Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library

by Amanda Oliver

Overview

"One part love letter, one part eulogy, Overdue tells the story of America’s public library system . . . Amanda Oliver proves herself a vibrant new literary voice . . . This is a book for all book lovers.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

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 in libraries since they were founded: racism, segregation, and class inequalities. These age-old problems have evolved into police violence, the opioid epidemic, rampant houselessness, and lack of mental health care nationwide—all of which come to a head in public library spaces.
 
Can public librarians continue to play the many roles they are tasked with? Can American society sustain one of its most noble institutions?

Pushing against hundreds of years of stereotypes, romanticization, and discomfort with a call to reckoning, Overdue will change the way you think about libraries forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641605311
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Amanda Oliver is a writer and former librarian. Her writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Electric Literature, Medium, and The Rumpus. She has been interviewed about libraries and being a librarian for NPR, CBC Radio, Associated Press, and American Libraries Magazine. Oliver is a graduate of the MLS program at SUNY Buffalo and the MFA program at UC Riverside. A Buffalo, New York, native, she now lives and writes in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Part I Becoming

1 Northwest One 3

2 Omnium lux civium 13

3 So, What Do You Do? 31

4 The Library from "L" 55

Part II Empathy

5 Can You Help Me? 77

6 Cold Mercy 89

7 For Whom 99

8 Burning Out 116

Part III Reckoning

9 An Education 129

10 Libraries Will (Not) Save Us 139

11 Multiphrenia 158

12 The Future of the American Public Library 177

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Index 203

Editorial Reviews

"Amanda Oliver’s harrowing and moving tale is, among other things, an indictment of our country’s grotesquely inadequate social services. She demolishes whatever stereotypes we might carry of librarians and libraries." —Tom Lutz, award-winning author of The Kindness of Strangers

"Overdue paints a vivid and meticulously researched picture of American public libraries: not as utopias exempt from the inequality and violence in our country, but as real places that too often bear the brunt of them. Both a deeply personal cry of frustration and a boldly argued rallying cry, this book will change the way you think about libraries. It will, in all the best ways, make you want to fight: not just for more equitable libraries, but for a more equitable world." —Claire Comstock-Gay, author of Madame Clairvoyant's Guide to the Stars

“One part love letter, one part eulogy, Overdue tells the story of America’s public library system through the eyes of a young, idealistic librarian who has experienced both the best and worst of it. Amanda Oliver proves herself a vibrant new literary voice as she weaves her own deeply personal account with an unblinking look what the library was meant to be, and what it has become. This is a book for all book lovers.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth 

From the Publisher