Overdue

Reckoning with the Public Library

By: Amanda Oliver

Narrated by: Eva Wilhelm

Who are libraries for, how have they evolved, and why do they fill so many roles in our society today?

Based on firsthand experiences from six years of professional work as a librarian in high-poverty neighborhoods of Washington, DC, as well as interviews and research, Overdue begins with Oliver's first day at an "unusual" branch: Northwest One.

Using her experience at this branch allows Oliver to highlight the national problems that have existed in libraries since they were founded: racism, segregation, and class inequalities. These age-old problems have evolved into police violence, the opioid epidemic, rampant houselessness, and lack of mental health care nationwide-all of which come to a head in public library spaces.

Can public librarians continue to play the many roles they are tasked with? Can American society sustain one of its most noble institutions?

Pushing against hundreds of years of stereotypes, romanticization, and discomfort with a call to reckoning, Overdue will change the way you think about libraries forever.

©2022 Amanda Oliver (P)2022 Tantor

Underwhelming

Libraries aren’t safe spaces for what it’s originally intended. Libraries are used by the unhoused/homeless as a safe space during their open hours. The writer worked at one such library in DC and a tiny portion of the book is about that experience. Most of the book is moralizing written by a less Karen Karen. An article in a newspaper probably would have been sufficient to tell the story. Not to judge the authenticity of the writer or the need for social justice. I just don’t think this was worth either my dough or my time. Most books to be truthful go off on tangents and waste enormous expanses of ink. I can tolerate this with long winded fiction but …
What a waste of my listening time.

More like Overdone

This book started out great! I learned quite a bit as I gained an insider’s perspective on libraries. It was very interesting! Then something happened—the story began to move away from librarians and library patrons into something that sounded more like the author’s person agenda. The reader drove me crazy as she attempted to use her tone to invoke a certain feeling from the listener. I did not like that at all. I was so ready for this book to be over because it almost became insufferable. This book could have been awesome if it had remained focused on libraries, librarians, library patrons, and legislation regarding libraries.