You know that everyone thinks that librarians get paid to sit around reading books all day, right? If only! And surely librarians don’t sit around reading books about books, or books about libraries, do they? Can you say, “library nerd”? Yeah, yeah, we have all been fighting the stereotypes in the media of the librarian wearing a bun and horn-rimmed glasses who shushes everyone. But, if you are anything like me, you read books about libraries in your “spare” time!
At least to make it fun, try to read fiction set in libraries (instead of tomes about De-Deweyfying your collection, or new cataloging standards). How about murder mysteries where the victim (or the sleuth) is a librarian? Miss Scarlett in the Library with the bar-code scanner, anyone?
A wonderful murder mystery series by Miranda James features deadly doings in a university library. Lots of Southern charm, petty in-fighting & jealousies (surely high-minded academics and librarians are above all that, no?). Librarian Charlie Harris brings his Maine coon cat, Diesel, to work every day. The new director vows to put a stop to that. Will someone put a stop to the director?
Or the Jenn McKinlay books about Lindsey Norris, a Connecticut library director, including: Hitting the Books, Death in the Stacks, Read It and Weep, Due or Die, On Borrowed Time. She deals with library staffers who hate each other, buttinsky board members, overflowing toilets after toddler time. Can anyone relate?
How about books about a bookbinder, Brooklyn Wainwright, by Kate Carlisle: Homicide in Hardcover, If Books Could Kill, The Book Supremacy, Perils in Paperback, the Book Stops Here, One Book in the Grave. She restores priceless rare books that people have found in their grandmother’s attic, or bought for three dollars at a garage sale (is that your fantasy, or only mine)?
Here are some others:
Maybe reading some of these would put you in the mood to host a murder mystery event at your library. Here are some ideas from ALA: