Monthly Archives: February 2013

A wedding in the library!

weddingIn February of 2013, Barbara Morrow and David Kurland were married in the Northwest History Room at the Everett Public Library in Washington State. A librarian performed the ceremony. Best quote from the Paris Review article: “Following cake with the staff, the bride renewed her library card.”

I’m surprised there aren’t more weddings in libraries, when I think about it.

Thanks, Dina Wood!

Dream interpretation made easy

madame  fruitdreams

Madame Le Marchand’s Fortune Teller and Dreamer’s Dictionary (1863) will tell you the meaning of everything in your dreams. Each fruit, for example, has a particular meaning: cherries “portend vexation and trouble in marriage”; gooseberries “indicate many children,” and filberts “forebode much trouble and danger.” (Has J.K. Rowling’s Sybill Trelawney been reading this book?)

The numbers after each entry are the lucky numbers your dreams have provided. Visit Special Collections and request the book to begin interpreting your own dreams the official 1863 way.

libraries collecting/lending shenaniganish things

indri-lemurThe Macaulay Library of the Ornithology Lab at Cornell University has digitized over 7000 hours of wildlife sounds, including the clarinet-like call of the indri lemur, which they describe as “the best candidate to appear on a John Coltrane record.” You can hear that sound and more in the NPR story, here. (You don’t have to listen to the whole story — the website has pulled out a few animal sounds for easy clicking.)

seedlibrary1Speaking of unusual library collections, the Basalt Regional Library District in Colorado is lending seed packets. Patrons grow fruits and vegetables from the seeds they check out, and then harvest seeds from them and return those to the library.

Thanks, Rebecca Laroche!

blind date with a book

blinddateMany 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!