This volume of essays emerges from the international research network on Community Libraries: Connecting Readers in the Atlantic World c.1650–c.1850 funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (uk) and organised by the University of Liverpool. The network brought together over eighty scholars from four continents and a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds for three tightly-focused colloquia in 2014 and 2015, and the editors would like to thank all of the speakers and network members for making such a success of the project. We are particularly grateful to Aaron Brunmeier, Nick Bubak, Tessa Whitehouse and David Wykes for their help in organising and running the network, and to the ahrc, Loyola University Chicago, the Newberry Library, the University of Liverpool and Dr Williams’s Library for providing funding and institutional support. We would like to thank Andrew Pettegree and the excellent team at Brill for bringing the volume to fruition. Finally, we pay tribute to our contributors for their hard work and forbearance in meeting what were often quite tight scheduling demands, and for enhancing our understanding of early modern library culture. The volume is dedicated to the late Stephen Colclough, an inspirational member of our network, a generous scholar and a formative influence on the development of book history in the uk and beyond.