Along with such day-to-day functions, administrators continually fret and debate over the role and direction of the modern library. What should a library be doing besides lending books? And in buildings filled with thousands of paper books, there's the constant worry about fire.
The star of the show in Orlean's book is Los Angeles Public Library system. Orleans wraps disparate stories about the history and people of the L.A. system around a central tale following the investigation into the 1984 fire that destroyed 400,000 books a the Central Library.
She recounts the history of the L.A. library from day one, including the story of the head librarian who was fired because she was woman. She joins modern administrators as they discuss how to serve the homeless population that increasingly inhabits the library.
"Every problem that society has, the library has, too, because the boundary between society and the library is porous; nothing good is kept out of the library, and nothing bad," she writes
"The Library Book" starts fast with a description of the stunning 1984 fire. But it soon loses focus as Orlean skitters to and fro on a host of a library-related topics. The arson investigation, while initially interesting, simply runs out of steam as the authorities have few clues to work with and an unconvincing case against a local drifter.
While Orlean is a smooth writer and she finds some interesting tales to tell, the book bounces among so many subjects that it never becomes compelling. I'm almost a perfect audience for "The Library Book" -- I've lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years, I've been in the central L.A. library dozens of times and I'm a librarian -- yet I to nudge myself to keep reading to the end.
If there's a reward in the book, it's Orlean's depiction of the dedication and hard work of librarians and other library workers, many of whom love their jobs. While some have questioned the role of libraries in the Internet age, Orlean ends on a hopeful note.
"Libraries have persisted, and they have grown, and they will certainly endure"
