Welcome Guests or Representatives of the Mal-Odorous Class? Periodicals and Their Readers in American Public Libraries, 1876-1914

This article documents the extensive debate between 1876 and 1914 about the role of periodicals in American public libraries as well as how libraries accommodated the ever-increasing flood of periodicals during this period. It argues that millions of periodical readers played a major role in transforming public libraries from relatively elitist book depositories to democratic institutions that made available a great number and variety of periodicals. These readers as well as the changes they effected challenge a number of scholarly assumptions about who was using public libraries and controlling their policies during this time.