How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (Hardcover)







Authors Marilyn Johnson

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Product Description
Starred Review. In an information age full of Google-powered searches, free-by-Bittorrent media downloads and Wiki-powered knowledge databases, the librarian may seem like an antiquated concept. Author and editor Johnson (The Dead Beat) is here to reverse that notion with a topical, witty study of the vital ways modern librarians uphold their traditional roles as educators, archivists, and curators of a community legacy. Illuminating the state of the modern librarian with humor and authority, Johnson showcases librarians working on the cutting edge of virtual reality simulations, guarding the Constitution and redefining information services-as well as working hard to serve and satisfy readers, making this volume a bit guilty of long-form reader flattery. Johnson also makes the important case for libraries-the brick-and-mortar kind-as an irreplaceable bridge crossing economic community divides. Johnson's wry report is a must-read for anyone who's used a library in the past quarter century.

Product Details
# Hardcover: 288 pages
# Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (February 2, 2010)
# Language: English

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Reviews How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

I was convinced they were for senior citizens, for those on fixed incomes, for those who didn't have access to computer technology, and for book-loving kids whose schools had lost afer-school programs to budget cuts and personnel losses. Since I didn't fit into any of those categories I paid little attention to libraries. However, libraries came slightly back into my consciousness when the patriotism Act hit the headlines and we learned that librarians were not only defending "us", their reader/patrons, but defending our rights as well. This book is wonderfully reported yet far from encyclopedic. It is not limited to the crisis in libraries as it embraces many engaging voices and points of view (the author's not least among them). Just two examples: The Second Life chapter was riveting and comical (plus clearly explained an aspect of cyber world that's moving almost too fast to comprehend); and the stories of St. John's University's Rome campus, and what's happening there on behalf of literacy, social justice and international outreach, were so moving they deserve a book of their own (and maybe a movie). These people are FIERCE.

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!