Libraries in the News

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Woe to the person who says, “Libraries are dead.”

Remember back in October when the U.K.’s New York Observer columnist Andre Walker claimed no one goes to public libraries any more?

(It ended with Walker conceding, “Your sheer numbers have proved the point that libraries aren’t as unpopular as I believed this morning. Please stop replying. I surrender.”)

murderOur own Con Lehane wrote an op ed in Huffington Post about libraries and privacy issues.

In my most recent book, MURDER IN THE MANUSCRIPT ROOM, one of the characters, a librarian, says after discovering she’d been under surveillance in the library and elsewhere, “Everybody’s spying on everybody.”

You’d think no institution in the nation cares much about privacy protections anymore. But you’d be wrong. There’s at least one place in the nation’s cities, towns, and most villages that respects our privacy. Public libraries care passionately about protecting the confidentiality of library users.


LibraryAdrienne Celt, author of the forthcoming INVITATION TO A BONFIRE shared her experience about being the Writer-in-Residence at the Pima County Library System (Tucson, AZ). SPOILER ALERT: it was a good one.

I met some of the most unbelievable storytellers, and I watched them excavate years of beauty and pain from their lives as easily as if they were folding fresh laundry. They came to me looking for connection which was, of course, the very thing I’d been craving myself during all the hours I logged on literary social media and spent worrying about earning validation from people I’d never even met.

Libraries are one of our most valuable public resources, and I was lucky to be a part of that, even just for a little while.

AnnieOur beloved Annie Spence, author of the September 2017 LibraryReads pick DEAR FAHRENHEIT 451 wrote a LitHub piece “On the Perilous Plight of the Part-Time Librarian.”

Shh. Quietly now, join me as I observe the Modern Part-Time Librarian, once known simply as The Librarian (Scientific Name: Full Timias Benefitus Pension) and seen commonly around public libraries at all hours. Now only observed evenings, weekends, and most holidays. Keep your eyes out for a classic harried facial expression, pilled cardigan (hurriedly mis-buttoned), and a name tag that reads STAFF.

Last but not least, we’re so excited to see the movie trailer for The Public, starring Emilio Estevez, Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Christian Slater, Taylor Schilling, Michael K. Williams and Jeffrey Wright.

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