The gargoyle of the Ladies' Library Association, stolen from its place on the building, shares of his experience in the hands of his assailant.

The Ladies' Library Association building on South Park Street has been a noted feature of downtown Kalamazoo since its construction in 1878-79. It is known as the first building in the nation to be financed and built by and for a women's organization. Almost a century later it was the first structure in the city to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building reflects the influence of European architecture. Today its fine architecture and carefully preserved furnishings offer the community a window into the past. Careful renovations have preserved the historic character of the site, which is now barrier-free. The group sought to create a building worthy of their goal of "promoting moral and educational improvement in the town of Kalamazoo." Chicago architect H.L. Gay created an elaborate design in the fashionable Venetian Gothic style appropropriate for fine public buildings. Local builder Frederick Bush was hired to rerect the building for $8,000. Once the shell was completed, the club raised another $2,000 to pay for a tiled vestibule, stained-glass work, a stage, and scenery. Furnishings were provided through the generosity of LLA members and friends. The total cost of the building and furnishings was $14,000. Since 1852, the LLA has carried out its commitment to serving the Kalamazoo community, especially its women and children.

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Adult literacy teachers are constantly searching for effective, engaging and distinctly 'adult' ways to develop adult emergent reading and, for at least the past two hundred years, adults have formed themselves into reading circles to read and discuss novels on a weekly or monthly basis. Why then are reading circles rarely used, or studied, in formal adult literacy provision? This book explores adult reading development, novel reading and reading circles in the context of a wider examination of reading pedagogies and practices in the English-speaking world. It discusses reading as both an individual and a communal act and investigates the relationship between literature and literacy development, practice and pedagogy (including a reassessment of the controversial approaches of reading aloud and phonics for adults). Sam Duncan reviews a case study of an adult reading circle in a large London further education college and identifies the wider implications for the teaching and learning of adult emergent reading, for the use and understanding of reading circles and for how we understand the novel reading experience more broadly.