The Twin Hickory Public Library in Glen Allen, Virginia displayed actual human beings reading banned books for National Book Week in 2008. Thanks, BoingBoing!

Squidoo gives us some advice on pranking librarians. There’s a video with a decent joke about a chicken in a library, too. The joketeller remembers partway through that chickens are female, which is nice.

A library patron’s account is frozen because his book is overdue. He freezes the book and returns it. Ha ha! Hilarious! Of course, the book is ruined and the library makes him pay for it. Library unknown, September 2008. Possibly a hoax — that photograph is a little too perfect, isn’t it? Seems likely this never happened.

George Washington racks up late fees at NY library. Looks like our first president committed a library shenanigan of his own: he never returned a couple of books to the New York Society Library. Thanks, Dina Wood!

This video, made for National Library Week in April 2008, is very funny and all, but I’m beginning to feel a bit green around the gills at all the librarians-making-fun-of-patrons things that are filling up Library Shenanigans. What I like best are goofy shenanigans perpetrated by students or other library patrons. I’d like to see more of those. Still, this definitely qualifies as a shenanigan, and it made me laugh. Thanks, Emily Lloyd!

“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!

A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette is an excellent librarian shenanigan in the form of a blog. I particularly liked this year’s April Fool’s Day entry: “Celebrate April Fools’ Day by telling playfully outlandish tales to your library patrons, like, ‘The library web site is a good alternative to Google!’ or ‘I would love to hear about your family genealogy!’  Hilarity will ensue.” Thanks, Steve Lawson!

Yes, they can. And other beverages of an alcoholic nature. And there’s a handy serving table that pulls out, too. See apartmenttherapy.com’s advice. Thanks, Steve Lawson!

One more April Fool’s Day shenanigan, this one from Mudd Library at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin: http://blogs.lawrence.edu/library/2010/04/music_librarian_cloned.html. Thanks, Marianne Aldrich!

Second April Fool’s Day library shenanigan of 2010 (that I know of). This appeared on the Colorado library listserv. Thanks, Lisa Lister!

For Immediate Release, April 1, 2010

“AskColorado Branching Out, to Offer ‘Dewey Dating Service'”

In an effort to create additional revenue streams for the organization, AskColorado is pleased to announce the opening of a new fee-based service for Colorado library patrons, the ‘Dewey Dating Service.’ “Our AskColorado clientele have been demanding this of us for years,” said Kris Johnson, AskColorado Coordinator. “We felt the market climate was finally right to expand into this potentially lucrative arena.”

Starting April 1, 2010, AskColorado (www.askcolorado.org), Colorado’s popular state-wide virtual reference service, will expand its K12 and General queues  to include an additional queue and new website: www.deweydating.com. The Dewey Dating Service will utilize a sophisticated routing software to match patrons 18 years of age and over to their ideal librarian based on personal profiles. Similar to online dating services such as Match.com and DateAnEngineer.net, personal profiles will include age, height, political and religious preferences, and the usual likes and dislikes related to popular entertainment, reading preferences, etc. “This isn’t your typical dating service, however” added Johnson. “Our profile matches will be based on sound principles of library science, utilizing a sophisticated algorithm programmed on the Dewey Decimal System to accurately match patrons with librarians to within a 100th of a decimal.”

Once matched, patrons and librarians will meet for a casual, yet safe, text chat in a private chat room. AskColorado is partnering with OpenTable.com and Google Maps to electronically facilitate the transition of successful chats for premium service customers into in-person meet-ups at restaurants, coffeehouses, and wine bars by triangulating an ideal location then securing a confirmed reservation online.

Johnson remarked that she first became aware of the vast market for such a dating service back in the 1990’s while visiting with Fort Collins based punk rock band ALL in their tour bus. “Out of the blue, the bassist (your typical multi-tattooed, sweaty musician type) blurted out, “I’ve always wanted to marry a librarian!”” “Although the timing was not right at that particular juncture, recent economic events, coupled with the image of librarians peaking at an all-time high in public perception polls, convinced the organization that this service was long overdue,” summarized Johnson, “No pun intended.”