the loveliest librarian

That was one of the delightful things about her job. It brought her in touch with so many people, all—or almost all—of whom made her not only feel welcome but that she was doing something really worthwhile.

She gave a little sigh of pleasure as she unlocked the library door. She loved working here and she loved the work itself. [p. 8]

Title: Jan Marlowe, Hospital Librarian
Creator: Malcolm, Margaret
Publisher: Harlequin Books (Firm)
Date Issued: 1976
Date Copyrighted: 1960
Type: Text

“Did you take the library job?” he asked, giving her small hand a quick squeeze. “Or did old lady Bender scare you off?”

Jinny looked up at him and said lightly, “That’s my new boss you’re talking about. I took the job, and I know I’ll like it. I won’t regret it.”

Joe’s mouth tightened. “I hope not,” he said. “Just remember that when you want to go somewhere some Saturday night and have to work.

He just doesn’t understand, she thought sadly. He can’t grasp how I feel about books and the library, and the hush and marvel of it…everything in the world you want to know, right there between covers! All the wonderful thoughts and beautiful deeds. The old books with their dark covers and thin paper, and the new ones with their bright dust jackets. The people who simply must read all the new books, and the determined old people like Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Boyce, who are catching up and reading all the classics they promised themselves they’d read someday, when they found the time. Why can’t I make him see? Why does he see things only in terms of practicality? [p. 18-19]

Title: Jinny Williams, Library Assistant
Creator: Temkin, Sara A.
Creator: Hovell, Lucy A.
Publisher: J. Messner
Date: 1962
Type: Text

Book in hand, she stooped to the lower shelf, only a couple of inches from the floor. “Darn!” she muttered, rising quickly. “There goes a perfectly bran’-new stocking!”

“Yeah,” Vicky said grimly, “this is no job for hosiery. I’d go bare-legged if the Chief would let me; which he won’t. Do you wear garters?”

Una, ruefully examining the extent of her disaster, said, “Yes.”

“Your socks stand a better chance if they’re rolled. I have some darning silk in my locker; I’d better go down with you. Walk stiff-legged: don’t bend your knee.”

Giggling, they slipped down the stairway, almost colliding at the foot with a tall youth who was ascending with an armload of books. He stepped aside to let them pass, then went on up with his head in the air.

“Who’s he?” Una asked.

“Ross Ashcomb, one of Us. The Boy Page. He really does a lot of other things, too, but page is his official rank. He works in the reference department and despises girls and ignorance.” [p. 26]

Title: Bright Heritage
Creator: Provines, Mary Virginia
Publisher: Longmans, Green
Date: 1939
Type: Text

Amy had felt that way from the morning twelve years before when, her face tear-streaked, she had wandered into the warmth of the library. It was a bitter, snowy day. The library was deserted. Miss Adamson, pudgy and white-haired even then, had taken the miserable little girl back into the workroom and listened as Amy poured out her tale of woe. She had been punished by her aunt for reading instead of doing her chores. Her cousins teased her because she didn’t like playing their wild, boisterous games, and she had at last decided to run away. Miss Adamson had washed her visitor’s tear-stained face, fed her part of her lunch, gave her a copy of Charlotte’s Web to read, and finally asked Amy if she would like to help her here in the library.

Amy had been speechless with joy at the offer, and forgetting about running away, had almost happily gone back to the house on Bent Street. She couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful than spending her time in the peace and quiet of the library, seeing all the new books before anyone else, even perhaps being allowed to peek occasionally between the fascinating, forbidden covers in the adult section. Twelve years later, with a library degree finally triumphantly achieved, Amy hadn’t changed her mind. She still couldn’t imagine ever wanting to work anywhere except in a library. [p. 5-6]

Title: Librarian With Wings
Creator: Thum, Marcella
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Date: 1967
Type: Text

“A lot of people,” he went on, “have quite the wrong idea about librarians. They think of them as glorified shop assistants. But there’s much more to it than that. There’s a great deal of work behind the scenes which the public doesn’t see, and a librarian has to be a very knowledgeable person.”

“Does one have to take examinations?” asked Deborah.

“Yes indeed. And there are certain qualifications necessary before you enter for the Library Association Examinations. What’s more, you won’t get a good post unless you pass them. To begin with, you must have your G.C.E. with five passes at ordinary level, one of these being in English Language. Later on you will have to show a certificate in a modern foreign language, so it will be useful if you have already got that too.”

