From Checking Out, by Avi Steinberg:

According to our porn books, the library, once a hothouse of eros and a laboratory of realism, has become a burial site. But somewhere on those shelves there’s still a memory of when books were really subversive, when being a libertine was actually about Voltaire and freethinking, and young girls were guarded from the corrupting influence of novels. The fantasy of awakening the librarian is also a fantasy of awakening the subversive power of the book, of excavating life from a dying cultural monument—or else scratching a bit of graffiti on it.

via audrey

The Internet went out in our office this afternoon so I caught up on Instapaper (and by "caught up" I mean I archived 3 of around 500 remaining Instapaper'd articles). I was putting off Avi Steinberg's survey of librarians and porn (why??) but it's an engaging read. Happy Valentine's Day!