Librarian Gina Sheridan's pithy vignettes of encounters with patrons and staff while working in a public library make a quick read for anyone who needs a small chuckle or heartwarming pick-me-up during a busy week. The title itself, I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks, is somewhat self-explanatory, with author Gina Sheridan recounting stories and overheard conversations from public library users and their workers. 
 I Work in a Public Library highlights the importance of public librarians being public servants and the huge variety of patrons and members of the community they serve. We're not going to always have the tenderhearted preschooler that comes in every weekend with her little sister and mother for storytime or the friendly old man that brings fresh fruit every month for the library staff. The cranky old lady that hogs the newspaper every morning or the latchkey kids that run amok every afternoon are just as likely, but are also just as important as every other patron. 
 The stories, submitted by other librarians and Sheridan herself, are very plausible. Working at the reference desk, I've encountered patrons telling me misheard or incorrect titles, a student's insistence that "no internet resources" excludes databases, or complaints about noise and the temperature settings myself. 
 One of the strongest points of this work is that it never devolves into a vent session. Like a reporter, Sheridan simply recounts an exchange or overheard conversation in a screenplay or film script style: 
 "Four-year-old-girl upon entering the library and viewing the arches and columns in our main foyer: 
 Girl: I am in a castle!" (Sheridan, 2014, p. 64). 
 However, I think the book's format itself, with minimal or no comments or insights from Sheridan is a bit of a weakness. I would love to have heard more of her perspective on librarianship and the different situations she's encountered. It would make the work more meaningful and personal. 
 While I love the incorporation of Dewey Decimal Classification to categorize the entries, the most annoying format decision was the mimicking of an author's last name, first name arrangement. It made no sense and wasn't even listed in alphabetical order: e.g. "Better, Feel" is followed by "Hoildays, Mixed-Up" then "Class, The Case of the Mysterious" (Sheridan, 2014, p. 82-83). 
 Another weakness of the work is that it feels a bit lazy: because they preserved the format of Sheridan's Tumblr posts, it feels like all they did was copy/paste a collection from her microblog. However, when supplemented with other interviews and articles about Sheridan (which can be found online), a fuller picture is painted of a thoughtful, intelligent, young library professional.