So here's the game:
Gathered from each weeks' reference questions, or if that's too boring, from Google Trends - a topic of popular or technological relevance that appears, based on its coverage, in critical need of clarification.
Mr. Atoz, from his Reference Desk, will take a crack at providing that clarity with historical or scientific insights and comparisons.
Mr. Atoz, Librarian, will thus help his world avoid supernova... again.
Who is Mister Atoz?
Mister Atoz, to put it simply, is a character from an episode of Star Trek, the original series, titled "All Our Yesterdays." Just a support character, really, who is only ever seen or mentioned in this one episode, Atoz's significance for me lies not in his role in the overall Star Trek universe... not even in the role his character played in this one unfortunate episode... but in his profession, one that simply isn't represented often enough in the science fiction genre overall, let alone a sci-fi franchise the size of Star Trek (he's the only one ever mentioned... ever! can you believe it? guess I should be happy he's not bunned and bespectacled...). My interest in Mister Atoz lies simply in the fact that he, like me, is a librarian.
Though hardly defined directly, his library - the collection he maintains within it and how it has been used by the people of his world - provides enough to imply what is left unsaid about the man himself... for instead of exploration and faster-than-light propulsion like the worlds of the Starship Enterprise crew, Atoz's world decided to focus its technological efforts on the preservation of, and access to, its historical records. That's right... Atoz's society put such a high level of importance on the work of librarians like himself, that when their world is threatened with inescapable oblivion, they turn not to their religious leaders, their mighty heroes, their great explorers for help... no... they turn, instead, to their librarians!
Which leads me to the conclusion that Mister Atoz is likely the most amazing librarian character ever made... and that makes him a great centerpiece for this library interests blog... don't you think?
For more information about the episode, visit the All Our Yesterdays Page on Memory-Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, or watch the episode itself at CBS.com:
"All Our Yesterdays", Episode 23, Season 3, Star Trek TOS