Overdue, Amanda Oliver
Overdue, Amanda Oliver
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Overdue
Reckoning with the Public Library

Author: Amanda Oliver

Narrator: Eva Wilhelm

Unabridged: 7 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/22/2022


Synopsis

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.

About Amanda Oliver

Amanda Oliver is a writer and former librarian. Her writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Electric Literature, Medium, and the Rumpus. She has been interviewed about libraries and being a librarian for NPR, CBC Radio, Associated Press, and American Library Magazine. Oliver is a graduate of the MLS program at SUNY Buffalo and the MFA program at UC Riverside. A New York native, she now lives and writes in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rachel on June 29, 2022

I have many conflicted feelings about this book. I’ve worked in public libraries for almost two decades now, and in that time I have worked at roughly 25 libraries in some capacity whether it be part time, full time, or weekend/program coverage. So to read a book about the public library, written by......more

Goodreads review by Jarrett on November 17, 2024

Another bait-and-switch book. Like other readers, I approached Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library with the assumption that it would be Amanda Oliver's incisive critique of America's public libraries. Well, the book is that, but only in part. This text is really an amalgam of Oliver's memoir,......more

Goodreads review by Roeki on April 24, 2022

This reads as a sanctimonious journal entry in which the author works through her guilt in order to justify why she quit her job as a librarian. Yes, librarianship is tough. Yeah, it's not for everybody. Some of the research in this is pretty solid. I'm sure that many people will find this book enli......more

Goodreads review by Brian on January 21, 2023

1. I'm fairly certain Oliver got paid an additional $1 every time she typed Northwest One (her branch for 9 months). I searched the book and it came up 117 times. Which means the number of days she showed up (~160-180x) is close to a .75 : 1.0 ratio. 2. With that said, the issues Oliver brings up ar......more

Goodreads review by Steph on July 27, 2022

L O L ok a couple things: 1) I am a public librarian 2) reading this at home felt like I was being robbed of my free time so I committed to only reading it when we were slow at work 3) bottom line, I hated this book. If it wasn't a library book I would've trashed it. My major criticism lies within th......more