More of a bookstore shenanigan than a library shenanigan. Perpetrated by … the books themselves! Thanks, Amy Brooks and others.

This photo comes from CSU-Pueblo in 2011. Many other libraries have done similar things, including the Aalborg Universitetsbibliotek in 2006 (they used their set of the National Union Catalog of Manuscripts), the University of British Columbia Library, and the Globe University Madison East Library. Thanks, Carol Dickerson!

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!

When librarians act silly for no reason, those are some of my favorite kinds of library shenanigans. Well, I also like it when the students or patrons act silly for no reason, too. Here we see some librarians in animal masks at Columbia College. How long this lasted, I do not know. Thanks, Kristy Bowen!

Two excellent Halloween costumes by my old friend Joan Petit. We went to high school together and then, lo and behold, we ended up in library school together! Not on purpose! Now she’s a librarian at Portland State University. No, she doesn’t normally wear the sad pumpkin vest. I’m guessing she won any and all costume competitions at her library this year.

This mini-shenanigan took place in the study area just outside Special Collections, where I work. One student goofing with another, presumably.

During Occupy Wall Street (fall 2011), the picture at left made the rounds in Facebook; also, an impromptu “People’s Library” sprung up in New York City. Thanks, Dina Wood and Josh Getzler!

Very little commentary required on this. The price is $19.99 and all the proceeds go to It Gets Better. Thanks, Dina Wood!

In the spring of 2005, Carky Rubens (CC class of 1952) and his family donated a single leaf from the Gutenberg Bible to Colorado College: A Noble Fragment: Being a Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455. With a bibliographical essay by A. Edward Newton. New York: Gabriel Wells, 1921.

The Gutenberg Bible is the first book printed with movable type in the western world. In the mid-15th century, Johann Gutenberg printed about 180 copies in Mainz, Germany. 48 copies have survived and are preserved in libraries. In the early 20th century, a bookdealer bought a damaged copy of the Gutenberg Bible, dismantled it, and sold the leaves individually as “noble fragments.” CC’s leaf contains chapters VIII-X of Kings III. (In modern bibles, Kings I-IV are Samuel I-II and Kings I-II.) For a good overview of Gutenberg and movable type, see Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press.