The Library Board Had Thoughts. Danielle Had More Thoughts.
An emergency meeting of the Millbrook Public Library Board was convened Thursday evening. Twelve residents attended in person; another 200 watched the Zoom stream, which crashed twice. Board member Donald Pruitt moved to ‘formally address the situation regarding a staff member’s extracurricular online activities.’ The motion died for lack of a second when every other board member pointed out the library had just had its best week of foot traffic in eleven years.
‘She hasn’t broken any laws, any policies, or any community standards,’ board chair Susan Ng noted calmly. ‘She HAS, however, gotten us featured on the front page of the Arts section of three national newspapers. So I think we’re done here.’ Applause from the Zoom chat was described as ‘sustained.’
She Got a Book Deal. Obviously.
By Friday, Danielle Voss had been contacted by three literary agents, two podcast networks, a documentary production company, and one very confused local realtor who misread the situation entirely. By the following Monday, she had signed a deal for a coffee table book titled ‘The Living Canon: Classical Art Reimagined,’ due out next spring from a major New York publisher.
The advance was, according to sources close to Danielle, ‘significantly more than six years of librarian salary.’ She will remain at the Millbrook Public Library, by choice, because — and this is a direct quote — ‘the library is where I belong and also the Wi-Fi is fantastic.’
The Lesson? Never Judge a Book By Its Cardigan
The story of Danielle Voss has now been picked up by outlets in fourteen countries. A Twitter thread about her went viral in Japan. An Italian newspaper ran the headline ‘La Bibliotecaria Americana Conquista Internet’ with what everyone agrees is an extremely flattering photo. A petition to make @ClassicsAndCurves required viewing in AP Art History classes has 22,000 signatures and climbing.
As for Ms. Voss herself, she was spotted this morning at the Millbrook library checkout desk, cardigan buttoned to the top, glasses perched on her nose, recommending a biography of Caravaggio to a retired plumber named Steve who had never previously expressed interest in 17th-century Italian painters. Steve seemed very engaged. The library had a two-hour wait for a computer terminal. Life in Millbrook, it seems, will never quite be the same.
