This Book is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson (2010)

Subtitle: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All.

Interesting to read a book about my library world by a non-librarian, but one that obviously got into her subject in a big way - attending our conferences, reading librarian blogs, visiting various libraries and, of course, interviewing librarians. Johnson manages to tackle many of the issues and trends facing the library world today. I know I find the library world an exciting one and I am glad that Johnson has also found the excitement in our field, plus she writes engagingly with entertaining chapter titles:

• The Frontier
• Information Sickness
• On the Ground
• The Blog People - Yes we librarians blog, you are reading one now, and I have a few less populated blogs going out to a limited audience. I just hadn't thought of it as such a phenomenon. There are none that I read on a regular basis, but have run into postings of interest.
• Big Brother and the Holdout Company
• How to Change the World
• To the Ramparts!
• Follow that Tatooed Librarian - I love being part of a profession, where you can be tatooed and respected, even as tatoos become more mainstream. Librarians come in such a huge range from mousy to punk. Most of us are pretty practical, but we have a few clothes horses. I like the younger more edgy librarians.
  
• Wizards of Odd- The author goes and immerses herself into Second Life. I tried- made myself an avatar and tried to learn basic ways of moving around in Second Life, but could't find anything interesting and felt I did not have the time to waste to learn to use this better. I do realize there are a lot of virtual libraries out there, so maybe I should check it out again.
  
• Gotham City- this was one of my favorite chapters, as it tells the story of the New York Public Library, and how the sanctuary on 42nd and 5th Ave has lost its research focus because of the economy. That branch of the NYPL has been a Mecca to me for as long as I have been in librarianship, and I thought it was just the Baltic & Slavic section that was closed down- now it turns out all the heavy research reading rooms have been closed in favor of a more general public library atmosphere. I am afraid to go visit it. The author gave some great of examples of amazing information found and activities held in NYPL over the years.
• What's Worth Saving? - good discussion on what to save, especially in an archival sense
  
• The Best Day