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FIVE THINGS: Surprising in libraries



Among the people who have had library jobs:

• Casanova. In 1785, the classic womanizer started work in the library of Count von Waldstein of Bohemia. He stayed on the job for 13 years.

• Ben Franklin. He and some friends founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731. But they had to wait for the books to arrive from England. The next year Franklin became the librarian.

• Mao Tse-Tung. He was an assistant, in 1918, to the chief librarian of the University of Beijing. He was not promoted, and so looked elsewhere for work, eventually becoming China's dictator.

• J. Edgar Hoover. The man who would become FBI chief -- and widely known for secrecy -- got his first job as a messenger and cataloger in the Library of Congress, where you can read about millions of secrets.

• Golda Meir. She was a Milwaukee public librarian before becoming prime minister of Israel.

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