When I was a research curator at the New York Public Library, I learned a valuable lesson: unfettered access and Boolean logic will only get you so far. You need someone on the inside. The specialists who work behind locked doors in temperature controlled archives don't just know their collections – they love them.

And when we love something, how do we show it? We're protective, of course, but we're far too excited to keep it a secret. We post the best pictures of the object of our affection online, replete with the wittiest, most informative captions we can think of. We celebrate and tease in a way that only we can, because we know them best, and we care the most.

In that sense, book historians, librarians, and professors are just like us. They embrace social media to broadcast their ardor for archival treasures. It begins with a photo on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest, accompanied by a witty observation and context, perhaps followed by a longer post, podcast, or video. They love feedback, and readily engage in threads of a most silly and serious nature – and they almost always invite you to meet IRL.

There's an obvious educational benefit, but if you've been imagining the stereotypical librarian all along, severe and pedantic, you're in for a surprise. The way they playfully embrace incredibly rare materials offers a daily dose of perspective. We're living out our collective memory, and the world, both past and present, is most improved when viewed through a such a wondrous lens.

The following eight book historians, curators, specialists, and librarians do that best: