FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Memoir Pulls Back the Curtain on America’s Libraries and the People Who Keep Them Running
Dorothy Lazard’s Behind the Desk at the Main explores the vital role libraries play in sustaining communities amid rising challenges
BERKELEY, CALIF. — In 2023, American libraries served more than 150 million registered users nationwide, drawing millions of visitors each day seeking books, cultural programming, and essential community resources. Yet even as libraries remain among the most trusted and widely used public institutions in the United States, they face mounting pressures—from political censorship to shrinking municipal support.
In her new book, Behind the Desk at the Main: A Librarian’s Memoir, releasing August 18, 2026, celebrated Oakland librarian and public historian Dorothy Lazard offers an insider’s look at the modern American library. Through personal stories and decades of experience, Lazard demystifies the work of librarians and reveals how libraries serve as vital hubs—and defenders—for knowledge, connection, and civic life.
“From the very start of my time at the Main Library, I realized that while most people will claim love for the library, few understand what goes on behind the scenes: the variety of services the library offers, what jobs librarians perform, and most importantly, how central a role the library plays in creating the public commons,” says Lazard.
Over the course of Lazard’s 20-year-tenure at the Oakland Public Library’s flagship branch—known as “the Main”—she built a career helping residents connect with the city’s past and present, eventually becoming the keeper of Oakland’s local history archives. Serving people from every walk of life, she gained a unique vantage point on the concerns and health of her city—helping patrons complete homework and dissertations, trace family histories, research neighborhoods, and explore cultures from around the world.
But the book also highlights the growing challenges libraries face today. As one of the last truly democratic and free municipal services, the public library has become a battleground in cultural and political debates. Efforts to restrict access to books—particularly works by and about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community—have placed librarians on the front lines of the fight for intellectual freedom.
As economic crises, political polarization, and social divides place strain on public institutions, Lazard argues that libraries remain among the most powerful symbols of democratic ideals—spaces dedicated to curiosity, imagination, memory, and shared civic life. Both a celebration of librarianship and a call to defend public institutions, Behind the Desk at the Main offers readers an intimate portrait of the people who keep libraries running—and how these cherished institutions become the lifeblood of the communities they serve.
Media Contact:
Kalie Caetano
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For review copies, feature interest, and interview and image requests, get in touch: publicity@heydaybooks.com
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Advance Praise for Behind the Desk at the Main
“This wonderful book appeals to the heart as well as to the mind, challenging the dark times we live in. It shows how libraries as democratic spaces offer us an alternative way of perceiving the world, relating to the world, and changing the world.” —Azar Nafisi, author of Read Dangerously and Reading Lolita in Tehran
“A microhistory of a great organ of civic life, told from the inside. Dorothy Lazard’s anatomy of the library is like hearing someone standing in the heart of Oakland telling you how this city beats, totally unfazed by how fantastic and fabulous that pumping is. As she describes it, labels it, she helps you see the world anew, like all librarians do.” —John Freeman, author of California Rewritten
“Filled with insights gained from her years at the reference desk, Dorothy Lazard’s book is crucial reading for anyone who wants to understand modern libraries—and why they must be protected at all costs.” —Liam O’Donoghue, host of East Bay Yesterday
Dorothy Lazard was born in St. Louis and grew up in San Francisco and Oakland. A librarian for nearly forty years, she joined the staff of the Oakland Public Library in 2000. From 2009 until her retirement in 2021, she was the head librarian of OPL’s Oakland History Center, where she encouraged people of all ages and backgrounds to explore local history. Lazard was the 2023 recipient of the Oscar Lewis Award in Western History from the Book Club of California. Her first book, What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World: A Memoir, was published by Heyday in 2023; the book was shortlisted for a Northern California Book Award and a Foreword Indies Award. Lazard lives in Oakland.
