Romance of Libraries

In the halls of knowledge, amidst the towering stacks of books, more than just facts and fiction await.

The Romance of Libraries is a collection of true accounts of emotional attachments formed in and with libraries and the library field. Madeleine J. Lefebvre has gathered personal narratives from around the world from people who work in or use libraries. From the very young to those in their nineties, these people share their tales of love. While most accounts are about romances that developed in a library setting, some are about romances with libraries themselves. Loosely arranged by context, the stories—happy, sad, or bittersweet—share an over-arching theme of the transformative and emotive power of libraries in our lives. Lefebvre's underlying message is that the physical library can play a role in our affections that the virtual library never can.