Deborah was thankful to realize that she was suitably qualified. But she was growing a little uneasy. The interview was going to take longer than she’d though, and she was petrified she’d miss her appointment at the hairdresser’s. Tonight was the Old Boys’ Dance at Cranworth Grammar School and Nicholas was taking her. Michael would probably be there, too, and she wanted to look her best. [p. 8-9]

Title: A Library Life for Deborah
Creator: Owens, Joan Llewelyn
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Date: 1957
Type: Text

She was proud of her work. Her father, now dead, had been a full Professor of Literature at Caldwell, the local college, and Kathy had grown up surrounded by books. It had seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to go east, to Columbia, after leaving Caldwell with a Bachelor of Arts, and to take a degree in Library Science. And how much she had learned! In the beginning, like so many other people, a “librarian” had meant simply the attendant behind the desk in a reading room. Only gradually had she come to know of the enormously varied duties and opportunities in library work, and of the rewards, other than money.

In the Rutherford Library the professional librarians, at least those working with the public, usually wore neat blue smocks. So the blue smock, for Kathy, had become a symbol; a symbol of service to that great portion of humanity which struggled to lift itself from the mire of ignorance through reading.

It was a thought she kept to herself lest she be laughed at and chided for girlish enthusiasm. To many librarians, as to people in all walks of life, their work was simply a chore by which they earned a living. Not so with Kathy. [p. 98-99]

Title: The Blue Smock
Creator: Sayle, Helen
Publisher: Arcadia House
Date: 1958
Type: Text

“I’ve been thinking about being a librarian. I’ve even been reading up on it. Did you know that there are librarians in these United States who make eighteen thousand dollars a year?”

Don whistled. “I always listed them with teachers and preachers as the downtrodden of the earth, so far as salary was concerned.”

“I don’t mean that many of them make money like that. I suppose the Library of Congress pays its head man that, and maybe the library in New York and the big ones like that. But all the big library heads, like our Mr. Settle, make around ten thousand a year. I think that’s what he makes.”

“So you think you’d like being head of a big library?” Don asked, more to keep the conversational ball rolling than that he really cared.

“No, I don’t,” Kitsy protested. “I doubt if they’d give a job like that to a woman, unless she was a hundred years old and as efficient as the mischief. I thought maybe a school librarian. Maybe in a public school. A lot of them make five thousand. And then I’d be teaching, too.” [p. 187]

Title: Kitsy Babcock, Library Assistant
Creator: Sargent, Joan, 1905-
Publisher: Avalon Books
Date: 1958
Type: Text

“The trouble is we seem to get all the clottish borrowers in on Friday evenings,” said Mrs. Potter. “Or perhaps it’s just that I notice them more and have less patience with them when the place is crowded.”

“I think I remember most of the tricks,” said Molly. “I’ll be on the look-out for them.”

There was certainly quite a number of lazy borrowers who tried by various dodges to get Molly to choose their books to save them the trouble of thinking. She found it wasn’t easy, in the rush, to distinguish them from borrowers who genuinely and justifiably needed help and advice, or who really had forgotten their spectacles and were not just pretending they had. There was the usual number of queue-jumpers; a few uncivil borrowers and a good scattering of children who had been sent to fetch books for parents, relatives and neighbours. There were also, of course, the inevitable few who had lost their tickets. Molly mustered her tact cheerfulness and patience to deal with these, but lost all patience with a man who, on leaving the library and being asked to produce his borrower’s ticket, declared that Molly had not given it to him when he came in. Molly distinctly remembered doing so and refused to let him take out a book until he had searched all his pockets. This procedure yielded no ticket, and neither did a quick search of floor, shelves and counter. The man was adamant and rude. Molly grew furious. Then, suddenly, her memory clicked back to a similar incident two years previously.

“Your hat!” she said.

The man looked at her as though she had taken leave of her senses.

“Did you, by any chance, stick the ticket in your hat?” she asked, pointing to the trilby which he held in his hand.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” said the man, holding up his hat.

“You did! Look!” said Molly triumphantly. There indeed, tucked securely into the ribbon band, was the missing ticket.

With a curt “good-night” the man handed over the ticket and stalked out of the building. Molly laughed and, oddly enough, after that felt much more cheerful and in command of the situation. [p. 120-121]

Title: Molly Qualifies as a Librarian
Creator: Lonsdale, Bertha
Publisher: Bodley Head
Date: 1957
Type: Text

Caroline MacWilliams would certainly not have been Lysander Bayard’s idea of a suitable young lady librarian. She was much too attractive, to begin with. Father would have disapproved in no uncertain terms of the discreet touch of make-up that enhanced her large hazel eyes. He would have objected to the coral-pink lipstick that contrasted so delightfully with the healthy tan of her clear skin.

