April Fool’s Day 2010 programming at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas. The unicorns are magical animals that are great listeners. Thanks, Emily Lloyd!

In spring 2010, a Colorado College art class met in the library to discuss incongruity. In advance of the class session, the professors (with the help of library staff) placed a drum set into the Special Collections archives area. The class then met outside the cage and discussed the jarring effects of the incongruity (or something like that — I wasn’t actually there). Thanks, Steve Lawson and Amy Brooks!

I just heard from a friend that the library at Indiana University is sinking because the architects forgot to plan for the weight of the books. Aarrrrrggghhhhh. No, it isn’t, and no, they didn’t, and no, it’s not true at any other library either. This urban myth has been around since at least the late 1970s. Here’s the Snopes page about it. Such a persistent rumor should qualify as a library shenanigan, I think.

Sherman, a drummer in a rock band, loses his sense of rhythm after falling asleep in a metronome factory. Now he works in a library. But look at the way he’s stamping those books! He DOES have rhythm! From the “Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together” episode of Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel, first aired in 2009. Thanks, Deborah Leslie and Christian Dupont.

Library ad spoofing recent Old Spice ads. Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Did you know that eight of five dentists say that studying in the library is six bajillion times more effective than studying in your shower? Thanks, Lynne Thomas!

Choreographed dance performance at the Seattle Public Library, July 1, 2010. To the tune of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” Thanks, Daryll Stevens!

Jon Stewart made fun of the idea of the master’s degree in archives management on The Daily Show on November 11, 2009. David Kay, M.L.S., responded with a song to the tune of Monty Python’s “Lumberjack Song.” I like the line “It might seem very funny that we’re a professional trade, ha ha!” The full lyrics appear in The Metropolitan Archivist, Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 2010. Thanks, David Kay.

Addition: singalong version at youtube.

UPDATE July 2012: WoodyGuth3’s “The Ballad of David Kay, MLS” describes another shenanigan perpetrated by the same guy: “Based on a true story from an ALA-accredited library school. At the time, David Kay, MLS was president of the Queens College Library and Information Studies Student Association (qcLISSA) and helped lead a student protest with direct action against the University’s OCT (Office of Converging Technologies) when library proxies were broken and students were unable to do their homework and access library materials remotely and offsite. Forty-eight hours later, after leading seven students to confront the Director of OCT in his office, the broken proxy service was replaced, and word quickly spread that “qcLISSA fought the OCT and the OCT finally lost!” Students even celebrated with cake and punch! Recorded by WoodyGuth3 in May 2012 for Brooklyn Blowback TV.” Thanks, David Kay!

A raccoon (more specifically, a “wily” raccoon) broke into the basement of the Brooklyn Public Library in July of 2010. Plenty of snappy commentary from all concerned. Apparently, the raccoon may still be down there a week later. Thanks, Kris Kanthak!

The Old Spice guy is a fan of libraries. Or anyway he’s willing to pretend to be. Here’s the video, and here’s some context, and here’s some more context. Thanks, Steve Lawson!

Tutt Library is in the process of discarding bound journals now available in JSTOR and backed up electronically and in hard copy in multiple locations in the state and the country. Last night, somebody — or more likely somebodies (students? we don’t know) pulled hundreds of them out of the dumpster and built an igloo-like structure in the parking lot.

It’s beautiful, I think, and a fitting monument to progress and the future and all that stuff. It’s sad, too, and in the few minutes I stood near the igloo I heard wistful comments from passers-by, even some anger or disappointment that the library would throw these things away. I found myself defending the library’s decision, but feeling a mixture of emotions as I did so. Frustration at how bad we are at explaining ourselves, love and affection for the people who feel love and affection for these materials. A feeling of helplessness.

Why do people assume that libraries and librarians hate books (or bound journals) and can’t wait to get rid of them? We went into this field because we love books, most of us. But we have to care more about the students and researchers who use our libraries, and we have to try to do what’s best for them. For a long time that meant taking flimsy journals and magazines and binding them, making them into solid book-like objects that would last a long time. Now it’s a new paradigm, and we’re making the texts in those journals available via the internet. We don’t like throwing out the bound journals, but we have to make room for other things in the library. We receive something like 6000 new books a year. The library building isn’t getting any bigger, but our collections are growing and growing …

Ah, I’m doing it again. I’m defending our decision — which I should do, as a librarian. But let’s talk about the shenanigan. It’s a well-built piece of art, and does just what art should do. It moves us, surprises us, makes us see things in a new way for a moment. And makes us see other things besides itself in a new way for a while.

Whoever has to put all the journals back in the dumpster probably won’t appreciate it, though. And I hope it doesn’t rain.

Addendum, Thursday, July 15: I should make clear that the bound journals get recycled. And I can report that the library staff worked together on Wednesday to get the volumes back into the dumpster before the rain hit.

Further addendum, November 2: One of the culprits/artists who involved tells me that a CC student and two alumni built the “crater/kiva/igloo” in about three hours, completing the project just before dawn. The student remarks: “I apologize if the book-toss was more work than it was worth. I fully understand the practical reasons for tossing the books, as well as the aesthetic, tactile, and conceptual beauty of ‘the book’ (both in the platonic sense and as physical/individual objects). Very rarely is one presented the opportunity to work with such a quantity of anything, let alone a medium as interesting and iconic.”