60-second stop motion film starring Yale University’s card catalog (Sterling Memorial Library). Thanks, Emily Lloyd!
For card catalog aficionados: here’s the abstract of Nicholson Baker’s 1996 article in the New Yorker (subscribers can login and read the whole thing), later reprinted in his essay collection The Size of Thoughts. And you could make pilgrimage to the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded 1731: ask to see the card catalog in the basement — it contains handwritten cards!
In March 2012, Special Collections purchased a 20th century Ethiopian “magic scroll.” According to the dealer’s description, it is on parchment, probably goatskin, and in the language of Ge’ez (pronounced guh-UHZ, sometimes known as Ethiopic). It’s about 55 inches long and rolls up to the size of one of Wonder Woman’s wrist cuffs.
The scroll provides healing and protection for the person for whom it was made, and its length often matches the height of that person. (Ours is 55 inches long.)
We don’t know a lot about these scrolls, but according to this book, available at Tutt Library, each one is made for a particular individual, and the scrolls mix elements from Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Another useful source on the topic is Harry Stroomer’s chapter “Magic parchment scrolls from Ethiopia,” available here.
In March of 2012, Special Collections acquired a single leaf from a 19th century Chinese woodblock printed book. This leaf, mounted on heavy paper, is a bifolium (two-page spread) from the Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government), and was probably printed in the 19th century. The first edition of the text was produced in the 11th century using the same kind of printing technology.
We will use this leaf in conjunction with our other manuscript and printed leaves when we talk about the history of the material form of the written word in support of CC’s thematic minor in book studies.
This photo from the beautiful and stylish Bookshelf blog shows the Los Angeles Public Library’s hospital bookmobile in 1928. Thanks, BoingBoing!
Artist Miler Lagos has made an igloo out of books, and you can walk inside it. It might remind you of a similar structure built by CC students in 2010. Thanks, BoingBoing!
Two giant book sculptures that seem like library shenanigans: Alicia Martin’s “Biografias” in Madrid and a giant tower of books about Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. Thanks, BoingBoing!
This video for Rufus Wainright’s “Out of the Game,” starring Helena Bonham Carter as a beautiful bored librarian, contains numerous library shenanigans, including smoking, slapping, sleeping, and more. Thanks, Steve Lawson!
In April 2012, the Widener Library at Harvard University began a pilot project to lend dogs to students. Apparently Yale, M.I.T., and the University of Connecticut have similar projects. Thanks, Carol Dickerson!