The last librarian / Edoardo Albert -- In the House of the Seven Librarians / Ellen Klages -- The books / Kage Baker -- Death and the Librarian / Esther M. Friesner -- In Libvres / Elizabeth Bear -- The King of the Big Night Hours / Richard Bowes -- Those who watch / Ruthanna Emrys -- Special collections / Norman Partridge -- Exchange / Ray Bradbury -- Paper cuts scissors / Holly Black -- Summer reading / Ken Liu -- Magic for beginners / Kelly Link -- The inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox / Sarah Monette -- The Midbury lake incident / Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- With tales in their teeth, from the mountain they came / A.C. Wise -- What books survive / Tansy Rayner Roberts -- The librarian's dilemma / E. Saxey -- The Green Book / Amal El-Mohtar -- In the stacks / Scott Lynch -- A woman's best friend / Robert Reed -- If on a winter's night a traveler -- The Sigma Structure Symphony / Gregory Benford -- The Fort Moxie Branch / Jack McDevitt -- The last librarian / Edoardo Albert -- About the authors.
Summary:
Portals to all the knowledge in the world, libraries are also created universes of multitude of imaginations. Librarians guide us to enlightenment as well as serving as the captains, mages, and gatekeepers who open the doors to delight, speculation, wonder, and terror. This captivating compilation of science fiction and fantasy short fiction showcases stories of librarians -- mysterious curators, heroic bibliognosts, arcane archivists, catalogers of very special collections and libraries: repositories of arcane wisdom, storehouses of signals from other galaxies, bastions of culture, the last outposts of civilization in a post-apocalyptic world....
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.