{"id":27,"date":"2021-02-22T14:41:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/middletownstudies\/?page_id=27"},"modified":"2021-03-02T16:53:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T21:53:24","slug":"what-middletown-read","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/middletownstudies\/home\/research-and-reports\/what-middletown-read\/","title":{"rendered":"What Middletown Read"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/lib.bsu.edu\/wmr\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">What Middletown Read<\/span><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-43\" src=\"https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-686x1024.jpg 686w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-768x1146.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-1030x1536.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-1373x2048.jpg 1373w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-sites.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2021\/03\/02162957\/WMRead_175_full-scaled.jpg 1716w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Through a stroke of good fortune, Frank\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Felsenstein<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">no\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Reed D.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Voran<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">P<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">rofessor of the\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hu<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">manities\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Emeritus\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">at Ball State, uncovered a unique cache of surviving library records that document the books each borrower took from the local public library in Muncie\u2014the city featured in the famed &#8220;Middletown&#8221; sociological studies\u2014for a period of approximately 10 years. Historians of print culture in the U.S. have long sought this sort of evidence of reading behavior among ordinary people. This extraordinarily rich body of materials, which includes demographic data drawn from city directories and census records as well as bibliographic information collected for each title in the MPL collection, provides an opportunity to explore the sociology and cultural history of the book in the United States in unmatched depth.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Center for Middletown Studies and Ball State University Libraries collaborated with the Muncie Public Library to convert these records into\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">an<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0online, searchable database that contains details on\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">more than 6,000 patrons, 11,000 books, and\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">175,000<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0circulation transactions<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0for the period from 1891-1902 (with one gap).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Construction of the What Middletown Read database was made possible by financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gladys\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Krieble<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0Delmas Foundation, and Ball State University.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This rich resource, made\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">publicly\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">available in 2011, has received wide use by students, scholars, and members of the public over the past decade.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0 In 2015,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Felsenstein<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and Center Director James Connolly published\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.umasspress.com\/9781625341419\/what-middletown-read\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">What Middletown Read: Print Culture in an American Small City<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0(Massachusetts).\u00a0 That same year,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the National Endowment for the Humanities\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">named\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What Middletown Read\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">as\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">one of\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">its<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/essentials.neh.gov\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">NEH Essentials<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0fifty \u201ctop grant projects from the NEH\u2019s history\u201d that \u201c<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">have shaped what we know about ourselves and our world.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The success of What Middletown Read positioned the Center to expand its research on the history of print culture.\u00a0 In 2013, the Center received NEH funding for <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/middletownstudies\/research-and-reports\/print-culture-histories-beyond-the-metropolis\/\">a conference to bring together scholars<\/a> from around the world to consider the historical circulation and consumption of printed material.\u00a0 The result was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/utorontopress.com\/us\/print-culture-histories-beyond-the-metropolis-3\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Print Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, a volume of essays published by the University of Toronto Press in 2016.\u00a0 The Center received an additional grant to hold the Library Circulation Histories Workshop (LINK), which will take place using a virtual format in 2021.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Middletown Read\u00a0 Through a stroke of good fortune, Frank\u00a0Felsenstein,\u00a0no\u00a0Reed D.\u00a0Voran\u00a0Professor of the\u00a0Humanities\u00a0Emeritus\u00a0at Ball State, uncovered a unique cache of surviving library records that document the books each borrower took from the local public library in Muncie\u2014the city featured in the famed &#8220;Middletown&#8221; sociological studies\u2014for a period of approximately 10 years. Historians of print culture [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":934,"featured_media":0,"parent":15,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Middletown Read - Middletown Studies Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Middletown Read - Middletown Studies Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What Middletown Read\u00a0 Through a stroke of good fortune, Frank\u00a0Felsenstein,\u00a0no\u00a0Reed D.\u00a0Voran\u00a0Professor of the\u00a0Humanities\u00a0Emeritus\u00a0at Ball State, uncovered a unique cache of surviving library records that document the books each borrower took from the local public library in Muncie\u2014the city featured in the famed &#8220;Middletown&#8221; sociological studies\u2014for a period of approximately 10 years. 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