November 20, 2018
Watching Her Library Burn
What is it about libraries that are so emotional? Susan Orlean asked this question during her recent appearance at Cleveland Public Library, and it’s one I’ve continued to ponder since. […]
July 5, 2018
Kondo-ing My Books, Part I: Empty Shelves
Let’s skip over the fact that I actually read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, something my former self never anticipated, and let’s also move past just how […]
November 25, 2015
Poison Gas and the Origins of Data Preservation
“After reading [an] account of the astonishing possibilities of only one small branch of the 170,000 known families of insects, I began to wonder if there might not be some […]
July 15, 2013
Confessions of a Book Killer
Last Wednesday, I killed a book. I doubt anyone will miss it–Microphotography for Libraries: Papers presented to the Microphotography Symposium at the 1936 Conference of the American Library Association. Bound […]
May 21, 2010
Summer Reading Stack
When I was a kid, I knew summer vacation had truly begun when my mom piled us into the fake-wood-paneled station wagon and drove us to the local library. I’d […]