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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Paperback – January 25, 2011

by Marilyn Johnson (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 119 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper, disks, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make way for the librarians—they can help!

Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that, in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us—expert and hopelessly baffled alike—can get along without human help. And not just any help: we need librarians, the only ones who can save us from being buried by the digital age. This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals—from the blunt and obscenely funny bloggers to the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI. These are the pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.

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  1. Print length
    282 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    January 25, 2011
  4. Dimensions
    8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    9780061431616
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0061431616
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Johnson does for the library profession what Malcolm Gladwell did for the theory of memetics in The Tipping Point.” — Nora Rawlinson, The Tipping Point

“This is a book for readers who know that words can be wild and dangerous, that uncensored access to information is a right and a privilege, and that the attempt to ‘catalog the world in all its complexity’ is heroic beyond compare.” — O, The Oprah Magazine

“Johnson has made her way to the secret underbelly of librarianship, and the result is both amazing and delightful. Savvy, brave, hip, brilliant, these are not your childhood librarians. And who better to tell their stories than the sly, wise Marilyn Johnson.” — Mary Roach, author of Bonk

“Marilyn Johnsons’s marvelous book about the vital importance of librarians in the cyber age is the very opposite of a ‘Shhhhh!’ It’s a very loud ‘Hooray!’ ever so timely and altogether deserved. Move over, Google--make way for the indispensable and all-knowing lady behind the desk.” — Christopher Buckley, author of Losing Mum and Pup

“To those who have imagined a dalliance with a librarian--and there are millions of us--Marilyn Johnson’s new book, chocked as it is full of strange, compelling stories, offers insight into the wildness behind the orderly facade of the humans who are at the controls of our information.” — Pete Dexter, author of Paris Trout and Spooner

“Topical, witty.... Johnson’s wry report is a must-read for anyone who’s used a library in the past quarter century.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Marilyn Johnson is a former editor and writer for Life, Esquire, and Outside magazines, and lives with her husband, Rob Fleder, in New York's Hudson Valley.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061431613
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (January 25, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 282 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061431616
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061431616
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 119 ratings

About the author

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Marilyn Johnson

Marilyn Johnson

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Marilyn Johnson is the author of three books: Lives in Ruins, about contemporary archaeologists, This Book Is Overdue! about librarians and archivists in the digital age, and The Dead Beat, about the art of obituaries and obituary writers. Lives in Ruins was on PW's list of Best Books of 2014 and Amazon's Best 100 Books (Print). The Dead Beat was chosen for the Borders Original Voice program and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award. Johnson is a former editor at Esquire and Outside magazines, and a former staff writer for Life. She lives with her husband in New York's Hudson Valley.

Visit her website at http://www.marilynjohnson.net.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
119 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lisa3moon
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is inspiring!!
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2010
Verified Purchase
I'm trying a second review here. Not sure why the first review didn't appear, so pardon any repetition. I got this book in February, and I've been reading it, telling people about it and quoting it ever since. Marilyn Johnson is not a librarian, but this book proves her love for librarians. She is a journalist who learned about librarians doing research for her first book, The Dead Beat. I'm a school library media specialist, but this book spoke to me just as it has spoken to people who are NOT librarians. Johnson shows us to be creative, interesting and innovative; and this is all while we are completely misunderstood and under-appreciated. The book is full of humor (you must read the Real Poop, and it happens!), inspiring descriptions that have seasoned librarians ready to learn more, and insight into WHY humans will always need effective librarianship. While Johnson writes from the perspective of public librarians, there a jewels in her book for all librarians. I would like to quote and paraphrase from the chapter Gotham City. A researcher happily receives his obscure volumes from the librarian on duty and says "You have to wonder who they bought these for." The librarian smiles and says "We bought them for you." As a school library media specialist I could ask "Why did you write this book Marilyn Johnson?" I'm telling you readers... "She wrote it for US!!"
4 people found this helpful
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Patti L
5.0 out of 5 stars Daughter wanted this book and loves it!
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2013
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My daughter is getting her degree in Library and Information Services and thinks this book is wonderful. I purchased it as a Christmas present for her.
2 people found this helpful
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Karl Janssen
3.0 out of 5 stars Dances frivolously around its subject
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2015
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I’m currently working toward an MLS degree in the hopes of becoming a librarian. When I found out about Marilyn Johnson’s 2011 book, This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, I was excited to read it. I was hoping it would provide a behind-the-scenes look at the profession and some serious examination of the issues facing librarians today. The subtitle implies that the book will cover some of the important work being done by librarians and information professionals, while perhaps also indulging in some welcome boosterism for an often underappreciated profession. While Johnson is an avid cheerleader for libraries and approaches her subject with enthusiasm, overall I was disappointed with her take on librarianship.

