I'm in the throes of finals, so I haven't had much time for pleasure reading, but when I found This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, I knew I had to make time to read it.
This book is confirming that I made a superb life decision in pursuing my masters in library and information science. The books details one fantastic story of librarianship in the digital age per chapter--librarians who protected patron privacy records when the FBI tried to access them, librarians who teach activists in developing countries how to use web technologies to aid their activist efforts, and librarians who took to the blogosphere to expand library resources outside the library and even vent their (occasionally hilarious) professional woes.
Some people love to lament the "end of libraries" because they falsely believe Google can replace the library. While I could write a multi-thousand word post on why this simply isn't the case, this book explains it better than I do. Every chapter features librarians who are using the internet and technology to accomplish community services that Google alone can never do. Librarians are reliant on technology--not in conflict with it.
As the lovingly witty Steven Fry puts it, "One technology doesn't replace another, it complements. Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators." And, believe me, libraries are no more threatened by Google than those stairs are by elevators. But don't take my word for it--take Marilyn Johnson's.
