Library Anecdotes Revisited: Free For All

Library historians, social scientists and library fundraisers will find this book interesting and a readable tell tale--about what makes the present day's public library from inside and how it looks from outside. I feel this is an excellent addition of existing works that support qualitative studies in libraries and librarianship in the USA.

Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
by Don Borchert

Book Description
In Free for All, Borchert offers readers a ringside seat for the unlikely spectacle of mayhem and absurdity that is business as usual at the public library. You’ll see cops bust drug dealers who’ve set up shop in the men’s restroom, witness a burka-wearing employee suffer a curse-ridden nervous breakdown, and meet a lonely, neglected kid who grew up in the library and still sends postcards to his surrogate parents—the librarians. In fact, from the first page of this comic debut to the last, you’ll learn everything about the world of the modern-day library that you never expected.

Library Confidential@ Annoyed Librarian comments:
A forthcoming book should give the ALA and library schools a great marketing opportunity. Have you heard of Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library, by Don Borchert? According to the cover, it "puts the shh! in shocking." I read a review here, and boy does it sound exciting. (Note: the review is of Library Confidential, but the American edition seems to be entitled Free for All.) This is going to be such a great marketing opportunity, because after reading this everyone will want to work in a public library. We're always hearing about how librarians provide information and videos and stuff for people and how noble they all are, but we don't usually hear about things like this: continue reading

See also:

• [PUBLIB] library anecdotes (fwd)
• [PUBLIB] Troubled librarians (fwd)
• Library Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc -- a nice directory to sites that celebrate some of the more amusing aspects of our profession. It's also a guide to many of the librarian-produced weblogs and zines.
• Case Studies from India: Evidence-based Librarianship
• Same shelf and aisle @ Library of Congress Catalog Library users--California--Anecdotes. and Public libraries--California--Anecdotes.