Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian [Hardcover]

Scott Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2008

For most of us, librarians are the quiet people behind the desk, who, apart from the occasional “shush,” vanish into the background. But in Quiet, Please, McSweeney’s contributor Scott Douglas puts the quirky caretakers of our literature front and center. With a keen eye for the absurd and a Kesey-esque cast of characters (witness the librarian who is sure Thomas Pynchon is Julia Roberts’s latest flame), Douglas takes us where few readers have gone before. Punctuated by his own highly subjective research into library history-from Andrew Carnegie’s Gilded Age to today’s Afghanistan-Douglas gives us a surprising (and sometimes hilarious) look at the lives which make up the social institution that is his library.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McSweeney's contributor Douglas was a college student who liked books and needed a job, so he became a page in a "run-down" Anaheim public library. He soon discovered the "dark truth about librarians"-that they don't actually read much. Still, lacking better career plans, he accepted a state grant to get a degree in library science. The more he got to know his local branch, the more it felt like "watching a soap"; the staff was "like a family." When he's not repeating petty tales of staff infighting, Douglas focuses on four types of library users: teens, homeless people, crazy people and the elderly. According to him, most of them smell, all but the elderly make too much noise, and they all, in defiance of library rules, try to access pornography on the internet. After retelling a story of someone masturbating at the computer, or of nefarious activities in the public restroom, the author is quick to follow up with proud words about being a non-discriminatory public servant; his pieties wear thin after awhile. Early on, when Douglas realizes he's a librarian because he loves helping people he's quite likeable, but when his stories become prurient, it's a turn-off.
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From Booklist

Douglas launched his career as a page in a library branch, and never wholly losing his enthusiasm, he persevered, got an education, and now works as a librarian at Southern California’s Anaheim Public Library. For several years, he has been documenting his experiences on McSweeney’s Web site, giving vent to all the hopes, fears, everyday joys, and constant frustrations of daily life in a public library branch. Patrons with all their foibles take on recognizable form, from rowdy, sometimes threatening teens to an elderly patron demanding the Oxford English Dictionary on audiotape. Douglas casts a jaundiced eye on library administrators, but he does clear away stereotypes about public-service librarians and affirms their worth. Hardly a systematic treatise on public librarianship and limited by the very format of a blog (and its ineluctable narcissism), Douglas’ memoir nevertheless offers unique and utterly engaging insights, valuable for public librarians, managers, and trustees. --Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; First Edition edition (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786720913
• ISBN-13: 978-0786720910
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book with Heart and Soul, April 11, 2008

By 

Karleen Curlee "karleen39" (Fullerton, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian (Hardcover)

While Quiet, Please does an excellent job of describing the ins and outs of library life, the best part about it is that it provides an opportunity to just simply listen to the author's voice - his perspectives on what the library's relationship should be with the public, how the librarian should fulfill that responsibility, how libraries could improve. Heavy messages such as these could drag the reader down, but the author is one step ahead in thought by providing many incredibly funny anecdotes to lighten the book up and keep the reader engaged. It's the kind heart, the humanity, though, that permeates Quiet, Please and makes the book so worth reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent (but fun) look at the life of librarians, July 3, 2008

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian (Hardcover)

Let me state upfront that the reason I picked up this book is that I myself am a library-addict, and I have no shame in admitting as such. I visit my local public library branch (in Blue Ash, a suburb of Cincinnati) at least once a week, usually more than that. So when I saw this book, I immediately picked it up.

In "Quite, Please--Dispatches From a Public Librarian" (330 pages), author Scott Douglas brings the irreverent but very tongue-in-cheek and fun look on how he became involved working at a public library (in Anaheim, CA), eventually getting a Masters Degree in Library Sciences from San Jose Sate, and working his way up the ladder. His observations are astute. "What I quickly learned was the dark truth about librarians: they simply do not have the time to read", haha! The author understands quickly that the library is more than about books, it is a center point for the community. He describes in great, and often hilarious, details how to deal with teenage kids hanging out after school hours until they get picked up by a parent, seniors, and homeless people, all of whom see the library as much more than just a place to get a book or go on the internet. Along the way, the author brings fascinating tidbits of the history of libraries, including how Germany destroyed the main library of the Catholic University of Louvain (where I went to university, before migrating to the US) not once, but twice, in both WWI and WWII ( it was rebuilt each time and I spent many an hour there in my college days).

In all, "Quite, Please" is a terrific read from start to finish. At one point, when the author feels he needs to work on his physical appearance and starts working out, he dryly writes "I stopped after three days. I concluded that librarians just weren't made to be tough. They were made to shelve books, and you don't need a lot of muscle for that", haha! Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in libraries.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The library book I was waiting for!, March 14, 2008

By 

Superbug Safety "Full-Throttle Metabolism" (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian (Hardcover)

Ah, the library. Some people think of it as a nice, safe haven for some quiet studying, and others know the truth: that more often than not it is a dumping ground for bratty children, obnoxious teenagers, cranky adults, and everything else in-between. By now people know about some of the admittedly nutty folks who go to the library everyday, but what about the nutty people who actually work there? What I liked about this book is that it not only gives you stories about some of the weirdos who come into the library all the time, but it also focuses on the staff, the bizarre rules and regulations of the library, and the idiotic process of obtaining a Masters Degree in library science so that you can make a decent salary by sleeping at the reference desk and having your life threatened by ornery computer users. This is a great book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who's interested in knowing how a public library is actually run. Popcorn machines inside the library, rats in the break room, bribing children to read with promises of free burgers, librarians who don't read (and recommend books that they haven't read), old ladies who physically abuse the staff, and yes, even a one-chapter love story. It's all here.

Another nice touch is the overuse of footnotes, which some people will definitely find irritating, and various trivia about library history. There are also some bits from Douglas' McSweeney's dispatches, which will be familiar to those who've read them before and a nice introduction for those who haven't. Best of all, for me at least, is reading how an optimistic book-lover grows increasingly disappointed and apathetic about his job. The ridiculousness of policy and expectations of a demanding public take their toll, but there is always a sliver of optimism throughout the book, which was more than I expected.