Libology Blog

Unshelved is having a transcription party, and we all are invited!

Bill and Gene have installed the ohnorobot comic search engine, and all that remains to make every Unshelved comic searchable by character, quote, or topic is for everyone to jump in and transcribe a few strips.

I thought it both appropriate and noteworthy for the final Opus comic to end on a literary note:

The final strip, minus the final panel.

The final panel.

via LISNews

Male library assistants, you are probably familiar with this experience…

(I was announced this way when I attended a (non-library) administrative assistant workshop as the only male participant, once… memories!)

When Tears for Fears created a video for their song Head Over Heels way back in the 1980s, they used a library for the set.  The lyrics, however, had nothing to do with libraries.

This has been corrected:

thanks to Franny Oxford!

Two planets of coincidence had to converge for me to make this decidedly non-library post:

1. I posted a reference to the Manual of Traffic Signs a couple of months ago.
2. I am familiar enough with example number three from DeKalb, Illinois to know what intersection it represents.

So, enjoy America’s 10 Most Confusing Traffic Signs!

from Metafilter

The work cycle of Library Technical Services as told by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library (in the style of ER).

TS (YouTube video)

Bonus creative points for the idea of using a packing tape dispenser in the style of CPR as a defibrillator!

thanks to Cindy for passing this along

I noticed when reviewing my server statistics that one of my entries was run through Google Translate.  Curiosity being what it is, I called up the page:

When I realized that the post was about (see it here in English), I wondered if the humor would translate properly and if the reader would understand the nature of the post.  Low key tongue-in-cheek humor doesn’t tend to translate well.

I don’t think I will change my approach, but it was interesting enough to share.

…can be found right here!

On April 22nd, Unshelved ran a comic strip that, among other things, gave a tip of the hat to Peanuts. I was inspired and spent a few minutes of my lunch hour rearranging the letters via cut and paste. I had to get a bit creative (please don’t look too closely at the “u”), but it came out well.

I just received word that Bill and Gene and the rest of the Unshelved gang are fine with the revised strip being posted, so here it is:

Modified and posted with permission, (c) 2008 Overdue Media LLC. www.unshelved.com .

Thanks Jana! 

It’s a simple truth, and we all know it, but it still makes for a humorous punchline  over coffee:

On A Clare Day, 2 April 2008

Thanks to Donna, former co-worker extraordinaire, for passing that along!

From Nick Baker, the guy who brought us March of the Librarians (and some help from his cohorts at Williams College Library) comes a documentary examining the life of a golf pencil.

Short Pencil Saga

(I challenge you to not burst out laughing at 1:36)

thanks to HangingTogether.org

The Librarian Song (YouTube video) is, well, a song… about librarians… specifically about how librarians train users (Show it to them, do it with them, and then the user can do it themself).

And above all… it is really funny (as well as slightly risque).

found via Extensible Librarian

Remember how, about 10 years ago, the concept of a “paperless office” began to seem like a weird joke? The proliferation of the desktop computer and the ascent of the internet introduced the potential of foregoing paper documents, relying instead on electronic versions. The source of the joke was that instead of reducing our paper use, having access to all these e-mails, websites and electronic documents increased our print output.

An article titled Pushing Paper Out the Door in today’s New York Times documents that paper use has plateaued, and is currently in decline. The actual cause? People saving money on ink, toner and paper. This matches what I have seen in various libraries: people tend to be more conservative when their own resources are being used.

As far as printing from public workstations and labs is concerned, I like the idea of having a certain number of pages printed being included in one’s account, then paying for any additional printing. This seems to strike a balance that allows for modest printing without being overly commercial about it.

link passed to the Web4lib list by Bernie Sloan

On the Record : Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (Pdf), which is the final version (formerly titled “Report of the Library…”), has been released.

Working Group main page.

Daniel Chudnov’s humorous comment on one particular segment of the report.

My previous comments here and here and here and here.

found via Catalogablog, et al.

You have probably noticed the story in the news, but did you know that the winner of the ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition is a librarian from Manhattan?

from LISNews

I have always liked humorous comments during brainstorming sessions - they loosen people up, encourage participation, and sometimes lead to ideas that work.

found on MetaFilter

The Definite Article : Acknowledging ‘The’ in Index Entries (pdf) is this years’ winner of the IgNoble Prize in Literature. Note that the banner of their site includes the phrase “Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK”, and note that the winning essay fills that criterion well.

By the bye, how does anyone find out if a library has any music by The The via an OPAC… simply wade through titles between “thazzz” and “thea”??? An Inter-Library Loan staff member pointed that out to me years ago, and it still highlights one of the challenges of significant articles in titles.

found in LISNews

Unshelved, the web comic based in the fictional Mallville Public Library, just published its 2,000th comic!

By the way, we all know the comic isn’t fiction, don’t we?  They have cameras and microphones hidden somewhere in each of our libraries.  You just can’t make this stuff up….

Two random bits of humor injected into libraryland this week:

• Disco Dancing for Peace in the Biblioblogosphere is a JibJab “Starring You” video created by Michael Porter, a.k.a. Libraryman, featuring himself and Michael Gorman.
• This week’s Unshelved is merging two of my favorite cultures:  the Mallville Public Library crew and an obscure, yet wonderfully funny reference to the Firefly/Serenity universe.

thanks to The Shifted Librarian and The Unshelved Blog

In what has to be one of the most interesting comments without clarification in an interview, “Gene Ambaum”, co-creator of the Unshelved comic, states that Buddy the Book Beaver is real.

How much of him is real?  His checkered past?  His inability to read?  His unrequited love for the children’s librarian (Tamara)?  Or simply the ill-fated original incarnation of Buddy?  This shocking revelation raises more questions than answers, as he is one of the more colorful characters in the strip.