About Conan the Librarian

Conan (nom de plume) works for a central London Council's library services department 

Articles by Conan the Librarian

Everyday Acts of Intimacy Can Break Your Heart

When Conan the Librarian needs new glasses, he comes face to face with a language that he does not understand and struggles to interpret

A Christmas Cornetto

The London-based utopian librarian returns to endure management prose and to imagine the wonders of a labour-saving, shelf-stacking robo-picker. Throw in a Dickens bi-centennial celebration, a bargain-hunting council and the "the old ethnics" to understand the surreal world of public services that their managers no longer believe are worthwhile

The adventures of Conan the Librarian

What is a public library for? Costa coffee and "bums on seats"? or the promise of a better world? The managerialised nightmare of a London council's cost-cutting misunderstandings is glimpsed at through the deep stacks by a not-yet-defeated librarian and idealist

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

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