A review by reba_reads_books
This Is What a Librarian Looks Like: A Celebration of Libraries, Communities, and Access to Information by Kyle Cassidy

2.0

I think this book is great for the general public, anyone who has a very specific idea of what a library is and needs their perspective broadened. However, it's not so good for a reader like me who already works in a library, someone who's already aware of the broad range of options for a librarian's career focus. This is shelved in the library science section and it's a thick book, which made me think it would go in depth as to different librarians' jobs. For example, a section on academic librarians versus public service librarians versus technical services librarians versus special collections librarians, archivists, etc. This book clearly had the opportunity to do that with the range of librarians quoted inside, but it failed to take that opportunity. It gave this massive list of librarians one paragraph each and what all did they say? Pretty much the same thing...Libraries are important. At that point, it's more a photography book and should be shelved in the photography section, rather than the library science section. But, as others have said, some of the photography isn't quality. And sadly, I even found a typo early on. I'm giving this two stars instead of one mainly because another reader may enjoy it...and also the Cory Doctorow essay made it worth it. The rest of the author essays all repeated the same, overstated message--Libraries matter, and here are my memories of libraries and books from my childhood, etc. So much of this book is sweet in small doses (a coffee table read, for sure), but it missed a huge opportunity to be so much more and is lacking a certain quality to even be the best at what it tried to be.