This Book is Overdue! (A Review)
December 20, 2012 - David McConkey
“You're reading a book about librarians? Couldn't you find anything
else more boring?”
That was the joking response I once got when I mentioned that I was
reading This
Book
Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson. Actually,
Johnson does a great job of making the topic of librarians quite
fascinating.
This book would be of most interest to librarians or those in
related fields. But it has something to say to all of us struggling
with the weight of the information age.
This
Book
Is Overdue! has an interesting genesis and
that is how I found the book as well. Johnson’s first book was about
obituary writers, The
Dead
Beat. My discovery of
that book – and my enjoyment in reading it – occurred when
developing my obituary
writing website. (Johnson has since written a third
book, Lives
in Ruins, about archeologists.)
“I became interested in librarians while researching my first book,
about obituaries,” Johnson explains. “With the exception of a few
showy characters,” she continues, “the most engaging obit subjects
were librarians.”
Just think about that – some of the most intriguing people in town
work at the library!
Johnson follows her sense of wonder about librarians, and explores
their work as they navigate our ever-rich information world. Johnson
combines folksy vignettes of librarians at work with thoughtful
discussions of the issues involved.
Woven throughout her book is her theme of how librarians are forging
ahead to keep pace with the current rush of information. “The
profession that had once been the quiet gatekeeper to discreet
palaces of knowledge is now wrestling a raucous, multi-headed, madly
multiplying beast of exploding information and information delivery
systems.”
Her message: even with Google and the Internet, librarians are still
needed. “Who can we trust? In a world where information itself is a
free-for-all, with traditional news sources going bankrupt and
publishers in trouble, we need librarians more than ever.”
The author is an unabashed fan of librarians. Their “values are as
sound as Girl Scouts’: truth, free speech, and universal literacy,”
she enthuses. “Librarians are essential players in the information
revolution. They enable those without money or education to read and
learn the same things as the billionaire and the PhD.”
In the course of the book, she follows librarians to wherever they
work. That ends up being in small towns, in the huge libraries of
New York City, on the streets, in the virtual Internet world
of Second Life, through
blogs and social media, on the cutting edge of social change, and in
fighting the U.S. government in the post-Sept. 11 environment of the
Patriot Act.
She also touches on “the often forgotten edges of library work, the
archivists.” Amidst a flood of information, she salutes the “heroic
archivists, librarians, cybrarians, and computer scientists
determined to save the world, or at least a corner of it, whether it
appears on an elusive flickering web page or a sheet of dead wood.”
But what information is worth saving, and how to save it? The task
is big: Johnson points out that the U.S. government alone generates
a mountain of electronic records and 1 billion pieces of paper every
day. And there is a new urgency to figure this out in the digital
age. “Whole chapters of contemporary history are disappearing into
the ether as e-mails get trashed and web pages are taken down and
people die without sharing their passwords.”
She mentions the controversy of whether to save the original printed
documents, like old newspapers, or instead convert them to other
formats - like electronic or microfilm. (This issue is taken up
in the book Double
Fold:
Libraries and the Assault on Paper.)
For those actually dealing with these stuffy old pages, she shares a
useful tip: a fabric softener dryer sheet can be used to remove the
musty odor from old books and papers.
Johnson also puts in a plea for individuals to save their stories,
at the very least for their own families. “If we are helping build
or create something, save a town landmark, fight for freedom, launch
a field of study; if we survive a disaster or witness a miracle – if
we do anything with our life besides watch television – we might
want to document it somehow and save the evidence,” she says. “We
are all living history, and it’s hard to say now what will be
important in the future. One thing’s certain, though: if we throw it
out, it’s gone.”
Another concern is the very survival of many libraries in a time of
government cutbacks to counter exploding deficits. (A related issue
faced in Canada and other jurisdictions are governments that seem
especially opposed to learning and knowledge and the associated
investment in personnel and infrastructure.)
Johnson concludes we best revise our stereotype about libraries and
their role today. “There is a perception that libraries are archaic,
dead, outdated, and that everything is now on the Internet, in
digital form.”
But if This
Book
Is Overdue! is an argument for the place for
libraries and librarians in the electronic age, the author is also
passionate about the old fashioned printed book and it’s
comfortable, familiar settings.
“We’ll always need brick-and-mortar libraries,” she writes. “We’ll
always need printed books that don’t mutate the way digital books
do; we’ll always need places to display books, auditoriums for book
talks, circles for story time . . . ”
See also:
Marilyn Johnson on Amazon.com (on
Amazon.ca)
Author
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