This book will long stand as the foundational study of church missions and ministry to men and women of the sea. International in scope, it covers in detail the efforts, particularly during the past two centuries, to serve the spiritual and moral needs of seafarers. The author, himself a former seafarer and seafarers' chaplain, spent more than fifteen years of painstaking research to compile this fascinating and authoritative book.

With today’s technology, anyone anywhere can access public library materials without leaving home or office—one simply logs on to the library’s website to be exposed to a wealth of information. But one of the concerns that arises is the lack of access for groups isolated by socioeconomic, geographical, or cultural factors. This problem is not a new one. For almost two centuries, public libraries and other organizations have been trying to bring library services to isolated populations. This book is a collection of fourteen essays examining the contributions of librarians, educators, and organizations in the United States who have endeavored to bring library services to groups that previously did not have access. There are three sections: Benevolent and Commercial Organizations, Government Supported Programs, and Innovative Outreach Services. The essays discuss reading materials for two centuries of rural Louisianians, shipboard libraries for the American Navy and merchant Marine, library outreach to prisoners, the Indiana Township Library Program, tribal libraries in the lower forty-eight states, open-air libraries, electronic outreach, and the use of radio in promoting the Municipal Reference Library of the City of New York, to name just a few of the essay topics.