New York Times Literary Treat of the Week......

Johnson, Marilyn. This Book Is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybarians Can Save Us All. Harper/HarperCollins.

Should the "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" museums ever create a wing devoted to the unusual in library science this book might furnish some good starting material. One will encounter "extreme virtual librarians" assisting "patron avatars," protesters aided by "street librarians" at the 2008 Republican National Convention, and a Las Vegas "gentlemen's club" named "The Library" where the dancers wear spectacles and little else. Johnson, whose 2006 work "The Dead Beat" (also in Merrick Library's collection) dealt with obituary writing, stays close to the subject in sections of "This Book Is Overdue." There is a tribute to the late Henriette Avram who was responsible for automating the records of the Library of Congress. There is also an archivist/widow of a lyricist/ writer trying to find a library to store her husband's works until he becomes famous after death.