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May 2, 2011 09:54 am PDT
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ymCF6Q7Hzg0/love-letter-to-the-l.html
Love-letter to the library
Bella Bathurst's "The secret life of libraries" for The Observer is a sweet and hilarious tribute to libraries and the unflappable vocation of librarianship: There are other uses for libraries. In Marylebone they take a lenient view of sleepers. "As long as they're vertical, it's all right," says Nicky Smith, senior librarian. "If they're horizontal or snoring, then we wake them up. Mind you," she adds cheerily, "we were always told to wake people well before closing time, because if they turn out to be dead, then you won't get home before midnight." Marylebone has particular cause to be vigilant; it has the unusual distinction of being one of the few libraries in Britain where someone has actually died. Edgar Lustgarten was well known as a TV personality during the 50s and 60s. He presented an early version of Crimewatch, talking the viewers through the topical murder- mysteries of the day. On 15 December 1978, he went to the library as usual and was found some time later, dead at his desk. What had he been doing? "Reading the Spectator." Worksop has a resident book-eater. "We kept noticing that pages had been ripped from some of the books," says Peter Collins. "Not whole pages, just little bits. It would always be done really neatly, just the tops of the pages. And then we'd see these little pellets everywhere, little balls of chewed paper cropping up in different parts of the library. Eventually we figured out who it must be. None of us wanted to say we'd noticed him munching away at the books, so I approached him and said something like I'd noticed 'tearing' on some volumes. He said he didn't know anything about it, but we've never seen him back." The secret life of libraries (via O'Reilly Radar)...
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ymCF6Q7Hzg0/love-letter-to-the-l.html
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