Chesterton, G. K. The Return of Don Quixote (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1927) 302 p.

The librarian of Seawood Abbey is an eccentric scholar of Paleo-Hittite civilization named Michael Herne.

The librarian was certainly of the sort that is remote from the daylight, and suited to be a shade among the the shades of a great library. His figure was long and lithe, but he held one shoulder habitually a little higher than the other; his hair was of a dusty lightness. His face was lean and his lineaments long and straight; but his wan blue eyes were a shade wider apart than other men's; increasing an effect of having one eye off. It was indeed rather a weird effect, as if his eye were somewhere else; not in the mere sense of looking elsewhere, but almost as if it were in some other head than his own. And indeed, in a manner, it was; it was in the head of a Hittite ten thousand years ago. (p. 24-25).

When Herne climbs up a very tall ladder to the top of a towering bookcase a visitor plays a trick on him and removes the ladder. But Herne becomes so absorbed in this reading that he forgets to come down and is found perching atop the case the next day, book in hand.

When asked to perform in a play about Richard the Lion Heart, Herne at first declines, saying it is not his period. But then he embarks of a study of medieval history and accepts the roll of Richard. After performing he refuses to remove his costume and works to revolutionize English society by bringing about a return to medieval values.

Chabon, Michael. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) 297 p.

Phlox Lombardi and Arthur Lecomte both work in the Hillman Library in Pittsburgh. Phlox works at a window behind bars. We glimpse briefly a librarian named Evelyn Masciarelli, "a tiny old thing who had trembled away her life in Hillman Library ...." (p. 45). Later in the story an overdue library book brings the protagonist back to the library to initiate a "search and recovery." "Libraries, I knew, are frequently the haunts of twitching, mumbling paranoid schizophrenics, researching their grandiose conspiracies ...." (p. 256).

Cecil, Henry. Cross Purposes (London: Michael Joseph, 1976) 186 p.

Douglas Barton is the Chief Librarian of the New British Fiction Library. He is struggling to get by on a librarian's salary. We do not get to see him on the job at all, but when his wife wins half a million pounds in a football pool they both prove very level-headed and sensible in managing it.

Casey, Elizabeth Lynn. Sew Deadly (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2009) 280 p.

 -------. Death Threads (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 2010) 280 p.

Victoria “Tori” Sinclair came to Sweet Briar, South Carolina from Chicago so she is adjusting to small town life. Her predecessor, Dixie Dunn, who was forced to retire tries to thwart Tori. To bring people together at the public library Tori organizes a ladies' sewing club. Tori is good with children and has plans to create a children's reading room. In the second book, her work with her assistant Nina Morgan, consists mostly of shelving books.

Carr, Josephine. The Dewey Decimal System of Love (New York: New American Library, 2003) 251 p.

Head of the Reference Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Allison Sheffield is forty, beautiful and celibate. Suddenly after years of single life she is bowled over with love for the new conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This prompts her to volunteer to organize the Orchestra's library. The director of the Free Library is Gordon Albright, a friend and confidant. As Ally tells her story, each chapter is headed with the Dewey Decimal number one might browse for more information on the chapter's topic.

Carr, John Dickson. He Who Whispers: a Dr. Fell Mystery Story (New York: Bantam, 1957) 165 p.

Fay Seton, tall and soft and slender with long red hair, is a young librarian hired to catalog and organize a large private collection of books. The reader focuses less on her library skills and more on her mysterious past, however.

Carlson, Natalie E. Old Murders Never Die (New York: Arcadia House, c1960) 222 p.

Miss Josie Jones, Librarian in Seahaven Conn., narrates the story of how an old woman is found murdered in the library. Josie's assistant, Linda Regan seems to be involved somehow.