“Porn books and librarians have always had a passionate, mutually defining relationship—it was, in fact, a prudish French librarian in the early nineteenth century who coined the word pornography. So it comes as no surprise that the sexy librarian, a fixture of the pornographic imagination, is most at home in books. Each year, new titles are added to the librarian-porn bookshelf. This past season’s crop included additions like Hot for Librarian by Anastasia Carrera; Lucy the Librarian—Dewey and His Decimal by John and Shauna Michaels; The Nympho Librarian and Other Stories by Chrissie Bentley and Jenny Swallows; A Librarian’s Desire by Ava Delaney, author of the Kinky Club series; and soft-core selections like Sweet Magick by Penny Watson. The conventions of the form—the dimly lit stacks, the librarian’s mask of thick glasses and hair tied into a bun, et cetera—are, of course, well known. Unlike video porn, where these conventions are typically used as a wholesale substitute for narrative, porn books still feel the compulsion to tell a story, to make the glasses and bun mean something. I was curious just what story these new books were telling. What does our most current version of the librarian fantasy say about us? To answer this question, I visited the library.”

If you would like to read some of this classic library literature, I suggest buying an ereader. Apparently it is all the rage…

(Hat tip to Melissa Gira Grant)

“Imagine a world where the simple act of reading turned deadly.”

A short film from Beto Gomez.

Tin-lined, weather-proofed shelves have been built in the sides of the specially constructed truck body. The hinged panels open. One rises to provide shelter from sun and rain, while the other two drop to form a counter from which to serve customers. The shelves on each side hold 250 volumes and the racks in the rear take care of 500 books.

I plan to move into one of these when I retire or to travel the country looking for contract positions after I’m downsized, whichever comes first.

(via Modern Mechanix)

Alan Moore speaking at St. James Library in Northhampton about his love for libraries.

“…if my work means anything to anybody out there, then they shouldn’t thank me for it, they should thank the…libraries that created me”

May Glycon bestow his blessings upon him…

A few days ago the manga Library Wars: Love & War came across my desk at work. And yes, librarians are the heroes and we are armed to the teeth.

The manga is based on the light novel series Toshokan Senso by Hiro Arikawa. The novels also gave rise to another manga, an internet radio series and an anime series.

What are we fighting for? Well, what have we always fought for?

In the near future, the federal government creates a committee to rid society of books it deems unsuitable. The libraries vow to protect their collections, and with the help of local governments, form a military group to defend themselves–the Library Forces!

Check it out, I’m sure you will enjoy it. Meanwhile, I’m off to brush up on my rappelling, just in case…

Update (Sept 9, 2010): A review of the manga by librarian LeAnn Suchy is available at Minnesota Reads. Thanks LeAnn for passing this along!