Who are libraries for, how have they evolved, and why do they fill so many roles in our society today? Based on firsthand experiences from six years of professional work as a librarian in high-poverty neighborhoods of Washington, DC, as well as interviews and research, Overdue begins with Oliver's first day at an "unusual" branch: Northwest One. Using her experience at this branch allows Oliver to highlight the national problems that have existed...

When Lula Dean, trying to rid public libraries of "pornographic" books, starts her own lending library in front of her home, Lindsay, the daughter of Lula's arch nemesis, sneaks in nightly, secretly filling it with banned books wrapped in "wholesome" dust jackets, changing the lives of those who borrow them in unexpected ways.

Emphasizing the importance of having collection development policies in place to deal with challenges, Pinnell-Stephens (the Office of Intellectual Freedom) provides guidance on policies related to areas such as access to library resources (including the Internet), exhibits and programs, privacy and confidentiality, and library management. The guide includes case studies, focus boxes, court case analysis and interpretation, and sample policies. About...

A humorist and honest look at a life in public service. 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...

When Littletown Library is destroyed by a tornado, it seems like book-loving Nia is the only one who cares; so she starts the "new free library" under the tree where she used to read, and writes out familiar stories and rhymes that are just a little bit wrong, and encourages the people who check them out to correct them--until soon the whole of Littletown is filled with people reading and writing books.

"Every Saturday at noon precisely, the T. Middleton Nightingale City Library is transformed, and today Kelly, one of the library pages, arrives just in time to find herself inside the Labyrinth, confronting the Minotaur with Princess Ariadne; her fellow pages are nowhere in sight--and defeating the Minotaur is only the beginning, because other monsters of Greek mythology are also roaming the confusing corridors, and there seems to be no way out of...

Something is stealing machine parts from all over Stermont, including a wrecking ball from a local construction site, and Alexander and his fellow monster hunters, Rip, and Nikki, fear that it is building a Stermont-smashing machine--so the friends must use the resources of the summer maker program at the library to stop this monster, and perhaps even solve the mystery of who is leaving monster trading cards where the Super Secret Monster Patrol can...

Emily decides that the town of Pitchfork needs a library, and comes up with a plan to make it happen. Can she make her dream come true?