If you’re a librarian on Twitter, you probably follow @FakeLibStats. I’m a fan myself—some of my personal favorite stats include “No matter where a librarian goes they are never more than 8 seconds away from being asked a question” and “Librarian’s favorite glasses: 34% cat eye; 66% wine.”

One day, while enjoying the @FakeLibStats Twitter feed, I noticed an email address listed. I emailed the following questions in the hopes that I might discover the true identity of the fake stats tweeter, and ended up learning some fascinating information about ARCgate, hipster librarians, and the daily life and loves of librarians (tea, cats, and cardigans).

Can you reveal your identity? Are you a librarian yourself?

I’ve told a few people and a few have figured it out, but at this time I don’t feel quite comfortable letting the cat out of the bag to everyone else.

I am a librarian. In fact, I’m a librarian with a cardigan on the back of my chair, a mug of tea on my desk, and pictures of my cats on my phone. I manage a couple branches at a suburban public library system in the South. My first job in the library world was working with library statistics and an international library customer service survey for a library association.

Why did you start Fake Library Stats?

I started it because I was frustrated at a job where creativity and taking initiative is frowned upon and humor has always been an outlet for me in situations like that. I’d seen other twitter account like the fake Stats Canada account and with my library statistics background I’d already been making jokes with coworkers about library statistics for years. I used the experiences with my job in addition to playing off some of the librarian stereotypes as a way to critique as well as have fun.

Why do you think it’s so popular?

I think people like it because libraries and librarians seem to be very similar no matter where you are or what type of library you work in. If you don’t see yourself in a tweet you’re more than likely to at least see an aspect of someone or a lot of people you work with. I also try to never be mean spirited or insulting toward anyone except maybe the creepy computer guys. I think, too, it’s because even some of the more outlandish tweets are actually things a librarian can imagine another librarian or a patron doing. One recent example is the tweet “46% of librarians have written at least one email as if it was being sent by their cat” which is actually based on one of my favorite library school professors who had a separate email account for her cat and would respond to any email sent to the account as if she were the cat. Those messages included plenty of meowing and purring thrown just in case you didn’t think the cat was really writing them.

Can you give me a list of some of your favorite stats?

Here are a few that recently made me laugh out loud when I typed them:

A librarian is never more than 12 feet away from a cardigan

92% of librarians will always fight for your right to party, just not in the library

Just like Voyager 1, 16% of library patrons have been living in outer space since 1977

There are 2 kinds of librarians: those who make up statistics and those who ask you to keep statistics

Where do you draw your inspiration for making these up?

Some of these just pop into my head during the day based on the news or latest trivial dust-up in the library world like ARCgate or hipster librarians or just anything else people are possibly getting upset about. Pretty much all the others, though, are based on something that has happened to me at work. One about the book club ladies having swords hidden in their canes was really based on a patron at a library I worked at who was using a cane that hid a sword– at least until he was arrested and sent away by the courts.