Jessy Randall's Blog, page 24

museum shenanigans of the 1920s

Okay, so this isn’t precisely a library shenanigan, but it’s close enough, I think — people tend to elide museums and libraries.

On May 10, 1922, Colorado College students removed taxidermied animals from the college museum in Palmer Hall and placed them all over campus. This shenanigan was apparently in protest of then-president of the college, Clyde Duniway, whose policies were unpopular with students: he limited the times when men could visit women’s dormitories; strictly enforced chapel attendance; and fired a football coach for using profanity on the field. 350 students (about half the total enrollment) signed a petition complaining about Duniway, to no avail. The animals prank was one of several that spring: students also released hydrogen sulfide in one classroom building and somehow got a live cow up to the second floor of another.

In January of 1929, CC students again placed the museum animals around campus, this time to protest the firing of the editor of the student newspaper.

Source: J. Juan Reid, Colorado College: The First Century (1979), chapter V, “Controversy and Student Unrest.”

libraries rock

Emily Lloyd, librarian and poet (and all around nice person), made this rockin’ gif. It won’t start rockin’ until you click it. Thanks, Emily!

art from library cards

The Library Card Project at the American Craft Council has yielded some lovely things. It’s not the first time artists have used library materials, of course — Giselle Restrepo has worked with library check-out cards, and Alice Walsh uses library cards in her book work, to name just a couple of other practitioners. Thanks, Kathleen Kirk!

Ripon College After Dark: Danger in the Library

Scary AND hilarious video and event at Lane Library, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin. I wonder if we should do this at Tutt Library. Thanks, David Graham!

Skokie Public Library superhuman energy attacks

The Skokie Public Library in Skokie, Illinois is currently using this image as its cover photo on Facebook. The image is part of the superhuman energy attacks photo trend. Thanks, Steve Lawson!

card catalog cards for gay marriage!

 

If you’re on Facebook, you may see a lot of red squares with equal signs on ‘em today. As you probably know, they symbolize support of gay marriage. Of course, several variations have appeared, including one with matzah crackers and a Mark Rothko version. Emily Lloyd has created two library card versions. Thanks, Emily Lloyd and Kathleen Kirk!

Jocasta Nu, Jedi Librarian

Here’s an excellent short piece on the library and librarian in Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, with a link to a ridiculously detailed video about the Jocasta Nu action figure. (Sample quote: “This [light saber hilt] does have the little hook on the end of it where it could have possibly attached to a belt, but she doesn’t have the little hole in the side so she can’t attach it to her belt…”)

Jennifer, author of the piece, rightly complains about the poor quality of the reference interview between Jocasta Nu and Obi-Wan.  She holds herself back from making a fuss about the fact that the library shelves appear to be filled with bands of light, sooo futuristic except that, apparently, you have to go to the library in order to access these digital texts.

Thanks, Daniel M. Shapiro!

Late library valentines

 

 

 

 

 

A bit late for Valentine’s Day, but here are two library shenaniganish valentines making the rounds on Facebook. The Meow Kapow shop on Etsy is behind at least one of these, possibly both.

25 mini-adventures in the library

Mama Scout has some fantastic ideas here. I especially like the idea of the Kind Bomb in the library. Some of these ideas are more shenaniganish than others, of course. “Take a present to the librarians” is a nice one! Thanks, Heather McHale, for this one.

Flash mob at Tutt Library, Colorado College

Man, I wish I could have seen this. It took place on Tuesday, February 12, at 8:30 p.m., and lasted 3 minutes and 16 seconds, the duration of the song “The Harlem Shake” by Baauer (2013, more information here).

The UT-Austin library also took part in this meme:

Thanks, Steve Lawson and Joan Petit!