Stereotank’s Little Free Library

Cool waterproof futuristic mini-library in Nolita in NYC from Stereotank. Part of the Little Free Library project. We’ve seen other examples here at Library Shenanigans, but this one is my new favorite. Thanks, BoingBoing!

Here’s My (Call) Number

Erica Carlson Nicol posted this sign to the ALA Think Tank on Facebook. It’s from the Neill Public Library in Pullman, Washington. Thanks, Marianne Aldrich!

Lego librarians, Oranges and Peaches

Lego recently introduced a librarian minifigure holding a copy of Oranges and Peaches, which is a bit of an inside joke for librarians (though really, in the age of Google, are there any truly inside jokes any more?).

Oranges and Peaches (a misunderstood Origin of Species) is an imaginary book made real; full story here. (The tale almost certainly originated in the 1995 movie Party Girl; a reference to it appeared in a scholarly article the following year.)

The description of the Lego librarian leaves something to be desired: it contains references to overdue books and shushing, not most librarians’ idea of the important part of our work. But of course, the librarian minifig has already been repurposed: Kristin Bell has made a Lego Viking librarian (something we all need in our minifig collection). I might also like to see mash-ups with the Warrior Woman or Medusa, but maybe not the Street Harassment Construction Worker.

Thanks, Joan Petit!

Where have the unicorns gone?

The American Library Association celebrated National Library Week this year with a book spine poetry contest. They’ve created a Flickr set of all the entries. Congratulations to the winner, elizabeth-3! Thanks, Emily Lloyd; I wouldn’t have known about this if not for you.

art from library cards

The Library Card Project at the American Craft Council has yielded some lovely things, but I had to take down the image I linked to them because they don’t allow re-posting of images. They do allow me to link, so I’ve linked from their name.

This isn’t the first time artists have used library materials, of course — Giselle Restrepo has worked with library check-out cards (see image at left), and Alice Walsh uses library cards in her book work, to name just a couple of other practitioners. Thanks, Kathleen Kirk!

“I don’t remember the title, but the cover was blue?”

An unknown library created this display to help those patrons who can only remember the color of the cover of the book they wanted. Thanks, Lynne Thomas! Lots more funny library stuff at The Library News on Facebook. One commenter draws our attention to a related video, “The Confusing Library” by The Two Ronnies.

blind date with a book

Many libraries have perpetrated this shenanigan, including the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas, the Maplewood Memorial Library and the Hillsdale Public Library in New Jersey, the Rockville Centre Public Library in New York, the Jasper Public Library in Indiana, the Amarillo Public Library in Texas, and many, many more. Thanks, Sundress Publications, for drawing my attention to this!

Australian library reclassifies Lance Armstrong books

The Manly Library in Australia put up this sign recently, saying they shall be reclassifying Lance Armstrong’s books as fiction. Thanks, Tom Lovell!

UPDATE JANUARY 21, 2013: it appears this shenanigan was a prank (is that redundant?). The library does not actually plan to reclassify the books. Here’s an article explaining what happened. Thanks, Brian Springett!

Books perform The Nutcracker at the University of Maryland

A fantastic holiday greeting from the University of Maryland library.

Thanks, Ed Vermue!

bookstore shenanigan

Somebody (probably not staff, but I’m not sure) turned around a whole bunch of books in the mystery section of a Barnes and Noble bookstore, making them particularly mysterious. I don’t know much about this image and would be glad to get the details. Thanks, PotaDOS and Sundress Publications!