It's National BOOK Week!

To celebrate, we're taking a look at 10 people who once worked among

the bookshelves.
 MAO ZEDONG

Before he led the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong worked as

a librarian's assistant at Peking University between 1918 and 1919. He needed a
job, and earned only $8 a month carrying periodicals to the readers and
organizing shelves. "My office was so low that people avoided me," he once said.

J. EDGAR HOOVER

The future FBI director got his start in government when he worked at the Library
of Congress ("the worlds largest filing cabinet") while attending night school at George
Washington Law School. At GWU, you had to be a government employee to attend night
school. He started as a messenger, but soon rose in rank to cataloger, then clerk. While
working at the Library of Congress, Hoover mastered the Dewey Decimal System, which
became the model for the FBI's Central Records System.
LAURA BUSH

The former First Lady holds a master’s degree in library science from the
University of Texas at Austin. In addition to teaching in the public schools, she was a
librarian in the Houston, Dallas, and Austin school systems. Bush used her passion
and enthusiasm for reading during her time in the White House, launching (with
Congress) the first National Book Festival in 2001.

LEWIS CARROLL

The talented author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-
Glass served as sub-librarian at Christ Church, Oxford University. The library was
perfect job site for this avid reader: Carroll kept track of the library's books and their
borrowers in addition to tutoring students and lecturing in mathematics.
JORGE LUIS BORGES

Although he never won the Nobel Prize for his literary achievements in Latin
America and beyond, Jorge Luis Borges did work as a public librarian in Buenos Aires.
When he supported the allies during WWII, Juan Perón dismissed him from his
position and offered Borges a poultry inspector position instead (he declined). Once
Perón fell from power, Borges was appointed director of the Biblioteca Nacional, but
stepped down when Perón regained control of Argentina. While serving in this
prestigious position, Borges also taught literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

GIOVANNI GIACOMO CASANOVA

The world's greatest lover worked for 13 years at the castle of Count Waldstein
in Dux, Bohemia. Down on his luck and low on funds, Casanova asked for a favor,
since the occultist count was known to have an affinity for fellow adventurers and
fascinating people. Casanova set out to catalog the count's more than 40,000
volumes and clean the library, but he spent most of his time writing. It was there that
he wrote his famous Memoir
 JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe explained his passion for the details of a
librarian's job when he said, "The library organization proceeds little by
little, slowly enough. I hold my course, and seek to push on from section to
section. I profit occasionally from an hour of poetry, or a bit of scientific
knowledge." Goethe worked at the Weimer Library, one of the most
important libraries in Germany, where he meticulously organized and
cataloged. His success here led to other branches asking for his help.

ERATOSTHENES OF CYRENE

In addition to measuring the Earth's circumference, Greek mathematician and

geographer Eratosthenes served as head librarian at the library of Alexandria, and
also personally tutored the Greek-speaking king of Egypt. Alexandria was considered
the scientific and cultural center of the world in the 3rd century BCE, and being a
head librarian gave Eratosthenes the reputation of a universal scholar. He was a
model bibliographer and possessed an all-around broad knowledge of many fields of
study.
 BEVERLY CLEARY

This Newbery Medal-winning author and creator of beloved characters such

as Ramona Quimby served as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington.

After studying at the school of librarianship at the University of Washington

in Seattle, she took the job, where she enjoyed interacting with all sorts of
children. Cleary's favorite guests were the ones who had homemade roller skates
and scooters and asked her, "Where are the books about us?" Cleary answered by writing dozens of children's classics,
the first of which featured Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy.

BATGIRL

When DC Comics wanted to generate female interest, a "grown-up"

version of Batgirl appeared in January of 1967 in Detective Comics #359. In
this later incarnation (the original character, Bat-Girl, had been created in
1961), Barbara Gordon was the grown daughter of a police commissioner and
worked as a librarian. She only began her crime-fighting career by accident,
breaking up a robbery when she happened to be wearing her Halloween
costume. Who was the victim of this crime? Bruce Wayne, of course!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/21437/quick-10-10-surprising-former-librarians