Posts filed under ‘general’
11 Amazing Library Tattoos
Thank you, Mental Floss, for featuring these gorgeous library tattoos. Do I recognize a librarian friend in one of these pictures? Maybe …. just maybe. Thanks, Steven Kotok, David Weinstock, and BoingBoing! (But most of all Steven Kotok, who sent this to me hot off the press, almost literally.)
If you’re considering a library tattoo yourself, but aren’t sure if you’re ready to commit, perhaps these temporary tattoos would be a good compromise.
Show us your library card Flickr pool
In honor of Library Card Sign-Up Month, the American Library Association’s “At Your Library” public awareness campaign is sponsoring a Flickr pool of images of people with their library cards. John Waters has a big one — perhaps to go along with his supposed statement about people who don’t have any books, which has been making the rounds on Facebook. You can also see the cards of a stuffed gorilla, an orange shark, and the Karate Kid. Thanks, Jessamyn West!
The Credible Hulk
New library superhero? Thanks, whoever it was who told me about this, which now I can’t remember (not very credible hulkish of me).
Ryan Gosling likes the library.
Hey girl,
the Ryan Gosling “Hey girl” meme has been going for a while, and I thought the feminist version was my favorite, but now libraries have jumped aboard. It’s enough to make a man (or woman) cry with happiness. Thanks, Lynne Thomas!
Getting to Yes library shenanigan
My friend Kris has written to tell me of a possibly library shenanigan on page 40 of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Roger Fisher and William Ury, 1991).
Kris tells me: The point of the story is about how negotiations are generally not zero-sum, but can be about giving both people everything they want, because you focus on their interests, rather than on their position in the negotiation. So here’s the story:
Consider the story of two men quarreling in a library. One wants the window open and the other wants it closed. They bicker back and forth about how much to leave it open: a crack, halfway, three quarters of the way. No solution satisfies them both. Enter the librarian. She asks one why he wants the window open: “To get some fresh air.” She asks the other why he wants it closed: “To avoid the draft.” After thinking a minute, she opens wide a window in the next room, bringing in fresh air without a draft.
I think it is really interesting that the one who fixes a problem is not only a librarian, but also the only woman in the story. But this interest is overshadowed by the fact that they are in a LIBRARY with windows that OPEN. I am pretty sure I have never been in a library with windows that open, but I am willing to concede that this might have been very common in The Olden Timey Days.
Thanks, Kris Kanthak!
“Library Love Pack” at Unshelved
You can get library posters and t-shirts from Unshelved, including this divine “NEVER FORGET” with card catalog drawer. They also have “WWDD” — What Would Dewey Do, of course. Thanks, Ruth Hughes!
Little Librarian kit
This Little Librarian kit for children is charming, despite being hopelessly retro. “Book pockets, check out cards, library cards, and bookmarks are just like the ones from the real library.” Well … like the real library USED to have, DECADES ago. If there’s a market for this kit, perhaps there’d be a market for an updated version with a barcode scanner, too. But I’m just quibbling — I love the fact that this exists. Thanks, David Weinstock!
Electronic Home Library (1959)
Here’s a vision of an “electronic home library” from a 1959 newspaper. Note the projection of text onto the ceiling. Thanks, BoingBoing and Paleo-Future!
Outrage Over Plans to Build Library Next to Sarah Palin
This is one that may take some explaining when people of the future are studying Library Shenanigans. You see, people of the future, in mid-2010 some people were very upset at the idea of a mosque being built in New York City a few blocks from the place where the Twin Towers used to stand. The people who were upset about this were not, generally, considered to be intellectuals. So this is a response to that, and mocks those people … rather amusingly, and with some bad words. Thanks, Emily Lloyd!
87th Annual Masters of Library Science Croquet Tournament
New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington, North Carolina, 2010. This “croquet tournament” is more like miniature golf, with “holes” in various departments of the library. Thanks, David Weinstock!
Library Shenanigans 
