Working in a library exposes you to other people’s passions to a surprising extent.

No, I don’t mean romantic passions. Although my reports clearly show that the romance novels are our most popular books, by far. Meeting Kitty and reading her novel draft has been very educational, but that’s not the sort of passion I mean.

The most obvious way is in the books and research materials people seek out at the issue desk.

“I want to learn how to speak Mandarin, do you have any resources?”

We do, but not many.

“I’d like to trace my family tree. Does the library have the births, deaths, and marriage register?”

No, but I can direct you to online sites and two shelves of reference books to aid your search.

“I want to improve m...

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