The Truro Public Library in Truro, Massachusetts may be responsible for this excellent jack-o-lantern. Thanks, Esau Katz!

Not sure where or when this photo was taken, but with Halloween coming up it seems apropos. Thanks, Emily Lloyd!

Now and then I myself perpetrate a library shenanigan. I’ve been making a lot of diagram poems lately, using images from old library books and other things. Ohio Edit recently published my “roots” series, which includes a diagram showing my library roots. (It also includes one for my book roots.) The illustration is from: William Austin Cannon. The Root Habits of Desert Plants. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institute, 1911 (full text available from Google Books). If you’d like to make a similar diagram poem showing your own library roots, email me the image (jessyrandall@yahoo.com) and I’ll collect them in a separate post.

The Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays are facing off in the American League Championship Series, so Libraries in Kansas City, Toronto are waging a Twitter war using photographs of books. (It’s kind of like this, but with baseball.) Thanks, Joan Petit!

Weddings in libraries, bookstores, and other bookish places. I suppose it’s not really a shenanigan if the library makes money by hosting weddings — but it might feel like a shenanigan to the brides and grooms and their guests! I wish BuzzFeed had found some photos of same-sex weddings in libraries, though. They do happen.

Many libraries have stories of overdue books being returned decades after they were borrowed. Portland State recently received a book 52 years overdue. This beats Colorado College’s figures: in 2005, we received books 25 and 45 years overdue. (See the full story in the Winter 2006 issue of the library newsletter.) But we’re nowhere near the record: 221 years. The perpetrator? George Washington. I kid you not. See the full story here.

These signs are genius. Location: Los Angeles Public Library (I’m not sure which branch, does anyone know?). Thanks, Gabriel Biel! No, not THAT Gabriel Biel, THIS Gabriel Biel.

Update, April 2017: lots more funny library signs are collected together here. Thanks, Suzie DeGrasse!

The librarians at Georgia Tech have a rock ‘n’ roll radio show! It’s called “Lost in the Stacks.” Charlie Bennett (Undergraduate Programming & Engagement Librarian) and Ameet Doshi (Director, Service Experience & Program Design) have been broadcasting music and library talk since 2010. Topics on the show have included Citizen Archiving, The DC Punk Archive, Our Little Free Library, Beautiful Library Renovations, and Libraries as Inspirational Space.

Thanks, Daryll Stevens!

Sometime in the year 1445 (probably), a cat stepped in black ink and made paw prints in this Croatian manuscript. I wonder what the scribe (likely a monk) said when he (likely a he) found these marks. My guess is that it involved a few swear words. Thanks, Ross Gresham!

ModCloth is selling their “Archive Got the Power” dress for $99.99 in sizes from XS to 4X. Oddly, no one has reviewed it yet, which seems strange for a dress with books all over it, somehow.