This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All |  | Author: Marilyn Johnson
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  37 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0061431605
Dewey Decimal Number: 020.23
EAN: 9780061431609
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| • | ISBN13: 9780061431609 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper and discs, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make way for the librarians! They want to help. They're not selling a thing. And librarians know best how to beat a path through the googolplex sources of information available to us, writes Marilyn Johnson, whose previous book, The Dead Beat, breathed merry life into the obituary-writing profession. This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals and a revelation for readers burned out on the clichÉs and stereotyping of librarians. Blunt and obscenely funny bloggers spill their stories in these pages, as do a tattooed, hard-partying children's librarian; a fresh-scrubbed Catholic couple who teach missionaries to use computers; a blue-haired radical who uses her smartphone to help guide street protestors; a plethora of voluptuous avatars and cybrarians; the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI; and a boxing archivist. These are just a few of the visionaries Johnson captures here, pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need. Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us—neither the experts nor the hopelessly baffled—can get along without human help. And not just any help—we need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they save us from being buried by the digital age?
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a librarian! February 20, 2010
Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
I'm not sure why I picked out Marilyn Johnson's This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Perhaps it's because my two best friends are librarians. Or it could be because I've always had a secret desire to be a librarian myself. In any case, I have a new appreciation for libraries and librarians. Johnson got the idea for this book while writing her first book, The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries. In her research, she discovered that the most interesting obituaries were of librarians.
Traditionally, librarians were considered to be bookish, inhibited, dull, anti-technology and concerned mostly with shelving and cataloging books. The librarians of today are tech-savvy, cutting-edge, quirky, innovative, outgoing, and helpful. Modern librarians have to think outside the box (or the book, for that matter). "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." Johnson chronicles how libraries and librarians have changed over a few short decades. I first thought this book was written primarily for librarians, but was I wrong!
Just as librarians have changed, so have libraries. Instead of musty, quiet places housing collections of books and periodicals, libraries today are active, exciting places with computers, cafes, programs, book clubs, films, art shows and displays. It was librarians who had the vision for these changes. Perhaps the most cutting-edge are the virtual libraries of today. Found on the internet, these libraries are run by actual librarians (using fake screen names and avatars). One of the most famous is run by the Alliance Library System in Illinois. Two months after a call for volunteers, A Land of Lincoln was created offering "a virtual, historically accurate, 1860s White House, replete with period furniture; a Civil War graveyard; a Union encampment; the village of Lincolnshire...Abe's Springfield home, recreated from the original plans; and a plantation like the one where Mary Todd Lincoln spent her early life." There are also links to period information including recipes, popular novels, Lincoln cartoons, etc. The things that can be created in virtual libraries are mind-boggling.
While there was much humor to be found in this book, one sobering chapter detailed how four Connecticut librarians stood up to the government and the Patriot Act (and won).
Johnson gets bonus points for mentioning my great-great uncle, boxer Iron-Jaw Joe Grim. While she claims that he was the worst boxer in the history of boxing, his claim to fame was not his won-loss record but the fact that no boxer could knock him out--until late in his career.
Johnson writes that librarians today are "information professionals, teachers, police, community organizers, computer technicians, historians, confidents, clerks, social workers, storytellers." After reading This Book is Overdue, I will never look at librarians in quite the same way.
Made me want to go to library school February 18, 2010
Shannon Okey (Cleveland, OH USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have a weakness for librarians and information science people in general but this book pushed me closer to the edge (I even started looking at the application forms for our local school of library science). Far from being out of touch with today's information needs, librarians are forging ahead on our behalf in ways a lot of us don't even know about. The story of the librarians who defied the Patriot Act and FBI nonsense to keep their patrons' reading lists out of the hands that don't need to have them was fantastic -- a high point of the book. In addition, I felt real sadness when the author described the more obscure departments of the New York Public Library scheduled for closure. In short, this book will give you a peek not only into the current activities of information professionals today, but a hint of what's to come.
Ha Ha! I knew libraries would have life after the Internet! February 18, 2010
Valentina Chimino (California)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I remember in the late 90's and early 00's how people theorized that we should just close libraries because once people got the Internet and computers, we wouldn't need libraries anymore. I thought they were so wrong, but feared their sad futuristic vision coming true. But the humanity of the library still rings strong. I got the impression by reading this book that the library draws many people from different backgrounds to it for socialization as much as intellect. Our library has book reading, writing classes, shows for kids, charity drives and town meeting within its walls and it would be not as great a neighborhood without it. Plus, even it our savvy Internet culture, not everyone has a computer. A lot of people who don't have computers come into the library to check mail or research. Older people come to learn how to use the computer. Some look for jobs online or do their resume. I can't really see a world without a library. And the author of this book just nailed my points home by offering a deep look into libraries, hip and conservative librarians and the world and people who love them! Great read!
Excellent book February 18, 2010
Ivy Reisner (Brooklyn, NY USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The real issue regarding accessing information today has less to do with whether it's printed on paper or exists only in bits and bytes as e-books and web pages, and more to do with the ability to find accurate and appropriate sources. That's where librarians, and what Marilyn Johnson calls cybrarians come in. These are the professionals trained in that kind of research. She makes a compelling case for the future of library science and that profession. Her writing style is clear and comfortable to read. This book is engaging and interesting. Recommended for librarians, people interested in search engine optimization, and general readers.
Letting down the hair! February 7, 2010
Jill Silveira (San Rafael)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
I swear, Marilyn Johnson is such a gifted writer she could write about the Yellow Pages and make it a riveting read.
This book about librarians is equivalent of the librarian taking off those granny glasses and letting down her hair.
MS. JOHNSON elevates the librarian to the level of superhero in that with one single bound she (or he) rescues us from chaos and manages the information which would otherwise suck the collective energy from our society.
In a compelling passage, she describes how during the Republican National Convention, young "radical reference" librarians hit the streets armed with their IPods which were fully loaded with helpful information.
Chambers celebrates the civil servant with a Dostoevsky-Gogol perspective. The civil servants are called "servants of civility" and as you read on, you see that this civil servant, as she fights for the sake of free, uncensored, information, rises up to the level of superhero.
I have a new appreciation for the librarian and now see that the daunting task of cataloging the chaos and madness of the world is a heroic and noble affair.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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