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!

card catalog cards for gay marriage!

 

If you’re on Facebook, you may see a lot of red squares with equal signs on ‘em today. As you probably know, they symbolize support of gay marriage. Of course, several variations have appeared, including one with matzah crackers and a Mark Rothko version. Emily Lloyd has created two library card versions. Thanks, Emily Lloyd and Kathleen Kirk!

Late library valentines

 

 

 

 

 

A bit late for Valentine’s Day, but here are two library shenaniganish valentines making the rounds on Facebook. The Meow Kapow shop on Etsy is behind at least one of these, possibly both.

Sarah Vowell gives some library advice

In the June/July issue of The Believer, Sarah Vowell gave some excellent advice to a person with a crush on a librarian. Thanks, David Weinstock!

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!