If you spend any amount of time perusing Wikipedia, you will encounter articles on topics that are either exceedingly trivial, offbeat, or hard to classify.  For those who seek these articles, they have a page for it:

Wikipedia: Unusual Articles

This could be considered a place to check for offbeat reference questions (although the Wikipedia search function should offer better results).  Note that you would not want to assume that an article listed on this page would remain, as “all such lists have a risk of being deleted because of lack of neutral definition of what really is ‘unusual’.”

A few articles of note:

• The Magic Roundabout
• Buffalo buffalo buffalo…
• Beatosu and Goblu, Ohio
• George P. Burdell
• ISO 3103

found via ResourceShelf

Change is the one constant of the universe – unless you need it for the bus.  Seriously, though, thoughts of change can be very stressful for those in a workplace.  Libraries are no different.  In fact, we have avoided changing some aspects of how we do things in libraries for so long that I suspect we are about to enter a period of rapid change.

So how do we cope?  The usual suggestions are to embrace change, view it as an opportunity, a way to empower the way you do your job.  There may be a better approach, one that encourages people to look at the negative potential of a given change.

The idea behind this is to understand what can go wrong, and adjust your planning to either avoid the problems, or better yet incorporate them into your plans in a positive way.  Not only will this process allow you to better implement change, but it will help to understand those who will resist it.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes an excellent essay on this topic in her discussion of John Taysom’s ideas.  She argues that it is actually the optimist that is better able to appreciate the negatives, and then to harness their energy in a productive way.

found via Dysart & Jones

You know it, even if you don’t admit it… your library has books that should have been weeded years ago, but have hung around until they become anachronistically funny.  To give you an anonymous outlet for this outlandish situation, there is Awful Library Books, a blog highlighting (only in a metaphorical way) those library books that serve to let us know that ours is not the only library that needs a good cleaning.

found via LISNews, who found it via Time

Love that New Book Smell?  Or do you prefer Classic Musty Smell?  Perhaps your preference leans towards Crunchy Bacon or Cats?

Smell Of Books has got your scent (and Sensibility!).

found via LISNews

Publisher Confidential is a creation by the Unshelved crew that strives to convey to publishers what libraries wish they would know.  It consists of brief statements illustrated with the familiar Mallville Public Library staff.  The booklet is being distributed to the BookExpo America (BEA) mailing list, so a lot of publisher’s representative will see it and hopefully take heed.

Some of the selections I especially like upon first reading:

• Start your periodical with Vol. 1, Issue 1.
• Unusual packaging creates problems.
• In the book, tell us how to pronounce the author’s name.
• Free Ebooks from the shackles of D.R.M.
• Not all fonts are created equal.

There are many more… and all are worth reading.

via the Unshelved Blog

Now that Google Ventures has been officially announced, I can go public with my own news:

Libology is one of the first group of startup companies which will be receiving Google Ventures funding.  I have been in talks with someone from their Cambridge office over the past few weeks, just sent in the signed contract yesterday, and today the terms of the contract take effect.

The biggest change you will notice is that they requested some design changes to this blog, mainly to make it easier to integrate with other Google services.  (See below for screenshots)  If you are viewing this through a feed reader, check out the main page of this blog, or view this post.

Another change you may notice is that I will stop being critical in any way, shape or form when referring to Google or any of their partners, including OCLC.

And, of course, one must always remember what today is!

Google Style Main Page

Post Googlized

Unshelved turned seven last week.

Here’s to seven more great years, Gene and Bill!

By any other name is the title of a blog post/essay by Mandy Brown which encapsulates the history of stored writing in just a few paragraphs.  Take a short few moments and read it… you will be glad you did.

found via Bill at Unshelved Blog (who says his thinking about ebooks was transformed by it)

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