Posts filed under ‘public libraries’
card catalog shenanigan
I have categories for library shenanigans perpetrated by students, staff, and animals. This one is perpetrated by ghosts. It’s the New York Public Library card catalog frenzy in Ghostbusters.
Watch out! We’ve got some science over here!
Here’s a shenanigan that makes new use of the Neil deGrasse Tyson meme. Nobody seems to know what library did this, but perhaps a Library Shenanigans reader will recognize the ceiling or the rug? Thanks, Diane Westerfield, for calling this to my attention!
a quiet prostitute in the library
Libraries provide a great many unofficial services we don’t learn about in library school. According to a recent news story, a woman in Nashua, New Hampshire has been arrested for solicitation in the Tewksbury Public Library. She and the undercover detective communicated using written notes so as not to disturb the library patrons. Yay?
The public comments on this story are predictably amusing. I’ll share a couple of non-public comments made to me:
“Was she on the library staff? I only ask because so many library workers find it necessary to supplement their incomes by taking on second jobs.”
“I get the impression that [college and university libraries] they are among the most favored places for assignations. However, with the increased use of motorized compact shelving I worry about unwary ‘patrons’ being crushed.”
Thanks, Megan Lewis!
400 robotic books form a honeycomb sculpture
To celebrate 400 years of the Bristol Central Library, animatronics company Rusty Squid (with artists, engineers, and designers) built this amazing moving, creaking honeycomb hive sculpture out of four hundred hardback books. Andrew Cox, a librarian at the BCL, says: “We embrace the digital but we all still love books and the book hive is a wonderful blend of art and engineering, reminding us of the intrinsic beauty and love affair we have with books as tangible items.” Watch the video for the full effect. Thanks, Alicia Bailey of Abecedarian Gallery!
no Nazgul in the library, please
Library unknown. Thanks, George Takei!
Emily Lloyd’s Cards Against Librarianship
Emily Lloyd’s Shelf Check blog comic is a constant source of excellent library shenanigans. Her latest: “sneak previews” of a fill-in-the-blanks game called Cards Against Librarianship. Is the game imaginary? I don’t know. Probably. But she had me at LeVar Burton being stuffed into the book drop, and now I have the Reading Rainbow theme song stuck in my head. (Have you heard Jimmy Fallon’s Doors version?) Here are the Cards Against Librarianship previews one, two, and three.
UPDATE January 21, 2014: the game is real, and you can download your decks here. I want to play!
flying a drone around the NYPL
If I’d been in charge of this oddly beautiful shenanigan, I would have started at 2:02 and then circled around to the beginning after we see the drone. Thanks, Dina Wood!
Russian library cat wears bow tie, is cute
As Ryan Broderick of Buzzfeed puts it: “Oh My God, There’s A Cat In Russia That Wears A Bow Tie And Works As A Librarian. The world is a beautiful place.”
Thanks, Kathleen Kirk (and others, but Kathleen was first).
fakely boring ads for the library
In honor of National Library Card Sign-Up Month (also known as September), Ann Leonard of the Pinal County Library District in Arizona has created this handy Pinterest board of Penguin/Pelican style book covers advertising library services. More information here. Thanks, BoingBoing!
Best “shh” ever? Twerking at the library
“Caramel Kitten” twerks at a bookdrop and inside a library. (She twerks at a lot of other everyday places, too.). A little bit NSFW, depending where you W. Her “shh” at 0:21 made me laugh. Thanks, BoingBoing!
Addendum, October 10, 2013: More library twerking, this time at the Brooklyn Public Library. Thanks, Brooklyn Blowback!
Library Shenanigans 