Librarians have never been a quiet bunch: Information, after all, is power. To mark National Library Week—typically celebrated the second full week of April—Atlas Obscura, fittingly, went into the archives to find our favorite stories of librarians who have fostered cultural movements, protected national secrets, and fought criminals.

How German Librarians Finally Caught an Elusive Book Thief

by Jeffrey Arlo Brown

For decades, often using a fake identity, a man named Norbert Schild stole antique maps worth thousands of dollars each, cutting them from rare books in Germany’s libraries. The librarians he robbed called him the Büchermarder, or “book marten,” after a creature that steals birds’ eggs—and set a trap to capture the book thief.

A party on the roof of Regina Anderson's home at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue in New York City. Attendees included Langston Hughes (second from left) and other important Harlem Renaissance figures, such as poet Clarissa Scott and sociologist E. Franklin Frazier.
A party on the roof of Regina Anderson’s home at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue in New York City. Attendees included Langston Hughes (second from left) and other important Harlem Renaissance figures, such as poet Clarissa Scott and sociologist E. Franklin Frazier. SCHOMBURG CENTER/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Librarian at the Nexus of the Harlem Renaissance

by Cara Giamo

You might not know about Regina Anderson, but you’ve probably heard of many of her friends. On a typical day in 1923 or 1924, Anderson might leave her desk at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and drop a letter to W.E.B. Du Bois in the mailbox. She may go home to her Manhattan apartment to check up on her couchsurfer, Zora Neale Hurston. Or she might hit the town with writer Countee Cullen, and then finish out the night cooking bacon and eggs for Langston Hughes.

The Radical Reference Librarians Who Use Info to Challenge Authority

by Natalie Zarrelli

In 2004, before the ubiquitous smartphone, a group of reference librarians took to the streets of New York to provide accurate information—from legal rights to bathroom locations—to protestors at the Republican National Convention. That effort sparked the Radical Reference Collective, a non-hierarchical volunteer collective that believes in supporting social justice, independent journalists, and activist causes.

A group of "book women" on horseback in Hindman, Kentucky, in 1940.
A group of “book women” on horseback in Hindman, Kentucky, in 1940. KENTUCKY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

The Women Who Rode Miles on Horseback to Deliver Library Books

by Anika Burgess

They were known as the “book women.” They would saddle up, usually at dawn, to pick their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks. Their goal was simple: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities, which had been hit hard by the Great Depression.

A Day in the Life of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Librarian

by Cara Giamo

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio, is best known for its raucous and dramatic induction ceremonies. But it also has a quieter side: a library and archive full of research materials, shelves and shelves of old records, and surprising artifacts and memorabilia—including a secret note from Keith Richards.

Interior view of the Manhattan Project's scientific library.
Interior view of the Manhattan Project’s scientific library. COURTESY LOS ALAMOS HISTORICAL SOCIETY PHOTO ARCHIVES

The Librarian Who Guarded the Manhattan Project’s Secrets

by Michael Waters

A small space, crammed with books, shelves, file cabinets, and a primitive copy machine, was one of the least-known parts of the top-secret facilities in Los Alamos, New Mexico—a town that wasn’t supposed to exist at all. There, through the 1940s, Charlotte Serber oversaw a scientific library that housed the details of the Manhattan Project and its plans for a nuclear bomb.