Malia Wallan, "How to Recommend a Book," New York Times Magazine, October 24, 2021, p. 15.
"Recommending books you love is the hardest thing of all," says Joyce Saricks, 72, who worked for nearly 30 years as a reference librarying in suburban Chicago. Saricks has written several textbooks on so-called "readers' advisory," which largely disappeared from libraries after World War II and is credited with helping spark a national revival in the practice of librarians' suggesting books to patrons.
...
When Saricks was stumped, she often led patrons into the library stacks, where book spines would spur ideas and conversation. "My colleague used to say, 'The books know when you're desperate,'" she says.
COMMENT
The librarian in this story is an author of a book for librarians that, according to this author, helped restore a culture of reading and literacy to contemporary libraries. The story includes a plug for physical browsing, which can lead to finding something unexpected. The Internet most definitely does not know when you're desperate.
