New York City architect John Locke proposes converting neglected NYC phone booths into tiny little libraries. According to this article, “Using donated books, Locke tried a first version in one uptown neighbourhood that was promptly cleared of books in six hours and had the shelving stolen in a little over a week. His second version in another neighbourhood eight blocks south and pictured above, fared much better, thanks to the change of location and the addition of a Dewey-like organization system and official-looking DUB logo.” Thanks, Dina Wood!

University students in Canada set up tents in their school libraries to raise money for Room to Read in support of literacy. Thanks, Dina Wood!

She’s at it again! Someone has been sneaking around putting wonderful altered-book paper sculptures into libraries and museums in Edinburgh. She says she’s finished. I hope she isn’t. More here.

According to humanlibrary.org, the first human library took place in 2000 in Denmark. Other human libraries are sprouting up all over the world. Here’s an article about one in Utah, where you can “check out” Mormon Turned Pagan, Female Gamer, and Extreme Weather Chaser. Thanks, Aubrey Hirsch!

Includes scenes from Seinfeld, Sesame Street, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, The Golden Girls, No Man of Her Own, The Shawshank Redemption, Philadelphia Story, Philadelphia, Harry and the Hendersons, Party Girl, Ghostbusters, Clean Shaven, Phineas and Ferb, The Music Man, Mr. Bean, Shadow of a Doubt, The Breakfast Club, Only Two Can Play, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Twisted Nerve, The Man Who Never Was, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, JAG, The FBI Story, Wings of Desire, Se7en, Harry Potter, With Honors, All the President’s Men, and Strike Up the Band. Thanks, Dina Wood!

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.