Portals to all the knowledge in the world, libraries are also createduniverses of a multitude of imaginations. Librarians guide us to enlightenmentas well as serving as the captains, mages, and gatekeepers who open the doors todelight, speculation, wonder, and terror. Both inspire writers of speculativefiction to pen wonderful tales woven around them.

This captivatingcompilation of science fiction and fantasy short fiction showcases stories oflibrarians-mysterious curators, heroic bibliognosts, arcane archivists,catalogers of very special collections-and libraries-repositories of arcanewisdom, storehouses of signals from other galaxies, bastions of culture, thelast outposts of civilization in a post-apocalyptic world . . . grand adventuresand small sagas of the magical places we call libraries and the wizards whostaff them!

Visual artist(s): Hunt Emerson