logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library - Don Borchert
Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
by: (author)
3.71 120
Mild-mannered librarian tells all in shocking new book!  Not long ago, the public library was a place for the bookish, the eggheaded, and the studious—often seeking refuge from a loud, irrational, crude, outside world.  Today, libraries have become free-for-all entertainment complexes filled with... show more
Mild-mannered librarian tells all in shocking new book!  Not long ago, the public library was a place for the bookish, the eggheaded, and the studious—often seeking refuge from a loud, irrational, crude, outside world.  Today, libraries have become free-for-all entertainment complexes filled with rowdy teens, deviants, drugs, and even sex toys. Lockdowns and chaperones are often necessary.  What happened?  Don Borchert was a short-order cook, door-to-door salesman, telemarketer, and Christmas-tree-chopper before landing a job in a California library. He never could have predicted his encounters with the colorful kooks, touching adolescents, threatening bullies, and tricksters who fill the pages of this hilarious memoir. In Free for All, Borchert offers readers a ringside seat for the unlikely spectacle of mayhem and absurdity that is business as usual at the public library. You’ll see cops bust drug dealers who’ve set up shop in the men’s restroom, witness a burka-wearing employee suffer a curse-ridden nervous breakdown, and meet a lonely, neglected kid who grew up in the library and still sends postcards to his surrogate parents—the librarians.  In fact, from the first page of this comic debut to the last, you’ll learn everything about the world of the modern-day library that you never expected.
show less
Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9781905264124 (1905264127)
Publisher: Virgin Books
Pages no: 240
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
The Library Lass Booklikes Blog
The Library Lass Booklikes Blog rated it
2.5 Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert
Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert is the memoir of a librarian at a public library. While this backlist title is not the most compelling I've read, it does contain some good advice for new librarians and other young professionals.In Free For All, Borche...
Wyvernfriend Reads
Wyvernfriend Reads rated it
4.0 Library Confidential
Apart from the location, Friends of the Library and Volunteers this books shows, in a quite humourous way, how universal the library experience can be. I had a good giggle and regularly nodded in wry acknowledgement. Full of snippets of what life can be like behind the desk and insights into what ...
Wyvernfriend Reads
Wyvernfriend Reads rated it
4.0 Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
Apart from the location, Friends of the Library and Volunteers this books shows, in a quite humourous way, how universal the library experience can be. I had a good giggle and regularly nodded in wry acknowledgement.Full of snippets of what life can be like behind the desk and insights into what pe...
Itinerant Librarian on Books
Itinerant Librarian on Books rated it
4.0 Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
A pretty good book on what happens in our public libraries. Some moments are moving, and others are pretty funny. Public librarians today do everything from promoting reading to serving as social workers. I am a librarian, and I still find amazing the self-entitlement some clients bring to libraries...
I'll think of a damn title later
I'll think of a damn title later rated it
4.0
It's a funny, fascinating look at library work. Entertaining and informative for everybody, not just library workers. Worth a look!
Other editions (3)
Books by Don Borchert
On shelves
Share this Book
Need help?