A few thoughts on Servant of the crown (and there is a library connection)

Servant of the Crown by Melissa McShane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book because I wanted to see how a royal librarian was depicted in fiction. This is a political thriller and romance with a mistreated library in the middle. There are cataloguing problems (the single volume listing is stolen), supply problems for cataloguing cards (and creative solutions for substitutes), there are humidity issues which are destroying the collection, and on top of that there is theft and corruption. There also have been no new collection items acquired for over two years. This is not a problem of supply as there is a local publishing boom, but one of how new materials are not always welcomed in a heritage library. In this context since this library is similar to a legal deposit library a broader acquisition approach is needed. Issues of appropriate training for librarians are raised and that is a problem which is not effectively resolved.

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