Jessy Randall's Blog, page 16

yarn-bombing at Tutt Library

Architects tell us that Tutt Library’s concrete columns are “good bones,” but we are often irked by how they blockade our interior spaces. This week, someone (student? staff? possibly a group effort?) decided to treat one of the columns to a rather impressive yarn bombing.

Also, hello new subscribers! A recent post brought many new subscribers to the blog. Anyone is welcome to let me know about shenanigans in libraries and bookstores: jessyrandall @ yahoo . com (without the spaces).

missing issue yields a monster

As you may or may not know, Cosmopolitan releases each year’s worth of issues so that if you stack them in order you’ll see a bare-chested man. The Colorado College stacks are usually missing an issue or two, which means that instead of a man, we get a monster. Thanks, Diane Westerfield!

YOU PEOPLE ARE BLOCKING THE LIBRARY

Certainly the best sign I’ve ever seen in the background of an ESPN report. Vanderbilt University students, we library shenaniganers stand in solidarity with you on this one. Thanks, Dina Wood and Diane Westerfield!

Librarian Rhapsody

The librarians of Nowra in New South Wales, Australia perform a library-centric version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It begins “Is this nonfiction, is this just fantasy?” and ends “Libraries really matter … to me.” (Thanks, Feminist Library on Wheels!)

food truck is a book truck

Mexican publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica turned a food truck into a bookmobile and is traveling around California offering Spanish-language children’s books for sale. (An article refers to the truck as a “library,” but as far as I can tell, it is a commercial enterprise.) Thanks, Feminist Library on Wheels!

Improbable Libraries and the Itinerant Librarian

Two shenanigans in one BBC radio program. An interview with Alex Johnson, author of Improbable Libraries, and Sara Wingate Gray, the Itinerant Poetry Librarian.

lockers don’t just hold books, they are books

Two 8th grade teachers at a Mississippi school spearheaded an initiative to paint lockers to look like enormous book spines. I can’t believe this actually happened! I’m not sure I believe the statement in the article about the project increasing the “cool factor” of books, but I absolutely believe that the teachers “spent hours ‘arguing and fighting and crying’ over which book titles would go on the hallway’s 189 lockers.” I’m impressed that they put series books in order, next to each other — it’s like the lockers are organized library shelves. And now, apparently, students are compiling lists of how many of the locker books they’ve read. Awesome.

Thanks, Joan Petit, for letting me know about this.

bookshelf quilt

Patsy Nayback Gaylor made this quilt. The Reader’s Nook links to some helpful patterns and techniques so you can make your own. Thanks, Esau Katz!

NYPL internet wing

Cartoon from the July 27, 2015 issue of the New Yorker. Thanks, Esau Katz!

Magic: The Gathering librarians and archivists

People who play Magic: The Gathering will know that one of these cards comes from a “silly” card set rather than a regular one. People who don’t play Magic: The Gathering will probably consider all the cards equally silly.

Thanks, Steve Lawson!