Overdue

Reckoning with the Public Library

Amanda Oliver

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Paperback

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English

Chicago Review Press
10 October 2024

Biography: general; Library & information services; Social classes

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,Overduebegins 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 whichcome to a head inpublic 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, romanticisation, and discomfort with a call to reckoning,Overduewill change the way you think about libraries forever.

'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

By: Amanda Oliver
Imprint: Chicago Review Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 471g
ISBN: 9781641609210
ISBN 10: 1641609214
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 10 October 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents Dedication Author’s Note/Foreword ? Epigraph Part I: Becoming 1 The Incident 2 Omnium Lux Civium 3 Becoming A Librarian 4 So, what do you do? Part II: Empathy 5 The Library From ‘L’ 6 Can You Help Me? 7 For Whom 8 Burning Out Part III: Reckoning 9 An Education 10 Libraries Will (Not) Save Us 11 Multiphrenia 12 The Nearest Wound: The Future of the American Public Library Acknowledgements Index

Amanda Oliver is a writer and former librarian. Her writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Times,Vox,Electric Literature, Medium, andThe 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.

Reviews for Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library

""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 ""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 ""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