"Can I can I ask you something" Will says and I say "Sure ask me something."
"How do you know all this?"
"I'm a f**king librarian."
In Jenny Offill's brilliant novel Weather (Knopf), Lizzie is a librarian at the university where she was once a promising grad student ("I used to have plans! Biggish ones, medium at least.") and where one of her colleagues "has never liked me because I don't have a proper degree. Feral librarians they call us as in just wandered out of the woods."
I've been thinking about Lizzie since finishing the book yesterday. That's supposed to be what a good read does, I realize, though given the nature of this particular novel, I should probably also be thinking about the onrushing, out-of-control pre-apocalyptic environmental and societal freight train headed our way.
But today... I'm thinking about Lizzie ("There are little signs everywhere in the library now that say BREATHE! BREATHE! How did everyone get so good at this breathing thing? I feel like it all happened while I was away.").
And I'm thinking about librarians. "As the social fabric of our society has continued to unravel, libraries have become one of the last places where you don't have to buy anything and yet you are welcome. It's like a tiny little vision of utopia," Offill told the Guardian, which noted that she also mentioned the current interest in experimenting with libraries of tools and household appliances as evidence of this utopian instinct at work.
I wish I had a better memories of my own childhood library experiences. It's not something I'm nostalgic about. The public librarian in the small Vermont town where I grew up seemed to despise children (I don't think it was just me. I was an engaged early reader and a pretty good kid.) and was forever ushering us back out onto the street when we lingered too long in the children's book room. Hers was a determined, if ultimately futile, attempt to maintain order and, seemingly, to derail my need to read.
Eventually, however, I developed a love for libraries. I have a library card; I pay attention to developments in the field.
For example, I just learned that BookNet Canada has launched LibraryData, the country's first system for the aggregation and analysis of data from public libraries across the country. LibraryData is also integrated with BNC SalesData, the national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade book market. Currently available only to libraries who contribute their data and pay a fee, later in 2020 other members of the book industry, including publishers and retailers, will be invited to access the system.
"Libraries have lagged behind book retailers when it comes to sharing and analyzing this level of data," said Jefferson Gilbert, executive director of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council/Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada. "By consolidating our data, we can speak for the reading habits of all Canadian library users and make sure our work is understood and appropriately valued by associations, publishers, the government and other industry participants. The facilitation of better communication stands to strengthen our role as advocates and stalwarts of the Canadian book industry."
If that's a little too inside baseball (inside library?) for you, here's something else I noticed this week. Actor Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) filmed a promotional video for the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS). Appearing as the Wizard of the World Wide Web, he convenes an emergency meeting of the "elders of the Internet."
"Libraries have real people," the wizard explains to his cynical digital crew. "They get to know you and offer reading recommendations more personalized than any algorithm. They can even tell the difference between real and fake news.... Libraries have all the information that anyone could ever need, plus real spaces, fun educational programs, meet-up groups... you can even get a flu shot at the library."
Or how about this? To help mark the late author Toni Morrison's birthday Tuesday, the Beinecke Library tweeted a photo of "Two-Minute Seduction," her contribution to Jonathan Safran Foer's Cultivating Thought author series for Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2014.
Or this: The New York Public Library, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, recently released its "Top 10 Checkouts of All Time."
On a more serious note, British library advocate and BBC Two's University Challenge star Bobby Seagull was part of a group that presented a 10-point Manifesto for Libraries at the House of Lords in 2019, pushing the case for long-term funding for libraries. Last week, he wrote in the Big Issue: "Libraries are more than just books, they represent what it means to be truly human. They contain the minds of our ancestors as well as the latest thinking of contemporary minds. We need our libraries, as they are shining beacons of knowledge, sharing and inclusive communities.... The best way to show your support for libraries is to use them."
Right now, however, I'm still thinking about Lizzie: "The guy in the green coat keeps glancing at me. 'From the library,' I tell him, and he nods slowly, respectfully, it seems. 'Yes, yes, that's it,' he says. He has a slight accent and I wonder if he comes from some distant country where librarians are held in high esteem."