Small-town Michigan librarian "Ann Miketa" wrote a book about the batshit-crazy patrons she encountered at her job all day, called Library Diaries, and was promptly fired, reports the Chicago Tribune. But think for a minute how weird library patrons really are: these people obviously have nothing to do and nowhere to…

There's a huge exhibit at the New York Public Library right now called "The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue," dedicated to the greatest examples of advertising ever. Funny that the public library is one of the few public spaces left that hasn't sold all its wall space to advertisers (we think-haven't been in a…

As someone who spends about 30 hours a week in the Brooklyn Public Library, I can say this: post-puberty, libraries are a weird scene. At the BK PL, I'm surrounded by the semi-homeless, the pseudo-studious and the fully religious. But over in England, it's a different situation. The British culture minister Margaret…

Queens libraries have spent years lending "books" to risky borrowers at adjustable rates (from "free" to 25 cents a day!), and now that's coming back to haunt them. With literally millions of dollars lent out without hope of recovery, they are turning now to collections agencies to force their unreliable credit risks…