An honor to California Detective Fiction Collection librarian.

Anthony Boucher, an author in the California Detective Fiction Collection

    

On December 10, Randal Brandt, curator of the California Detective Fiction Collection at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, received the Distinguished Librarian Award from the Librarians Association of the University of California’s Berkeley chapter. In this interview, he talks about his job, his favorite type of crime fiction, and the California Detective Fiction Collection (view a few collection highlights).

Europe's public libraries and refugees.

Poster from the Austrian Library
Association "Welcome" campaign

The Public Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions presents a roundup of ways in which public libraries in Europe are reaching out to refugees. For example, the Cologne Public Library has an intercultural library forum that offers, among other services, readings in multiple languages for refugee children.

The Cologne Public Library also has the "Krimiautomat" in the metro system, where commuting library patrons can borrow crime fiction titles.

The long-suffering bookseller.

Today Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell goes on sale on U.S. shores. Campbell, who worked in Ripping Yards and Edinburgh Books, began collecting deathless patron queries heard on the job; her experiences confirm that booksellers have endured much. One sample:

Customer: I read a book in the eighties. I don't remember the author, or the title. But it was green, and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean?

Here is a BBC Open Book piece on the book.

Campbell is now writing a sequel and invites submissions from booksellers and librarians.

The world of bibliomysteries.

Murder in the Stacks, by
Marion Boyd Havighurst
(1934). NYPL

The Exile Bibliophile notes the establishment of a LibraryThing discussion group on bibliomysteries (that is, mysteries that involve books, manuscripts, libraries, and bookstores, among other book-related topics). Also note the bibliomystery collection at Simmons College, which has an extensive wishlist for donations. See also Mystery Readers Journal's 2005 issue on bibliomysteries. (Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Dress the Librarian.

Artist Normal Bob Smith has provided a "Librarian Dress Up" page, where you can even transform the librarian into a superhero (although some might argue that the librarian is that already).

(Hat tip to Librarian.net)