Posts filed under ‘songs and music’
“Gangnam Style” at the University of Maryland library
With big shenanigans like this, involving hundreds of people, I always wonder how much the library staff was involved. Did they get advance warning? Did they give permission? Did they plant the idea for the shenanigan in the first place? The Facebook page for the event suggests the library at least wasn’t against it. I know we would be pretty psyched to have something like this happen at Tutt. Thank you, David M. Kay, M.L.S.!
Jus Reign The Library Study Song
I’m not sure what library this is, anybody know? Thanks, Dina Wood!
Homage to Aladdin (“A Whole New Libe”)
In the summer of 2010, the staff and students at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota made this video introduction to the library for first year students. There’s singing! Thanks, Carol Dickerson.
Dewey Decimal Rap
Hi, my name is Melville Dewey! Nice to meet you, how you doing? This is surprisingly catchy and funny. New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington, North Carolina, 2009. Make sure to watch the excellent dance moves at the end. Other library song videos made by library staff or library school students include Libraries Will Survive and I Want to Be a Librarian. And of course there are plenty of videos made by students or other patrons, like Library Thriller or the excellent Library Girl.
“I’m an Archivist” response to Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart made fun of the idea of the master’s degree in archives management on The Daily Show on November 11, 2009. David Kay, M.L.S., responded with a song to the tune of Monty Python’s “Lumberjack Song.” I like the line “It might seem very funny that we’re a professional trade, ha ha!” The full lyrics appear in The Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 2010. Thanks, David Kay.
Addition: singalong version at youtube.
UPDATE July 2012: WoodyGuth3’s “The Ballad of David Kay, MLS” describes another shenanigan perpetrated by the same guy: “Based on a true story from an ALA-accredited library school. At the time, David Kay, MLS was president of the Queens College Library and Information Studies Student Association (qcLISSA) and helped lead a student protest with direct action against the University’s OCT (Office of Converging Technologies) when library proxies were broken and students were unable to do their homework and access library materials remotely and offsite. Forty-eight hours later, after leading seven students to confront the Director of OCT in his office, the broken proxy service was replaced, and word quickly spread that “qcLISSA fought the OCT and the OCT finally lost!” Students even celebrated with cake and punch! Recorded by WoodyGuth3 in May 2012 for Brooklyn Blowback TV.” Thanks, David Kay!
Librarians do GaGa
Librarians and library students tell you that you can use their ca-ca-catalog (don’t forget the databases). I want to be friends with all of these people. Cameo appearance by Nancy Pearl! May 2010, University of Washington’s iSchool. Thanks, Suzie DeGrasse, Kris Kanthak, Gail Plummer-Davis,and Jennifer Gresham!
“Librarian” by Haunted Love
“Librarian” by Haunted Love. Gorgeous video, beautiful song. “Don’t you find me appealing in a nerdy sort of way?” I found out about this song from Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. She says: “The song ‘Librarian’ by the New Zealand duo Haunted Love debuted in 2006 with a video featuring two attractive performers suited up as mock librarians, hair pulled back, glasses in place, fingers and feet tapping in disapproval as a patron committed various crimes, like scattering books through the library and sticking gum under a table. The ‘librarians’ lure the culprit into the closed reserves with the promise of new magazines, then crush him between the movable stacks. The video recycled the usual cliches, but at least it was stylishly done.” Thanks, Marilyn Johnson!
Reading Rainbow video: “Check It Out”
Wouldn’t it be great if we got to perform a big long song and dance routine whenever patrons entered the library? Well, I think it would be. Originally aired 1983. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU–IvskmWA&NR=1 Thanks, Diane Westerfield!
The Hackney Bunch
The Hackney Bunch, Hackney Library, Barton College, Wilson, North Carolina, February 2010. Video introducing the library staff at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeMUOQR8kac. Thanks, Anna Creech!
Head Over Heels
Literal video version of “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears. Emmanual College Library, Toronto, Canada, original video mid-1980s, literal version 2008. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6342db2270/head-over-heels-literal-video-version-from-dustfilms “I’m looking for a specific book…”
Library Shenanigans 