Jenn McKinlay: As a librarian, I'm sure it's no surprise that when I heard about a new series called A Beloved Bookroom Mystery series, I was all in!!! Today we are lucky enough to have author Dorothy St. James tell us all about her first in this new series and she offers up a subject of interest to every library lover's heart - the possibility of bookless libraries! (Pause to clutch my pearls here)!
Dorothy St. James: Let me start off by saying I don’t hate technology. I rely on my phone far too much (and I almost never make phone calls). I prefer ebooks because I enjoy reading in bed without having to use my reading glasses. And the ability to stream TV shows (on my schedule) has been a game-changer. I love the digital world!
But digital libraries? Shouldn’t libraries be required to have real hold-in-your-hands books?
My latest series, the Beloved Bookroom Mysteries, is based on an idea that a small town library modernizes to become a bookless library, much to the horror of the librarians who work there. The series plays on the theme of technology clashing with the analog world.
Bookless libraries indeed exist. In fact, it’s not a new idea. Many university libraries throughout the world have gone bookless more than a decade ago, relying solely on ebooks and digital resources. A few municipal libraries in the United States have tried out the bookless model. A library in Arizona went bookless for a while, but due to pubic outcry the library brought back the printed books. A library in Texas opened a bookless branch in a low income area, providing vital digital services to a community where, historically, wi-fi access has been limited. Because of the vital services this library provides to its community, this new library has been hailed as a success story.
Why can’t we do both? Libraries today are asked to provide more and more services. Libraries are not just about the books anymore. Modern libraries often provide maker spaces, computer labs, community meeting rooms, and more. These services cost money and take space.
In my local library system (the Charleston County Library, which is wonderful), the largest regional branch building was 16,000 square feet. However, the library system recently built a new branch in my neighborhood that provides both digital and community services as well as room for all kinds of books. This new library building covers a whooping 40,000 square feet. Not every community can afford to build at such a grand scale.
My fictional town of Cypress, located in the coastal plain of South Carolina, is like many small towns in the South. (I know. I’ve worked with similar towns in my past life as an urban planner.) Budgets are tight, jobs are scarce, and towns are desperate to attract industries with high paying jobs. Cypress’s town manager comes up with a scheme to make headlines. He takes what little he has in his budget and invests it into modernizing the town’s historic library into a bookless library. The last town to do this had attracted national press, and that’s exactly what he wants. He then plans to use that press coverage to lure high tech industries into investing in the town. His vision it to turn the region into a Silicon Valley of the South. It’s a big gamble, but times are tough and the potential payoff could change the lives of everyone in Cypress.
When Trudell Becket, a Cypress Public Library librarian, protests, the town manager gives her a lesson in budgets. The town simply does not have the budget or space to provide digital services and still offer room for a printed book collection. That’s when my warrior librarian decides to do act. She breaks all the rules and saves the printed books that are in the process of being removed to make room for technology.
Real life echoes fiction. COVID-19 has been a challenge for libraries. My beautiful 40,000 square foot branch library has been closed. The only way to get books is to order the books online and pick them up at the curb. It’s a necessary precaution. I’d never want the librarians to risk their health. I only mention this because, ironically, since penning this book way back in 2019, I have been experiencing firsthand the angst that I wrote about in The Broken Spine. I dearly miss walking up and down the stacks, discovering books I never knew existed and leaving with many more books than I ever knew I needed. There is a certain magic in discovery that I love about libraries. As we move more and more into the digital age, I hope librarians will be able to figure out a way to replicate this experience for online browsing.
In the meantime, I’ll be cheering on (and helping) warrior librarians who have been working fiercely for years in bringing the best resources to their communities.
So, how about it, Reds and Readers, what are your thoughts on booklets libraries?
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The Broken Spine, which has been called a mystery that “is destined to become a favorite of all book lovers” by Miranda James, New York Times bestselling author of Cat Me if You Can, is the first book in the Beloved Bookroom Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. It arrived in bookstores everywhere January 19, 2021.
When a small-town librarian sets up a secret bookroom in her newly modernized library, she discovers that protecting the printed word harder than she’d ever imagined.
In fact, it’s murder.
Dorothy St. James is the author of the White House Gardener Mysteries and the Southern Chocolate Shop Mysteries. She lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with her sculptor husband. Dorothy is a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and Sister’s in Crime (SInC). This is her first Beloved Bookroom Mystery.
Follow Dorothy Online:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dorothy.stjames
Twitter: www.twitter.com/dorothywrites
Instagram: www.instagram.com/dorothymcfalls
Website: www.dorothystjames.com
The Broken SpinePurchase Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086SCQ639
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-broken-spine-dorothy-st-james/1136806393?ean=9780593098578
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/the-broken-spine/9780593098578
Indie Bound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781087855806
