Category: books

The Librarian – one for the history museum?

Posted on by jessamyn

I read about the review of the new book The Librarian a few days back and paid it no mind. Then I got the following email and while I think that flaming the author would be in bad taste, a pleasant email from a modern-day librarian setting him straight might not be out of line.

There is a review in today’s NYT Review of Books of a book called “The Librarian.” I urge you to read the review if you haven’t already. I get the feeling that the author (of the review) is just begging to have the review posted to your site, so that we can flame the living shit out of him.

barry the book, library repo man

Posted on by jessamyn

While I think it’s going overboard to sic collection agencies on people for overdue fines, having this man show up on your doorstep just to pick up the books you haven’t returned might not be all bad.

Avid reader Barry, who works 18 hours a week and holds his own library card, applied for the position of library stock recovery officer with Bury council when he was made redundant from a Manchester-based debt collection agency in 1999. He now collects up to 40 books a day for Bury’s seven public libraries on his rounds in his car. [thanks jen]