He would have frowned on the jaunty white straw cap that perched on her short-cropped brown hair. He would certainly have gasped in Victorian outrage at the scantiness of her cherry-colored skirt, showing legs that never belonged behind that golden-oak service desk. He would have thought her red-and-navy shoes not at all sensible in spite of their low heels, and her matching handbag much too smart.

Yet Miss Bayard found that all the things here father would have disapproved of added up to a most appealing whole. Caroline’s brand-new diploma in library science was convincing, her letters of recommendation reassuring, and her warm smile completely irresistible. Two minutes later, the Bayard Library had a new assistant librarian. [p. 15-16]

Title: Headlines for Caroline
Creator: Hughes, Matilda, 1922-
Publisher: Bouregy
Date: 1967
Type: Text

The door was closed but Isabel could see through the glass that a light was on. She started to knock and then hesitated. Was it a good idea to disturb Miss Roberts before the library officially opened? Yet if she waited all the vacancies might be filled, and this year she wanted so much to be a librarian’s assistant. She didn’t know why for sure except that it would give her more time to be in those magic surroundings. She could never explain to herself why the library affected her the way it did. There were the great rows and rows of volumes, the colors muted and blended until they seemed to be more than just a collection of books. They assumed personalities all their own, like great people she might want to know and be with, hoping that some of the elements which caused the greatness might permeate the atmosphere and enter her own body by osmosis. Whatever the cause, the fact remained that Isabel felt herself a better person, a more inspired student when she was in the library. More than that she felt an uplift to her ambitions and her purpose in life, whatever that might turn out to be, that made it worth while for her to be there even if she did not so much as open a book. [p. 8]

Title: Calling for Isabel
Creator: Jeffries, Virginia Murrill
Publisher: Longmans, Green
Date: 1951
Type: Text

Isabel was looking about the place, realizing that she had never been inside it before. It was really a delightful little building, with large pleasant windows, a fireplace and mantel at one end, and book shelves around the walls.

Georgia was looking about also. “Where’s the reading room?” she asked. “And the stacks.”

“Reading room!” said Mrs. Hopkinson. “Thank fortune there isn’t any. Folks have to take their books home to read, which is as it should be. And what did you say about stacks? You mean smokestacks? There’s a chimney,” waving her hand toward the fireplace. “But smokestacks go with railroad engines, not with libraries, I guess you’re a little mixed.”

Georgia accepted this rebuff meekly, but tried another question.

“Is there a card catalog?”

“We don’t need one. There the books are, on the shelves, and folks have eyes, don’t they?” Mrs. Hopkinson was getting ruffled. [p. 64-65]

Title: Turn in the Road
Creator: Dickson, Marguerite Stockman
Publisher: Thomas Nelson & Sons
Date: 1949
Type: Text

“I just got a call that our regular driver had a slight accident on the way to work. There’s a broken leg to contend with and during the summer months our staff rotates so, because of vacations, we just don’t have a spare driver. I wondered if Cynthia here could fill in.” He turned toward her. “What about it? Think you’d like to try?”

The girl was doubtful. “I’m willing to do anything you think I’m capable of, but I really don’t know too much about Bookmobiles, or the route or anything like that.”

“No difficulty there. We can give you a list of stops and the times for each. You’re certainly familiar with the area around here. Come on and let me show you how the unit operates.”

They went through the connecting door, Cynthia casting a bewildered look behind her at Miss Adams. The Bookmobile was drawn up at the side door.

It was a trimly built vanlike conveyance. At the rear, the doors swung open to show a miniature room equipped with shelves already stocked with books, a tiny desk and racks clipped wherever a stray space presented itself.

“It’s darling! I had no idea you could get so much into such a small space.” [p. 82-83]

Title: The Girl on the Bookmobile
Creator: King, Natalie
Publisher: Avalon
Date: 1964
Type: Text

Their talk was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. Mr. Havelock excused himself as he lifted the receiver. Consternation showed in his face as he listened to the voice at the other end of the line.

“Oh no!” he exclaimed. “Do I understand you to say, Mrs. Archer, that Miss Withers won’t be able to run the Bookmobile, after all? I’m sorry, of course, that her mother is so ill. But that leaves you in quite a predicament, doesn’t it? You are trying to find someone to substitute for a few weeks, eh? What’s that? Miss Withers may not be able to take the job at all, because the doctor has ordered her to take her mother to Arizona as soon after the operation as she is able to travel? Dear me, Mrs. Archer! What will you do?”

