For all their excellence, libraries are low in glamor. “What can a library do to compete with such events as the International Festival of Authors at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, the announcement of nominees for the Giller Prize and the Governor-General’s Award, or the celebrity-cookbook author Indigo is bringing to a suburb near you? It’s possible, however, that society’s collective inability to appreciate the public library as a vital institution is the library’s fault.”