Susan Orlean's Ode to Public Libraries

Susan Orlean and her family moved to the Los Angeles area from Manhattan when her son was in first grade. His first assignment was to interview a city employee. Recalling the halcyon days back in Cleveland when she and her mother walked to the public library every week, bonding over their reading choices, she suggested that her boy interview a librarian at their local branch.

Orlean sheepishly admitted that it had been many years since she had been in the library, but in her new work, "The Library Book," she makes amends and then some. Upon entering the Studio City branch Orleans says,

"I was transfixed. It wasn't that time stopped in the library. It was as if it were captured here, collected here, and in all libraries - and not only my time, my life, but all human time as well."

"It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever."

Sigh!

This absolutely fascinating, uplifting, dazzling book is a history of Los Angeles broadly, and of the LA Public Library specifically, along with a political look at funding and hiring back to the 1800's. It's a mystery as well, prompted by her discovery of the horrific fire at the central branch library in 1986 and the massive attempt by the authorities to find someone to blame. The library burned for seven hours at temperatures up to 2000 degrees, destroying over one million books and resulting in five years of wrangling over the fate of the building.

Orlean threw herself into this project with passion and verve as she did for "Rin Tin Tin" and "The Orchid Thief." Her meticulous research unearthed wonderful biographies of many of the quirky characters who once directed the Los Angeles public library including eighteen-year-old Mary Foy who was shockingly hired in 1880 even before women were allowed - you heard me - allowed to hold library cards!

Then there was Charles Lummis who, in 1905, invented "roving librarians," a philosophy that is now back in style, because he couldn't bear the thought of patrons roaming the stacks and not finding what they wanted. In 1935 a voracious reader named Althea Warren took over and opined at a public library conference that librarians should "read as a drunkard drinks....because they'd rather do it than anything else in the world." What a concept!

This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year and yes, I was a librarian for twenty years. Still one doesn't have to be a librarian to delve into this love song to the necessity of free access to information as a prerequisite for a democratic society, a tenet of the 1949 UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. For my librarian cohort, though, it is a must read. I'm only sorry that it won't be out until mid-October. Look for it soon at a beloved library near you.