In a beautiful piece at The New York Times, Margaret Renkl wonders what to do with all the books that her husband, an English teacher, brought home after he retired. Here is a taste: My husband, Haywood, reached retirement age […]
libraries
How does a university exist without librarians?
I am worried about posting this article from Inside Higher Ed because I don’t want to give academic administrators any ideas. Western Illinois University is laying off all nine of its library faculty. What is happening to higher education? Here […]
The Harlem Renaissance librarians
We don’t normally think about librarians when we talk about the revival of African-American culture in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. But as Jennifer Schuessler notes in a recent piece at The New York Times, scholars are starting to […]
Umberto Eco on books and libraries
The Italian historian, cultural critic, and novelist Umberto Eco is one of the great thinkers of our time. Next week a film about his life and library opens in New York. It is titled “Umberto Eco: A Library of the […]
Organizing arts and culture workers at Andrew Carnegie’s library
In a brilliant essay at The Baffler, Daisy Pitkin, a union organizer and writer from Pittsburgh, weaves the story of Andrew Carnegie, the Johnstown Flood, and the recent unionization of workers at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. It is worth […]
Rick Warren’s library
Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and the author of The Purpose Driven Life, has quite the library. He made so much money on his books that he now claims he gives away 90% of […]
Woke librarians?
Should librarians be politically neutral? Stanley Kurtz of the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinks they should be. Here is a taste of his New York Times op-ed, “The Battle for the Soul of the Library“: What in the world […]
What is the story behind this home library?
Click here to learn more about this amazing space.
The battle for the public library
It looks like some conservatives are running for local library boards so they can remove books on race and racism from the stacks. And conservatives complain about something called “cancel culture.” Wow. This is what fearful people do. Here is […]
I miss browsing in the library
I am really excited for my colleagues at the Messiah University’s Murray Library as they launch their new “discovery” system called Primo this week. I can’t weight to dig in. I have benefited immensely from Murray Library’s e-book collection, interlibrary […]
Help! I can’t find the book I need in my home library
It’s around here somewhere. Or wait, maybe it’s at the office. Do I drive to campus or just see if I can find the excerpt I need online? Yes, I know there are cataloging programs for this, but I just […]