Everything has value if you know how to look,

[Lorenz commented, letting the barb slid as he thumbed through the romance novel. It was decently sized, for what he guessed was a production on the scale of a potboiler publication.]

Not all the details are blatant. Sometimes you can learn details of history and culture by paying attention to context. Something that the public deems too ordinary to have value may provide background for a great many details for us Mirror Bound.