Benita Epstein's cartoons have been making librarians laugh at themselves and their work for more than five years. Her style has amused readers in over 130 publications, from Punch to The Saturday Evening Post. This collection of 114 cartoons is in four parts: "Inside the Library," "Outside the Library," "Technology" and "Writers, Scholars and Artists": In each, your funny bone is sure to be tickled and your professional sensibilities tweaked.

Despite the stodgy stereotypes, libraries and librarians themselves can be quite funny. The spectrum of library humor from sources inside and outside the profession ranges from the subtle wit of the New Yorker to the satire of Mad. This examination of American library humor over the past 200 years covers a wide range of topics and spans the continuum between light and dark, from parodies to portrayals of libraries and their staffs as objects of fear. It illuminates different types of librarians--the collector, the organization person, the keeper, the change agent--and explores stereotypes like the shushing little old lady with a bun, the male scholar-librarian, the library superhero, and the anti-stereotype of the sexy librarian. Profiles of the most prominent library humorists round out this lively study.

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Vols. 8-10 of the 1965-1984 master cumulation constitute a title index.