He listened attentively for a moment or so. Then he said, “Yes, of course, I’ll be on the lookout for anyone who applies for a teaching job who might conceivably be able to run the Bookmobile for you, until you can find a permanent person. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Archer. Good luck!”

He turned from the telephone with a scowl. “Isn’t that just the way!” [p. 12-13]

Title: Nancy Runs the Bookmobile
Creator: Johnson, Enid, 1892-
Publisher: Messner
Date: 1956
Type: Text

Being a new girl, she realized that the odd jobs were to be hers. The staff members weren’t going out of their way to make her hustle; but it was natural that she should be the one to take care of the little jobs that no one else wanted to tackle, particularly if comfortably seated. She supposed that would be her lot of the summer. In a way her lethargy was so deep that she didn’t care. Being unmindful of it was the easiest way; if she let herself get annoyed she would rankle with the injustice of the whole setup. Miss Nichols was kind, but very busy; the staff members were so busy they could only be casual.

Title: With a High Heart
Creator: De Leeuw, Adèle, 1899-
Publisher: Macmillan
Date: 1945
Type: Text

Jean set off for the long bus trip across town. She felt very important starting off for her first day on her first job. She carried a book as usual, and her lunch just as she had when she left for school. In addition she had a lovely bouquet of Paul Scarlet roses she had picked from the garden to grace the library desk. She was sure everyone must know she was a children’s librarian on her way to work. She felt so much like it!

By chance she sat down beside a young man who was reading a book. Unconsciously she peeked over at the title with that irresistible impulse that bookish people cannot control. It was a Viking Pocket Edition of something, she could tell. She peeked again to get a better look, and saw that it was Rabelais he was reading. Feeling satisfied, now that she knew, she opened her own book, Ruth Sawyer’s Picture Tales from Spain. [p. 18-19]

Title: “Miss Library Lady”
Creator: Pfaender, Ann McLelland
Publisher: J. Messner
Date: 1954
Type: Text

The microfilm reader fascinated Anne. It had been so helpful in the libraries where she had worked the last two summers. But she had never before had the responsibility of a machine, as she did now. She arrived early on her second day and went to the metal cabinet beside the machine to study the films which the library had collected. It still seemed a miracle to her that the contents of a whole book, or a big issue of a newspaper, could be recorded on a small roll of film less than two inches wide. [p. 67]

Title: Anne Fuller, Librarian
Creator: Radford, Ruby Lorraine, b. 1891
Publisher: Avalon Books
Date: 1957
Type: Text

The next afternoon Torrey spent learning about a library. There seemed to be no end to the things she had to learn, details of filing and sorting and shelving. She had learned the principles behind these various processes at Library School, but ease of application would come only with practice. Also, each library had certain rules and arrangements of its own. These had been found to work at some time and had been carried along through the years because it would involve too much time and trouble to change them.

Torrey caught herself saying more than once, “We didn’t do it that way in Library School.” [p. 117]

Title: Bright Particular Star
Creator: Garthwaite, Marion
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Date: 1958
Type: Text

When Lois mentioned the reason for her trip to the library, Miss Randall surprised her by offering her a job as a part-time librarian.

“Just this morning at the quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees I was given permission to employ two part-time workers for my staff. I’ve been trying to convince them for a long time that we should not depend on volunteer help to run this library efficiently.”

“I don’t think I’m the librarian type,” protested Lois.

“Nonsense,” said Miss Randall. “There’s no such thing as a librarian type. There are as many varieties of librarians as there are varieties of teachers.”

“Perhaps,” conceded Lois. [p. 62]

Title: Lois Thornton, Librarian
Creator: Brady, Rita G.
Publisher: Abelard Schuman
Date: 1959
Type: Text

“Good-by, Jack. And thank you again for coming to see me off.” Sue smiled and blinked hard as she shook his hand with an extra squeeze. Saying good-by, even to Jack, was harder than she had thought it would be. She waved when he appeared on the station platform as the train slid slowly along the track. Now Sue was on her own, off to her first job.

By midmorning the train was rolling through open country, and Sue’s reading glasses lay abandoned in her lap, neglected as she realized that the book reviews she had ignored all summer would keep a little longer, while each clack of the wheels brought a new scene into view. Every now and then the trees displayed a bit of brilliance where the finger of frost had left swatches of the colors to be used later in the autumn display. Reluctantly Sue found intriguing the way the countryside was set off by the occasional green-and-white villages, each with its church at the head of the green, like a mother hen protecting her flock. She hoped this was the sort of country she’d be traveling through on her new job as bookmobile librarian, as long as he had to be working in the country.

