Good librarians are natural intelligence operatives. They possess all of the skills and characteristics required for that work: curiosity, wide-ranging knowledge, good memories, organization and analytical aptitude, and discretion.

Librarians are essential players in the information revolution because they level that field. They enable those without money or education to read and learn the same things as the billionaire and the PhD.

In tough times, a librarian is a terrible thing to waste.

We'll always need printed books that don't mutate the way digital books do; we'll always need places to display books, auditoriums for book talks, circles for story time; we'll always need brick-and-mortar libraries.

This is the greatest and most fraught romance of modern society, the marriage between the IT staff and those who depend on them.

Libraries have always been there for me. Of course I'll stand up for them!

The vast waterfall of history pours down, and a few obituarists fill teacups with the stories.