There is a long-standing stereotype of librarians as frumpy nerds, and Johnson is hell-bent on dispelling that erroneous notion. Unfortunately, her way of going about this is to devote an inordinate amount of words to the physical appearance and social lives of librarians, trying to convince us that they’re cool. They have tattoos! And mod retro haircuts! They wear sexy clothes and cat’s-eye glasses! They throw wild theme parties and eat funky food and let their freak flags fly! What it all adds up to is an annoying and distracting catalog of quirks. In an interminably long chapter on the social network Second Life, Johnson lovingly describes the hairdo and accessories of each and every avatar, yet fails to convince the reader that anything of value or of use is taking place in this virtual world. Another chapter on librarian bloggers makes these professionals sound like a bunch of petty, feuding high schoolers. Librarians aren’t nerds; we get it already. What’s really cool about librarians is the important work that they do, and often while reading Johnson’s book you wonder if these hip librarians are getting anything done at all.

When she does focus on the work, the results are mixed. A chapter about a library system undergoing a software migration, for example, is about as exciting as it sounds. Thankfully, there are some bright points. In Chapter 5, she interviews the Connecticut Four, a group of librarians who refused to release patron borrowing records to the federal government, in knowing violation of the USA PATRIOT Act. Chapter 6 covers a program by librarians at St. John’s University to train their counterparts from third world countries. These chapters were both pretty good, but it wasn’t really until Chapters 10 and 11 (out of 12) that I felt like I was getting the book I had hoped for. In Chapter 10 she delves into the backstage workings of the New York Public Library and weighs the pros and cons of recent changes they’ve made in their organization and practices. Chapter 11 examines the profession of archivism. With so much information, what’s worth preserving, who’s going to preserve it, and how does it get preserved? These two chapters quite thoughtfully investigate the kinds of real-life issues and problems that librarians are faced with every day.

Despite my complaints, I’m glad Johnson wrote this book because the general public needs to know more about what exactly librarians do. I wonder, though, how many nonlibrarians will read it. Professional librarians will enjoy Johnson’s positive take on their field, but won’t gain much new information from it. The ideal audience seems to be wannabe librarians like me. Johnson’s latest book, Lives in Ruins, tackles another fascinating subject, archaeology. I was looking forward to diving into that one, but after reading This Book is Overdue! I’m now worried it’ll just be a book about a bunch of hip, quirky nonconformists who only happen to be archaeologists.
11 people found this helpful
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Nomad Reader
4.0 out of 5 stars An outsider's humorous, honest take on librarians & the future of libraries
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2010
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I'm a librarian, so I am predisposed to enjoy books about libraries and enamored with books about librarians.

What I didn't know when I started this book, but perhaps should have inferred from the book's title (This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All) is the author, Marilyn Johnson, is not a librarian. The book isn't necessarily aimed at librarians, although I think there are things all librarians, readers and citizens could learn from this book. Ms. Johnson's first book is about obituaries, and she discovered librarians had absolutely fascinating obituaries and focused her next book on us. Awesome, yes?

Each chapter has a different topic. Some were more interesting to me than others, and although she explores many aspects of librarianship, especially in the modern and changing sense, it's not a comprehensive book (nor is it supposed to be.) It was so refreshing to have a non-librarian not only defend the profession but praise it. It's also honest. Librarians aren't saints, and Johnson points out some our individual and collective short comings.

If you like books, technology or organizational models at all, you will like this book. It's a fun, informative, and fascinating read. As a librarian, it was delightful to see an outsider take an honest look at the profession. As a reader, it was a delight to read Ms. Johnson's beautiful, descriptive language.
12 people found this helpful
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Helen Athey
5.0 out of 5 stars Lot of Fun; Unexpected Aspects of Librarianship Exposed
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2013
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I haven't finished reading this, but so far, so fun.much. Different aspects of--and opportunities for--cybrarianship have been eye-opening. I will take this along the next time I'm riding transit.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ms. L. A. MacNeil
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating information about the importance of Librarians and their activism
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2020
Verified Purchase
I loved this book! It was inspiring, informative, witty and engagingly written.
It focuses primarily on librarians in America but raises universally relevant points. Librarians are illustrated as being essential to information literacy, data protection rights and access to knowledge. Many interesting and entertaining examples/case studies are given and it's a wittily written and engaging read.
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Simon Duplessis
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2014
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It's a good book to learn what the job of librarian is. I have learned a lof ot interesting things. It's a must !
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Mr. Sj Homer
4.0 out of 5 stars give librarians some love
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2014
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Librarians are ace! They are the enablers in the information world. Go use one to see for yourself. They rock!
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