Sue sighed. She was still disappointed that she hadn’t gotten the job at the Main Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. She had been so sure she would get it. Her pride still ached when she thought of the homeliest girl in the class enjoying that coveted position, even though Sue knew that grades, not looks, were the deciding factor. Sue wasn’t looking forward at all to hacking around in the frozen north. But at least it was a job, a temporary job. Sue bit her lip. Now that it was too late, she wished that she’d studied harder. She knew she could have been near the top of her class in library school if only she’d tried. Then she could have had her choice of jobs. [p. 8-9]

Title: Books and Beaux
Creator: Campbell, Rosemae Wells
Publisher: Westminster Press
Date: 1958
Type: Text

The day she started work at the library was grey and chill, with a scudding March wind. It did nothing at all to enhance the ugly red brick facade of the building, embedded with decades of grime. But, as she climbed the steps to the entrance doors, Carolyn was aware only of a quickening of her pulses and a pleasant sense of anticipation. Those great brown doors were a challenge in themselves and she wanted to get down to work at once and learn everything there was to know about the job.

The doors were closed because the library was not open to the public for another hour. She turned the large black knob, pushed open the door and walked in. She stood there, uncertain and suddenly shy, wishing someone would notice her. There were girls, whom she assumed to be junior assistants, moving along in front of the shelves taking out books and pushing them back into different places There were others trundling round book-laden trolleys or tidying the tables and pushing in chairs.

Carolyn wondered what to do. She caught the slightly musty smell of the old building and felt a stirring of excitement as her gaze moved round the great room which formed the lending section of the library. Books, she thought, this is what I’ve always wanted. Surrounded by books all day, working among them, handling them… [p. 15-16]

Title: The Library Tree
Creator: Peake, Lilian
Publisher: Mills & Boon (Firm)
Date: 1972
Type: Text

“Look down there—at the sunlight gleaming on the library—that’s where I’m to begin my career. But it won’t end there; I’m going places—as far as any librarian can go.”

“Librarian!” Dave’s tone was incredulous. “You a librarian! Huh! You’re no more the type to be a librarian than I am; and it’s a fine career for a wide-awake girl who loves the outdoors—shut up with a lot of musty books. You’re too afraid of people, too.”

“That’s all you know about it. And what if I am shy with strangers? Can’t I overcome that? And suppose I can’t; there’s work with children, and I’d soon forget myself if I were doing things for a lot of youngsters—scout work taught me that. And all library work isn’t being ‘shut up with a lot of musty books,’ either—it’s doing things for people—all sorts of things, that often take the librarians outside their libraries. Miss Thacker has a friend on a state library commission who has had thrilling experiences traveling around the country—out in your great open spaces. Why, there’s a book called The Library Without the Walls—does that sound ‘shut up’?” [p. 4]

Title: Books on Wheels
Creator: Lingenfelter, Mary Rebecca, b. 1893
Publisher: Funk & Wagnalls
Date: 1938
Type: Text

Marian and Martha were duly introduced to the family skeleton. Librarians were the most poorly paid professional workers in the United States. Not only that, but the preparation demanded was all out of proportion to the wages received. Nowadays a head librarian in a college was expected to have an advanced degree and he carried all the responsibilities of a department head, but the salary might be that of an under professor. A professional assistant in a public library was lucky indeed to get a salary equivalent to that of the local high school teachers, although she, too, must have a college degree and at least a year at library school. School librarians were increasingly placed on the teachers salary schedule but were not often reckoned as department heads. Children’s librarians were notoriously ill-paid. So it went. [p. 144-145]

Title: Marian-Martha
Creator: Fargo, Lucile Foster, 1880-1962
Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company
Date: 1936
Type: Text

Since she had decided to take the job as library assistant at the college’s huge old main library, Katie had met and made many lifetime girl friends, had acquired an apartment with color TV and a tiny balcony, bought and paid for a used red Porsche, and had been in and out of love—all within the brief space of seven months.

The light changed, and Katie walked briskly across the main street. Decidedly beautiful, Katie carried with her that continued air that lovely girls often do. Katherine Anne Dugan had long ago realized that being pretty helped her to be a better librarian, actually stimulating interest in learning and reading. [p. 8]

Title: The Loveliest Librarian
Creator: Roberts, Suzanne
Publisher: T. Bouregy & Co.
Date: 1967
Type: Text