Obituary of a Unique Librarian

Obituary of a Unique Librarian

The Miami Herald says farewell to one of their quirkiest librarians in an honest, funny, and touching obituary that reminds me of a few other librarians I have known:

”We all did everything back then,” Nemeti said. “She was a database editor, then photo librarian. She had encyclopedic memories and knew how to ferret everything out of the files.”

She loved management conspiracy theories and gossip, and treasured her grudges.

In a bad mood — which was often — she could be mean as a snake. But she cared deeply about the colleagues she liked and turned herself inside out for them.

”She was a natural news researcher who loved the news, loved the work and loved helping reporters,” said one-time boss Elisabeth Donovan. “But it requires a calm demeanor, and Rose was never calm.”

She was, however, frequently kind, attentive and motherly, committing small acts of generosity like bringing a colleague designer jeans from a thrift shop and reminding another to keep his head up and “not let the bastards get you down.”

Former library colleague Ruthey Golden recalls that her friend ‘was always buying some homeless man or woman food. I know one cold day she came to work with no coat, crying. I said, `Rose, what’s the matter?’ She said, ‘I had to do it, Ruthey. . . . I just gave that woman laying in the street my coat. I feel bad for her.’ That’s just how Rose was.”

One of the many salty, multi-faceted, genius librarians who made our profession great. [via one of Jeremy‘s RSS feeds]

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