Here’s a shenanigan that makes new use of the Neil deGrasse Tyson meme. Nobody seems to know what library did this, but perhaps a Library Shenanigans reader will recognize the ceiling or the rug? Thanks, Diane Westerfield, for calling this to my attention!
In support of Colorado College’s minor in book studies, Humanities Liaison Librarian Steve Lawson and Curator of Special Collections Jessy Randall co-teach a half-block class, “The History and Future of the Book,” offered every other year since 2010. Each time, students (classes of five, eighteen, and twenty-five) worked with the printer at The Press at Colorado College to make some sort of book-like object of their own devising. At least one copy of each of these is now preserved in Special Collections (along with other student-made printing projects for other classes). The projects so far are:
book quotes book (2010)
Title (2012)
PostBook (2014)
Hombre McSteez uses an unusual stop-motion technique to make wonderful short videos. Check out the library shenanigan at the 1:03 minute mark:
Thanks, Suzie DeGrasse!
Seems like it would be even cooler if these check-out card t-shirts from had a bunch of names scrawled on them, though maybe that would look obscene or braggy (“look how many people have checked me out!”).
Hey wait, I see that if you go to the Shopjustwish site you can pay $5 and get an author, title, and name added! Awwright! What book would you want on your t-shirt?
Thanks, Steven Kotok!
Libraries provide a great many unofficial services we don’t learn about in library school. According to a recent news story, a woman in Nashua, New Hampshire has been arrested for solicitation in the Tewksbury Public Library. She and the undercover detective communicated using written notes so as not to disturb the library patrons. Yay?
The public comments on this story are predictably amusing. I’ll share a couple of non-public comments made to me:
“Was she on the library staff? I only ask because so many library workers find it necessary to supplement their incomes by taking on second jobs.”
“I get the impression that [college and university libraries] they are among the most favored places for assignations. However, with the increased use of motorized compact shelving I worry about unwary ‘patrons’ being crushed.”
Thanks, Megan Lewis!
A new version of the Reading Rainbow theme song, in which Levar Burton goes power-mad.
The end?
Thanks, Jezebel!
Addendum, same day: I’ve just noticed that in the video we see “quotes” from, it seems, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but in fact three of the four quotes are from the MGM film: “Now I know I have a heart, because it’s breaking,” says the Tin Man, but only in the movie; “I am Oz, the Great and Terrible” says Oz, only in the movie (though Dorothy does refer to him as a Great and Terrible Humbug in the book); “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” says the Wizard, but only in the movie. Dorothy does say “There is no place like home” in the book, but she says it soon after meeting the Scarecrow, not to get herself home with ruby slippers (in the book, the slippers are silver, anyway), and she doesn’t use the contraction. If you don’t believe me, here’s the full, searchable text of Baum’s book from Google Books: books.google.com/books?isbn=0486206912
With plans afoot to renovate Tutt Library in the near future, we thought it might be fun to document the spaces Special Collections has inhabited over the years.
In Coburn Library, we had the Colorado Room, home to Professor Archer Butler Hulbert’s books and often the professor himself. Hulbert taught history at CC from 1920 until his death in 1933. He published many books on the American West and Southwest, including The Forty-Niners and the Overland to the Pacific series.
Coburn was built in 1892, renovated in 1940, and razed in 1964, so that was the end of the Colorado Room.
The architects’ plans for Tutt Library, built in 1962, contained a small Special Collections area adjacent to a Smoking Lounge [!]. The main room was used primarily for display. In 1977, the Woman’s Educational Society funded custom-built wooden shelves for the area, which was renamed the Colorado College Room.
In 1980, when the collections and services of the library outgrew the original Tutt building, the college built “Tuttlet,” an annex to the south. It contains a new Special Collections with the same W.E.S. shelves.
In recent decades, we’ve had some quiet days…
and some very busy days (additional shelves built by Dan Crossey).
We’re looking forward to seeing what happens next for Special Collections at Colorado College.
In May of 2014 we acquired lots of new goodies. We purchased Karen Hanmer’s boxed set of binding models, Biblio Tech: Reverse Engineering Historical and Modern Binding Structures.
Adison Petti of Colorado College’s Collaborative for Community Engagement donated about thirty zines to the CC Zine Collection, most of them concerning social activism and/or transgender experiences.
And our own Amy Brooks, Cataloging Coordinator at Special Collections, donated a 1951 cookbook published by Westinghouse, Sugar an’ Spice and All Things Nice, which is full of excellent recipes and even more excellent illustrations.
Professional Literature for Librarians, fake pulp-style book covers for titles such as Circ Girls Are Easy and I Left the Disaster Plan on My Desk. Not sure who created this gorgeous set of images. Thanks, Jonathan Caws-Elwitt!
As part of Colorado College’s block 7 library shenanigans, Jessy Randall (your trusty shenanigan documenter) offered an indoor flying demonstration lasting approximately two minutes. (It’s important to fly slowly when flying indoors, for safety reasons.) Music Librarian Daryll Stevens accompanied the demonstration with the Superman theme on clarinet.