Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows library staff across Canada to collaboratively select their favourite forthcoming titles. Using CataList, the online catalogue service and order management tool available for free to libraries, library staff can endorse the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Juvenile, and Young Adult titles they want to recommend to their patrons. The titles with the most recommendations become Loan Stars picks!
But who are the authors and illustrators behind these great Loan Stars reads?
We find out in our series Meet the Loan Stars.
Meet Eva Jurczyk 🍁
Eva Jurczyk, photo by Alice Xue
Eva Jurczyk 🍁 is a writer and librarian living in Toronto. She has written for Jezebel, The Awl, The Rumpus, and Publishers Weekly. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is her first novel.
And you can find The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections on the January & February 2022 Loan Stars Adult list!
Learn all about Eva’s favourite librarians, book recommendations, and more in our interview below.
If you could visit any library in the world, where would you go?
I'd like to manufacture a reason to dig through the collections at the Château de Chantilly Library. Not to go on a guided tour, but to really spend time with the books.
Do you have a favourite librarian, real or fictional?
Real: the librarian (name lost to time!) at St. Gerard Elementary School in Mississauga who let me hang out and read through my lunch breaks. Fictional: The Washington Post librarian in All The President's Men who provides the clue about Kenneth H. Dalberg. A real tribute to our profession.
Which book would you choose to recommend to library patrons?
That really depends on the library patron but these days the book that I recommend to everyone is Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.
What does being a Loan Stars pick mean to you?
There's nothing more meaningful than the support of libraries. I couldn't afford to buy books for the majority of my life, so libraries have been my education, my entertainment. The idea that librarians in Canada are excited about my book and will suggest it to their readers — what a gift that is.
It’s our pleasure to have you on our list, Eva!
Are you a Loan Stars-recommended author or illustrator who wants to be featured on our blog? Get in touch with us to get started.
Until next time!
Use CataList reports to keep track of new drop-in titles and changes to key elements that publishers make to their forthcoming titles.