Posts filed under ‘academic libraries’
YOU PEOPLE ARE BLOCKING THE LIBRARY
Certainly the best sign I’ve ever seen in the background of an ESPN report. Vanderbilt University students, we library shenaniganers stand in solidarity with you on this one. Thanks, Dina Wood and Diane Westerfield!
little surprises at the library
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. The text with this image is “There’s a guy at my University who goes by the name, Kush Jenkins, that leaves people weed in the library.” Thanks, Steve Lawson!
giant schooldesk sculpture
When he was a student at Colorado College in the early 1990s, artist Giles Thompson built this large schooldesk sculpture. It stood in the CC library until 1999, when the college donated it to the Business of Art Center in Manitou Springs. At some point after that, it was painted red, perhaps to protect it from outdoor conditions.
Giant chair-desk by Giles Thompson, CC class of 1993, Tutt Library, ca. 1992. PP95-62 #68.
Library staff Jessie Brown and Rita Edgington in the giant chair, August 1993. PP95-62 #102.
“Necktie” event at Tutt Library, 1994. Schooldesk in background. PP 95-62 #110.
Sculpture in Manitou Springs, date uncertain. Photo from the Manitou Springs Arts Council.
short film made in and around Tutt Library
This is quite lovely! Congratulations to director Chauncey Crail and the rest of his Colorado College team (Corrina Leatherwood, Caitlin Taber, James Dinneen, Dylan Pearl, Holly Pretsky, and Alec Sarche, plus many more).
Sham Journal Accepts Totally Absurd But Completely Appropriate Paper
I love that this happened. It’s not exactly a library shenanigan, but it’s library-related. Well done, David Mazières and Eddie Kohler! They submitted a sham paper (full of swears!) to a sham journal in 2005 to make a point (and make a lot of people laugh).
Recently, another scholar, Peter Vamplew, sent the same sham paper to a different sham journal and received an acceptance (contingent on receipt of $150). The journal even sent a sham “reviewer report,” re-posted in full at Scholarly Open Access. Apparently, the sham paper is “excellent”!
Thanks, Steve Lawson and io9 (from whom I stole the headline).
Ona Simaite, brave librarian
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this librarian performed truly courageous library shenanigans during WWII:
ONA SIMAITE (1899-1970), Lithuania
Ona Simaite, a librarian at Vilna University, used her position to aid and rescue Jews in the Vilna ghetto. Entering the ghetto under the pretext of recovering library books from Jewish university students, she smuggled in food and other provisions and smuggled out literary and historical documents. In 1944, the Nazis arrested and tortured Simaite. She was then deported to Dachau and later transferred to a concentration camp in southern France. She remained in France following her liberation.
Photo credit: Yad Vashem photo archives.
Thanks, Dina Wood and the USHMM Facebook page!
Lena Dunham student film at the Oberlin library
Lena Dunham’s student film “Pressure,” filmed in the Oberlin library when she was 19 (so, about 2005). I don’t know if she got permission to film in the library. I’m guessing not.
loud eating in the library
I must confess, this one made me laugh out loud, somewhat against my will. Seeing someone take big bites out of a head of lettuce would probably be funny in any context, but it’s especially funny in a library.
We think this may have been filmed at UCCS, which suggests that the pranksters could make Colorado College their next pranking site. Not sure if that makes me happy or worried. Thanks, Steve Lawson!
indoor flying demonstration
As part of Colorado College’s block 7 library shenanigans, Jessy Randall (your trusty shenanigan documenter) offered an indoor flying demonstration lasting approximately two minutes. (It’s important to fly slowly when flying indoors, for safety reasons.) Music Librarian Daryll Stevens accompanied the demonstration with the Superman theme on clarinet.
Plushies available for borrowing
As a block 7 stress-buster, Rebecca Harner had the idea to lend out “study buddies” in the Colorado College library this week. The experiment was a huge success, with stuffed animals keeping students company at desks and tables all over the building.
Addendum, April 16:
Further addendum, April 2015: we’re doing it again this year!
Further further addendum, September 2015: we did it again, and this time one of the plushies turned up on a high shelf with an inscrutable letter. Another, a cheerleading tomato (apparently), was found in the stacks.
Library Shenanigans 