This Book Is Overdue!

Posted on 05 February 2017 by Marilyn Johnson

In This Book is Overdue , acclaimed author Marilyn Johnson celebrates libraries and librarians, and, as she did in her popular first book, The Dead Beat, discovers offbeat and eloquent characters in the quietest corners In defiance of doomsayers, Johnson finds librarians vital and necessary than ever, as they fuse the tools of the digital age with love for the written word and the enduring values of truth, service to all, and free speech This Book Is Overdue is a romp through the ranks of information professionals who organize our messy world and offer old fashioned human help through the maze. Free Read eBook This Book Is Overdue! Author Marilyn Johnson – kino-fada.fr This Book is Overdue is a quick read with an identity crisis Should the book be a serious analysis of the manner in which libraries and librarians are changing, for better or for worse, with the rise of technology Should it be a memoir ish narrative of the author s experience visiting libraries both in real and Second Life and librarians What about a huggy chapter on teaching potential librarians from developing cultures how to use technology to improve the lives of their patrons These par This Book is Overdue is a quick read with an identity crisis Should the book be a serious analysis of the manner in which libraries and librarians are changing, for better or for worse, with the rise of technology Should it be a memoir ish narrative of the author s experience visiting libraries both in real and Second Life and librarians What about a huggy chapter on teaching potential librarians from developing cultures how to use technology to improve the lives of their patrons These parts coalesce less into a coherent whole andinto what seems like what could have been a long magazine article stretched thin into an undersized book with large font.The text includes positives, sure The chapter that compassionately contrasts the desire of an aging New York librarian...As a recent MLIS graduate and new library professional, I approached this book with the anticipation that I would read a book that would serve as a standard bearer for my profession and bring all the vital functions that libraries provide to the attention of a wider audience Here was our champion sounding the clarion call for a profession that has historically been unappreciated and certainly underfunded Perhaps this book would explain to the world at least what we really do.Perhaps my expecta As a recent MLIS graduate and new library professional, I approached this book with the anticipation that I would read a book that would serve as a standard bearer for my profession and bring all the vital functions that libraries provide to the attention of a wider audience Here was our champion sounding the clarion call for a profession that has historically been unappreciated and certainly underfunded Perhaps this book would explain to the world at least what we really do.Perhaps my expectations were set too high Marilyn Johnson posses...Exactly what the blurb says, this was a fun romp through those who serve so proudly A little goes a long way, especially when it comes to an entire chapter on librarians in the virtual world of Second Life, though Still, she covered a lot of ground showed how libraries are evolving to keep meeting their our needs They are one of the best democratic institutions allowing free anonymous access to one all The part about the FBI s attempts to gain information is plain sca Exactly what the blurb says, this was a fun romp through those who serve so proudly A little goes a long way, especially when it comes to an entire chapter on librarians in the virtua...My 3 star rating is somewhat misleading some chapters were 5 star worthy, such as the one about the Connecticut 4 who challenged the Patriot Act and an account of a collaboration between reference librarians and artists The book also includes some of the best and most eloquent defenses I ve heard of the value of libraries in the 21st century and some good thoughts on technology and libraries But at other points Johnson veered off into a weird obsession with Second Life, got sidetracked by a My 3 star rating is somewhat misleading some chapters were 5 star worthy, such as the one about the Connecticut 4 who challenged the Patriot Act and an account of a collaboration between reference librarians and artists The book also includes some of the best and most eloquent defenses I ve heard of the value of libraries in the 21st century and some good thoughts on technology and libraries But at other points Johnson veered off into a weird obsession with Second Life, got sidetracked by a personal desire to archive the internet why and, to put it rather bluntly, shows her age in a few sections dealing with technology Finally, despite claiming to be a somewhat serious study of libraries today, she seems a little too fond of the usual librarian stereotypes older ones are ladies with buns and glasses and a fear of technology, whil...As a male, non hipster library school student with skill in actual library technology not just social media and empty buzzwords such as Library 2.0 , I found this book to be incredibly depressing and superficial I m sure there are plenty in the library community at large who can appreciate it, but I really thought it did a poor job of showing the true diversity of the library community not just reference librarians in public libraries, but academic, school, and special librarians as well, As a male, non hipster library ...Not my favorite style of book lots of interesting, but somewhat random stories Some of the stories were pretty cool, but I also came away from the book feeling like I ll be a failure in life if I m not some over the top amazing librarian who changes the world Those stories and people are cool, but to some extent, they re the exception, not the norm We can t all take on the Supreme Court by disregarding an FBI letter and challenging the Patriot Act If we get the opportunity, great, but man Not my favorite sty...One full star off for snarky reference to avoiding dog ownership and absence of similar judgment on cat ownership s insanity.I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book It s true that I m a recent re convert to library usage, after many years of avoiding them because of one old prune faced, pursey lipped hag s humiliation of me She wouldn t let twelve year old me check out Stranger in a Strange Land because it has S E X in it until my mother approved Mama s rejoinder to that was, Honey, so do One full star off for snarky reference to avoiding dog ownership and absence of similar judgment on cat ownership s insanity.I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book It s true that I m a recent re convert to library usage, after many years of avoiding them because of one old prune faced, pursey lipped hag s humiliation of me She wouldn t let twelve year old me check out Stranger in a Strange Land because it has S E X in it until my mother ap...Wow How unusual A journalist who does a superficial job in covering a subject that raisesquestions than the author can ask let alone answer This is a good example of why I so often rate non fiction with few stars It fails to demonstrate the human ability to think, but is full of examples of the human shortcoming of glibness Basically this was a library fan s view of the current state of computer technology in libraries today which raises no questions about the future The achievements Wow How unusual A journalist who does a superficial job in covering a subject that raisesquestions than the author can ask let alone answer This is a good example of why I so often rate non fiction with few stars It fails to demon...Fairly interesting bookI skimmed mostly forgive me librarians of the world It wasn t exactly what I d expected, still fairly interesting take on what librarians have done for the world all of us and are still doing You might find it what you re looking for, I appreciate what librarians have to put up with including the bureaucracies My daughter worked for the Nashville system back when and after a few years had done and was doing every job there was to dobut, she topped out at Fairly interesting bookI skimmed mostly forgive me librarians of the world It wasn t exactly what I d expected, still fairly interesting take on what librarians have done for the world all of us and are still doing You might find it what you re looking for, I appreciate what librarians have to put up with including the bureaucracies My daughter worked for the Nashville system back when and after a few years had done and was doing every job there was to dobut, she topped out at a salary it would be hard to survive on if you were still living at home with no bills You see, she didn t have a degree in library science , so even if she could do and did do the work, she couldn t be paid above a certain amount She of course left fo...In tough times, a librarian is a terrible thing to waste And so starts this charming and inside glimpse into the life and times of being a librarian in ever evolving libraries in the 21st century Author Marilyn Johnson takes her readers on a journey through a database migration in Westchester County, New York, to changing the largest research library in the New York City Public Library system into a circulation library, to librarians setting up virtual libraries and reference desks ...

English
05 February 2017

Marilyn Johnson