It’s a book that couldn’t have come at a better time. Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue is giving the media an opportunity to take a new look at libraries.

Thursday’s USA Today publishes a photo of a Carroll County (MD) librarian setting up for a Rock Band 2 video game session as part of a story about the book. Johnson explains that libraries are crucial to everyone in the current climate, “The middle class is squeezed and needs libraries more, information is multiplying at an alarming rate so we need librarians more, and the jobless are streaming to libraries in droves.”

Carroll County library director Lynn Wheeler adds, “The demand for technology access and the teaching role for librarians will only continue to grow.”

The public is showing strong interest in the book; it rose to #130 on Amazon this week, putting it ahead of some titles on the NYT best seller lists, such as The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova and Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. Holds are heavy in many libraries; as high as 89 on 7 copies in one large library system.

Publisher HarperCollins has created a “Browse Inside” widget that librarians can add to their sites:

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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

Audio: Tantor; 2/22/10
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 8:15 am and is filed under Libraries in the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.