This humorous zine breaks down the history and etymology of library curators. These individuals, sometimes called ‘testocustos’, ‘keepers’, or ‘textodians’, were hired by wealthy or aristocratic circles to curate their libraries. The Secrets of the Shelves presents the reader with several anecdotal tales of textodian antics; most featured feats were pursued despite or even in spite of the contractual duties of a library curator. Secret lovers, secret books, and pure, opportunistic fun was an intrinsic element to the job, which essentially provided an individual with a lot of un-surveilled time in a huge room of books.

The Secrets of the Shelves was designed by Knock! Knock! Books, and printed by Colorama on the occasion of Books on Books - a week-long event based in Berlin held on the topic of publishing and collecting.