Book lover and engineer Petroski provides plenty of amusing anecdotes about libraries (according to one possibly apocryphal account, the library at Alexandria borrowed the works of the great Greek authors from Athens, had them copied, and then sent the copies back, keeping the originals), book collectors, and the care of books.

Lutie Stearns established hundreds of traveling libraries in Wisconsin between 1895 and 1914. A founder, and later employee, of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, Lutie’s mission of sharing books and opportunity brought her to North Woods lumber camps, to farming communities, and to industrial centers throughout the state.

What do Casanova, Pope Pius XI, Benjamin Franklin and first lady Laura Bush have in common? At one time, all were members of the librarian profession. From pick-up lines to bumper stickers, this volume takes a light-hearted look at the many facets of the librarian occupation.

Typically, books are valued for what's written inside them. But as a collection, they also tell us a lot about their owner, which is why Hueston, an author and contributing editor at Country Living magazine, believes they are so effective as decoration. Here, she demonstrates how a display or library of books can enhance the look of almost every room in your home.

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Jack-of-all-trades Borchert shares wholesome, guardedly witty dispatches from the suburban L.A. library system in this charming tell-all. For 12 years the family-man author has held the post of assistant librarian, keeping a wary eye on unruly kids, mollifying mystified parents and repairing sadly manhandled materials.

This chronologically arranged work analyzes the stereotypical image of librarians, male and female. The work describes each film and then examines its librarian - considering every aspect from socio-economic conditions and motivations for leaving or not leaving the library, to personal attributes and entanglements with the opposite sex, to commonly used props, plot situations and lines ("Shush!").

Flynn Carsen’s deductive acumen lands him a job as the librarian at the Metropolitan Library. This is not an ordinary library. It houses history's most mythic artifacts, including the Ark of the Covenant, Pandora's Box, and the sword Excalibur. The fate of the world is in Carsen's hands the dread Serpent Brotherhood steals the library's Spear of Destiny, and Carsen must retrieve it.

Noah Wyle is back as Flynn Carson in another thrilling adventure. On a deadly mission to recover the historic Judas Chalice, Flynn is saved by Simone, a dazzling French woman who harbors a terrifying secret. But when double-crossed by a respected professor and ambushed by a ruthless gang, Flynn realizes his true mission and a shocking discovery are all lying within a decaying New Orleans crypt.

Hofer takes gorgeous photos of the splendid and intimate cathedrals of knowledge across Europe and the US: the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum in New York, Villa Medici in Rome, the Hamburg University library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Museo Archeologico in Madrid, and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, to name just a few.

Fourteen papers examine the library as a physical, social, and intellectual space. This is an eclectic collection, ranging from a history of the establishment of far-flung military libraries during the heyday of the British Empire (to instill "sober, regular, and moral habits" among the troops) to an analysis of the function of the Sunnydale High School library in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Battles, a contributor to Harper's and a Harvard librarian, offers a distinguished portrait of the library, its endurance and destruction throughout history, and traces how the library's meaning was questioned or altered according to the climate of the time. In accessible prose, Battles recounts the building and burning that have marked the library's long history.

Powers, librarian of the Prince of Wales' Institute of Architecture, has collected a wealth of photographs depicting myriad ways to store books. He shows them in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and home office; in hallways and stairs; and, of course, in the library.

All of the libraries in the world-whether small or large, public or private-serve the same purpose: to preserve, cherish, or show off the riches of human knowledge. Now, for the first time, an internationally renowned photographer takes the reader on a journey to more than 20 of the most historic of these magical places, all architectural treasures.

Composer Meredith Willson based The Music Man on his own small-town Midwestern boyhood, circa 1912, a quasi-mythical place where the old-maid librarian looks and sings like Shirley Jones.

Carole Lombard plays a bored to tears small town librarian who marries card shark Clark Gable on a whim and realizes that she must confront him about his cheating ways.

After the death of his beloved wife, Helen (Lynne Moody), wealthy African-American suburbanite William Campbell (James Earl Jones) finds that Helen has left behind a "living will" in the form of a videotape. As William watches the video, his late wife urges him to take his huge personal library down to the tough inner-city neighborhood and to establish a reading room.

Release Date February 2, 2010.

Abandoned by her boyfriend while pregnant and penniless, Novalee Nation sets up home in a Wal-Mart and ends up having her baby there. Eventually she is surrounded with love by a surrogate family that includes an eccentric librarian named Forney Hall.