Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003) 454 p.

Seekers of the Holy Grail are aided by librarian Pamela Gettum at King’s College Department of Theology and Religious Studies in London. A large database of theological texts have been digitized and Ms. Gettum expertly queries the database to extract the needed information. “She had a genial, erudite face and a pleasingly fluid voice. The horn-rimmed glasses hanging around her neck were thick.” (p. 377). The database search illustrates that these searches do not always show what you expect to find. She also serves her clients tea as they study their results.

Brooks, Geraldine. People of the Book (New York: Viking, c2008) 372 p.

Doctor Ozren Karaman is "chief librarian of the National Museum and professor of librarianship at the National University of Bosnia" (p. 16). He saves a beautiful illuminated haggadah from the library as it is being bombed during the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. He is a thin young man in faded blue jeans with green eyes and unruly curls. He is sad about all the books he could not save which were destroyed.

Brookner, Anita. Leaving Home (New York: Random House, 2005) 212 p.

A young English woman, in Paris to study gardening history, becomes friends with a young French woman at the library.

Françoise, my essential point of reference in this strange enterprise—which I found benign but increasingly unrealistic—was not at her station behind the catalogues but was clearly audible in the stacks, undeterred by the anguished 'Mademoiselle!' from M. Bonfils, the librarian, who decreed a monastic quiet for the benefit of his readers. Françoise ignored this and was, if anything, applauded for her flouting of correct procedure, was indeed greeted with a loving smile by the elderly scholars to whose desks she delivered the bulky volumes from which they derived those facts which would enable them to create bulky volumes of their own.We had become co-conspirators, clearly but wordlessly allied in our unspoken desire to subvert the solemnity of the reading-room. On the surface she merely provided me with those pattern books and prints which I studied with the utmost application and docility, until the darkening sky beyond the tall windows signalled the end of the working day, but behind our apparent rectitude we were alike in experiencing a form of anarchy which was, if anything, directed towards those innocent bent heads which I knew were serious, admirable, dedicated, but which I was in no hurry to resemble." (p. 20-21). 

Brookner, Anita. Lewis Percy (New York: Pantheon, 1989) 261 p.

Lewis is a young man who hopes for more excitement but resigns himself to his fate of working in a college library in London. The only thing we know about his job is that he indexes journal articles by hand on 3 x 5 cards. His supervisor is the Head Librarian, Arnold Goldsborough. Goldsborough is a bit of a comic figure who is old and fat and hesitates to take responsibility for making changes in the routine (e.g. typing the index cards rather than writing them by hand. Near the end of the novel, Goldsborough gets all excited about computers and decides to automate the library. Lewis' coworker and friend is Penry Douglas. Another character at the library is Arthur Tooth "a long-retired librarian and actual retainer, [he] ranged with crab-like slowness round the stacks, shelving the books: there was no getting rid of him.... The work could have been done in an hour by a person of normal vigour ..." (p. 127). Lewis meets Tissy Harper at the local public library and eventually they get married. As in Brookner's earlier novel Look at Me, the library is the setting of the protagonist's mundane life. 

Brookner, Anita. Look At Me (New York: Pantheon, 1983) 192 p.

This is an intensely psychological story about a woman who works in a medical library which specializes in graphic representations of mental illness. Frances Hinton's job is to order photographs and mount them on cardboard and file them. The Librarian is Dr. Leventhal: "He is the sort of man who only breaks his own silence in order to utter a derogatory remark. But he is otherwise quite harmless. I would not say that we were genuinely fond of him (that would hardly be appropriate) but he is easy to work for, a mild, heavy man, probably shy, probably lonely, very correct, easily tolerated. We all get on very well." (p. 11).

Bronx, Lee. Uncle U the Ridiculous Librarian: a Humorous-Satirical Novel (New York: Copen Press, 1977) 81 p.

The staff and daily life of a technical services department of a New York university come to life in this account. It is so realistic I suspect it is a description of a real place. I further suspect that the author is the “Chinese nephew” mentioned as a staff member. At any rate the author's first language is clearly not English.

Uncle U is the eccentric Chief of Cataloging. He is imperious, demanding absolute obedience to his instructions. He constantly finds fault with the work of his “nieces and nephews.” He demands silence at all times. Aunt Matahari presides over the Periodicals Section. She does not like to supervise men and so only hires “nieces.” Like Uncle U she is always in the right even though she does not seem to understand the basics of library work.

The head of the department is a man named Tim who has a severe stutter. To overcome this he speaks very loud. For this reason the staff call him Uncle Honky. Life is hard for all the unprofessional “nieces and nephews” who do all the work and get none of the credit.  

Bristow, Gwen and Bruce Manning. The Gutenberg Murders (New York: The Mystery League, 1931) 275 p.

The Muriel Sheldon Memorial Library in New Orleans acquires nine leaves from the Gutenberg Bible. The head librarian, Dr. Prentiss, is convinced the fragment is authentic while the library’s head trustee believes it to be a forgery. Soon afterward Assistant Librarian Quentin Ulman is murdered. Ulman, a handsome young professional had already published three books on book collecting. Dr. Prentiss was “tall and slender, with a droop to his shoulders that suggested much bending over a desk and long delicate hands that seemed made for caressing the crumbly pages of old books. His white hair waved back from a high, commanding forehead, and his gray eyes were at once piercing and contemplative; an odd mixture of shyness and arrogance, he looked like a man with a passion for supremacy but at the same time one who had the born aristocrat’s dislike of indiscriminate contacts.” (p. 43).

Prentiss’ secretary is Luke Dancy, a young man who speaks with a British accent but reverts to Texan when under stress.