Marilyn Johnson

In a celebration of libraries and the dedicated people who staff them, the author argues that librarians are more important than ever, and discusses a new breed of visionary professionals who use the Web to link people and information.

How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

This Book Is Overdue!

Sarah Sammis

I am currently a library and information science student. I read This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson as part of my research for my Patron 2.0 paper. Even if I weren't a library student right now I would have read the book as I'm such a fan of libraries, especially public ones.

For me, therefore, Chapter 4: "The Blog People" was of the most interest. It looks at the history of blogging and especially blogging by librarians. Library blogs can be divided into three main groups: blogs run by libraries (usually a group effort), blogs run by library organizations (such as the ALA) and blogs run by librarians. They are written for one of two main audiences: individuals (typically library patrons) or as a method of peer to peer communication (blogs are becoming more commonplace as a method for long distance communication during conferences).

The other chapter that really piqued my interest was Chapter 1: "The Frontier." It describes how librarianship has evolved in the last hundred years and how it's now spreading into Second Life. Before I started working on my MLIS I had never tried Second Life. I had done the text-based equivalent in the 1990s when I was an undergrad and I felt like I had gotten it out of my system. Since Second Life's inception, librarians have been setting up virtual libraries and colleges have been setting up virtual campuses. My own school has a virtual campus, which for school I've had to visit more times than I have the actual campus (my coursework is completely done on the computer). That said, I still find Second Life something I don't think I'd use beyond what I may end up having to do for my work as a librarian (when that time comes).

Steven Ovadia

This book was interesting in that it was a non-librarian examining the role(s) of librarians in the modern world. Some of the more conceptual issues of librarianship, the theoretical things I don't always consider in my day-to-day work, felt new to me, in a good way.

There's just an inordinate amount of time spent on Second Life, though, a pet librarian issue that no one else seems to care about.

And most of the financial issues of maintaining a collection aren't discussed. On the one hand, it was nice to not have to think about cost. On the other hand, I don't know many librarians who don't think about their job in terms of what something costs.

The book is a nice idea, but in the end, I wish it had been written by a working librarian and not necessarily an observer of librarians.

However, the book does make a nice case for face-to-face reference services, which is always a good thing in my book.

Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper, disks, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make way for the librarians—they can help! Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that, in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us—expert and hopelessly baffled alike—can get along without human help. And not just any help: we need librarians, the only ones who can save us from being buried by the digital age. This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals—from the blunt and obscenely funny bloggers to the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI. These are the 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.

Jessica Nottingham

I think I was a little confused as to what This Book is Overdue! was really going to contain when I first picked it up. My expectation was that I would learn a little more about what librarians do for us, hear some funny stories, and maybe giggle a little bit. Instead I was ultimately a little lost, because there is a lot of very dense, albeit interesting, technical information in this book. I ultimately ended up skimming a lot of those parts. Too much information overload for one day I think.

However as a source for a comprehensive view of the librarian world today, this is a great book. I did find a lot to love. The book covers everything from community librarians and their experiences with ever changing circulation systems, to research librarians and the way that the web has influenced them. The reader is introduced to influential librarians over the course of history as well. If you are a librarian fan, or perhaps a librarian yourself, I'm sure that you'll really find some of these chapters interesting. Actually, the chapter that caught my eye the most was all about cyber librarians. There are librarians on Second Life? Who knew!


As a person who is not herself a librarian (although I'd love to be!) I found this book to be a little information heavy for my taste. It is one that I will definitely keep for later, and likely pass around, but at the moment it didn't speak to me as much as I would have liked it to. As I said before if you are a librarian, you might find more to love in this book. I do recommend you give it a read and find out for yourself!

This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

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