby boom. As libraries approached the 21st century, the concerns of digital formats and the all-encompassing Internet intertwined to alter the book-centric "bricks and mortar" world of libraries. Nonetheless, public libraries were well placed to survive this new threat, just as they had with the challenges of radio, television, and telecommunication challenges in the 20th century.

A supplemental textbook for middle and high school students, Hoosiers and the American Story provides intimate views of individuals and places in Indiana set within themes from American history. During the frontier days when Americans battled with and exiled native peoples from the East, Indiana was on the leading edge of America’s westward expansion. As waves of immigrants swept across the Appalachians and eastern waterways, Indiana became established as both a crossroads and as a vital part of Middle America. Indiana’s stories illuminate the history of American agriculture, wars, industrialization, ethnic conflicts, technological improvements, political battles, transportation networks, economic shifts, social welfare initiatives, and more. In so doing, they elucidate large national issues so that students can relate personally to the ideas and events that comprise American history. At the same time, the stories shed light on what it means to be a Hoosier, today and in the past.

'One of the most powerful books in the social sciences ever written. ... A must-read' Thomas Piketty 'The twentieth century's most prophetic critic of capitalism' Prospect Karl Polanyi's landmark 1944 work is one of the earliest and most powerful critiques of unregulated markets. Tracing the history of capitalism from the great transformation of the industrial revolution onwards, he shows that there has been nothing 'natural' about the market state. Instead of reducing human relations and our environment to mere commodities, the economy must always be embedded in civil society. Describing the 'avalanche of social dislocation' of his time, Polanyi's hugely influential work is a passionate call to protect our common humanity. 'Polanyi's vision for an alternative economy re-embedded in politics and social relations offers a refreshing alternative' Guardian 'Polanyi exposes the myth of the free market' Joseph Stiglitz With a new introduction by Gareth Dale