Jessy Randall's Blog, page 4

library prank at Gallaudet University

The Gallaudet University Library Deaf Collections & Archives shared these photos on Facebook November 29, 2018, saying: “Throwback Thursday: The Library Prank. On a January morning in 1940, students and faculty discovered that pranksters had entered the library in College Hall (now the President’s Office) during the night and turned all the books around so their spines faced the wall. The stunt must have required multiple people, since there were too many books for one person to do alone. However, despite rumors over the years, no one ever came forward and admitted they were the ones behind this prank — and since it was almost 80 years ago, the original pranksters have probably taken the secret with them. The first photo shows the library as it was initially discovered, with all the books reversed and several students and faculty milling around. The second and third photos show students who were enlisted to clean up the mess and put the books back in proper order.”

 

Starr Lackawanna’s namesake!

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Oh mah gahd, Starr Lackawanna, the librarian who appears in Daniel Pinkwater’s novels The Artsy-Smartsy Club and Looking for Bobowicz, is based on a real person, Starr LaTronica, currently of Brattleboro, Vermont! Which, come to think of it, totally sounds like a place in a Pinkwater book, alongside Hoboken and Hogboro.

Thanks, Jonathan Caws-Elwitt!

Marian Engel’s Bear

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Marian Engel’s novel Bear, first published in 1976, is about a love affair between a librarian and a bear.

Yes it is.

If you would like to read it, it may be available in a library near you.

Thanks, Daniel M. Shapiro.

T-Rex library shenanigans

T-rexes invade the library of the University of Texas at Austin, May 2017.

18th century chicken in trousers

[image error]The staff of The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) call our attention to some pretty fabulous 18th century doodles by Richard Beale, including this chicken in trousers. Thanks, Tom Lovell!

poems by library machines

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Book-return machines in libraries in England are spitting out poem-receipts. Electric Lit has lots of terrific examples. Thanks, Kathy Randall and AARP Magazine!

Richard Brautigan Library Project

The Richard Brautigan Library Project from Andy Knowlton on Vimeo.

Artist Andy Knowlton has written and designed covers for 23 books in the imaginary library described in Richard Brautigan’s novel The Abortion: An Historical Romance. In the novel, the narrator looks after a library full of “unwanted” books donated by their authors, including:

My Trike by Chuck

Leather Clothes and the History of Man by S.M. Justice

Love Always Beautiful by Charles Green

The Stereo and God by the Reverend Lin­coln Lincoln

Pancake Pretty by Barbara Jones

He Kissed All Night by Susan Margar

Moose by Richard Brautigan

It’s the Queen of Darkness, Pal by Rod Keen

Your Clothes are Dead by Les Steinman

Jack, the Story of a Cat by Hilda Simp­son

The Culinary Dostoevsky by James Fallon

My Dog by Bill Lewis

Hombre by Canton Lee

Vietnam Victory by Edward Fox

Printer’s Ink by Fred Sinkus

Bacon Death by Marsha Paterson

UFO Versus CBS by Susan DeWitt

The Egg Layed Twice by Beatrice Quinn Porter

Breakfast First by Samuel Humber

The Quick Forest by Thomas Funnell

The Need for Legalized Abortion by Doctor O

Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms by Mrs. Charles Fine Adams

The Other Side of My Hand by Harlow Blade

Mentioned in the book but not written/designed (yet?) by Knowlton:

Sam Sam Sam by Patricia Evens Summers

A History of Nebraska by Clinton York

Images of all the book covers are available at Knowlton’s Facebook page.

Thanks, Dina Wood, for bringing this project to my attention — I love it!!

with creepy kid

[image error]The Alexandria-Monroe Public Library in Indiana says: “We’d like to remind patrons to not attach googley eyes to books. It can cause damage to the cover and in this case haunt our nightmares for all eternity. Thank you. — with Creepy Kid.”

Thanks, Sarah Milteer!

 

 

Librarians need a seaside rest home!

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According to Livia Gershon’s article “Being a Victorian Librarian Was Oh-So-Dangerous,” Melvil Dewey “predicted that female librarians would have trouble doing the job because of poor health.” Indeed, at the turn of the last century the Brooklyn Public Library Association proposed a “seaside rest home” for broken-down librarians.

When Diane Westerfield forwarded this article to me, I responded that maybe Dewey had the idea that librarians might suffer from nervous exhaustion or whatever because he was sexually harassing them and perhaps there was some emotional fallout from that. Diane then found this hair-raising portrait of Dewey available at Find-A-Grave. The look in his eyes! Yike!

 

Purple Syllabus

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The Purple Syllabus, created by “Prince fans affiliated with the University of Minnesota Libraries in conjunction with the Prince From Minneapolis Symposium,” is awesome.

Thanks, Kris Kanthak!