Using microfilm instead of reading rooms lets penniless men colonize the library undetected

Evidence

Most men in his [penniless] condition who visit the Public Library go to the reading rooms. Either they have never heard of the microfilm room or they underestimate its possibilities. Consequently, the attendants there have never met a real vagrant face to face. They assume that anyone who has heard of microfilm and wishes to use it is in search of learning. They check the film out to the applicant and never follow up. Moreover, the accommodations are very comfortable. The room is warm, and the upright film-display stands give a man an excellent place to rest his head. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 746

Categorization

• XREF: Surprising inversion: seeking the more ‘elite’ or obscure form of knowledge (microfilm over plain reading) buys anonymity, because staff read the signifier as scholarly intent. Echoes the reader’s theme of props coding the urban self.
• SEED: Angle: ‘the anonymity of the specialist’ — how performing a niche or technical competence is the strongest invisibility cloak in bureaucratic face-to-face settings.
• CANDY: The fact that homeless 1950s New Yorkers napped comfortably against microfilm readers because librarians assumed serious patrons only is a genuinely fun, shareable image.