April 2025: Library Appreciation Month

Apr 9, 2025 | Announcements, Library

By Research Librarian Jessica McClain

The American Library Association sponsored the first National Library Week in 1958, and we continue to recognize and celebrate the role of libraries and librarians in our communities during the first full week of April each year. Libraries come in a variety of shapes and sizes—from public libraries to school libraries, academic libraries to membership libraries—and fill a variety of civic and community roles. Attacks on libraries, while nothing new, exacerbate social and educational divides, as well as eliminate important community spaces. Yet, libraries continue to adapt to the changes they face. I invite you to think about the roles libraries have served in your life as you explore this month’s book selections.

Members, find the listed titles on display in the Sawtelle Reading Room through the month of March.

The Paris Library: A Novel

FICTION

This work of historical fiction is a dual narrative in which one story is set during World War II and based on the story of the librarians at the American Library in Paris during the Nazi occupation, while the second details the friendship between a lonely teenage girl and her elderly neighbor. It’s a story of Resistance and relationship that celebrates libraries as community.

Charles, Janet Skeslien. The Paris Library: A Novel. PS3619 .K54 2021

Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel

FICTION

Pulitzer prize winning novelist Anthony Doerr brings us an epic story that follows the experiences of five young people and the way their lives are changed by one book—an ancient Greek Codex which tells the story of Aethon, who wants to become a bird so that he may fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Set in 15th century Constantinople, present day Idaho, and a 22nd century starship, this tale shows us how great stories can intertwine people over vast geographical and temporal distances and the importance of libraries and librarians and their stewardship of books and the souls they captivate.

Doerr, Anthony. Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel. PS3604 .O34 C56 2021

The Name of the Rose

FICTION

This 1980 debut novel from Italian author Umberto Eco is set in a 14th century Italian abbey, at the heart of which is the aedificium, a fortified tower which holds the abbey’s labyrinthine library and scriptorium. Franciscan friar, Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate rumors of heresy, but becomes enmeshed in a violent mystery involving the deaths of seven brothers over a span of seven days. A combination of semiotics, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory wrapped in an historical postmodern murder mystery, this at times infuriating story has, at its heart, a plea for freedom, moderation, and wisdom.

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. PQ 4865 .C6 N613

Coign of Vantage: Or the Boston Athenaeum Murders

FICTION

This murder mystery set amidst an exclusive club favored by eccentric old Bostonian society centers on the recent deaths of several members and the likelihood of murder. Biographer Austin Layman investigates this series of murders among the Brahmins, tying the deaths to a long-ago scandal—the details of which are kept neatly in a file on the shelves of the Boston Athenaeum. Watch as the sins of past generations catch up to the present with this often sharp and witty work.

McAleer, John. Coign of Vantage: Or the Boston Athenaeum Murders. PS3563 .A2447 C6

Pigeons on the Granite: Memories of a Yale Librarian

BIOGRAPHY

This memoir from curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature Donald Gallup focuses on the personal and professional relationships he developed with a variety of literary figures including Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, and Thornton Wilder. It also discusses the way in which these relationships enabled him to bring a variety of archival collections representing the modernist movement in American art and literature to Yale. Gallup also offers memories of his early years as a student at Yale during the 1930s and his military service during World War II.

Gallup, Donald C. Pigeons on the Granite: Memories of a Yale Librarian.

Library: An Unquiet History

NON-FICTION

Rare books librarian Matthew Battles explores the two contradictory impulses of libraries: their exaltation of literature and protection of texts alongside their desire to contain and thus control human knowledge. In this dichotomy, he discusses the formation of libraries from the classical era to our own Information Age as well as their destruction by various means and forces over time.

Battles, Matthew. Library: An Unquiet History. Z721 .B28 2003

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts

NON-FICTION

Described by The New York Times Book Review as “Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey,” this fast-paced tale describes the work of archivist Abdel Kader Haidara and his efforts to smuggle thousands of ancient Islamic and secular texts away from Al Qaeda to safety in southern Mali. His story shows how ordinary people often do the most in terms of protecting and preserving culture.

Hammer, Joshua. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts. Z659 .H22 2016

BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google

NON-FICTION

Technology expert John Palfrey explores the importance of libraries as equalizers in the digital age. He explores how libraries play a crucial role in providing community access to education, jobs, and information as well as offering safe spaces, free computer access, and an avenue to social connectedness that often seems lost in an increasingly online world. At the same time, he cautions libraries to keep pace with digital advancements and modernization as the best way to continue serving their communities in the face of constant change and dwindling funding.

Palfrey, John. BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google. Z674.75 .I58 P38 2015

America’s Membership Libraries

NON-FICTION

This collection offers profiles of sixteen individual historic membership libraries, including our very own Portsmouth Athenaeum.

Wendorf, Richard, ed. America’s Membership Libraries. Z675 .S8 A44 2007

Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library

NON-FICTION

This history of the Public Library as an American organization dating back to 1850 explores not only its function as a civic institution, but as public spaces that promote and maintain community. Rather than looking to library founders and managers, Wiegand calls upon the testimonies of regular library patrons to discover the lasting importance of this beloved establishment.

Wiegand, Wayne A. Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library. Z731 .W734 2015

IMAGE: View from the third-floor gallery into the historic library room at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, 9 Market Square, Portsmouth, NH, August 1992. Photo by Gary Samson. P0042_0830a.