The Humorous, the Epic, and the Awesome

Zombies: 
There may be something to the theory that they will be part of the next genre-bending type of novel!

Jesse Petersen has a quiz up: How Long Would Your Relationship Survive in the Zombie Apocalypse?

Even Libraries are now taking precautions against Zombies

(picture description:  Sign showing an anonymous library's summer hours.  They are closed on saturdays and sundays for the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!)

Source:
Forget Overdue Fines!via Oddly Specific - Funny Signs by Cheezburger Network on 7/24/10









The Librarian's Guide to Etiquette is, as always, the definitive resource for ways to handle any awkward situation that you might encounter at the library.

Librarians should routinely participate in team-building games with their library colleagues to increase morale around the workplace. Some suggestions:

• Play "Pin the Security Tape on the Hateful Patron"
• Give one another "Date Due"-stamp tattoos
• Do "trust falls" from the Circulation Desk
• Host a book truck demolition derby
• Play Dodge-Book (i.e., throwing books at one another)

Conversation, Making via A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette by J on 8/3/10

Librarians should limit themselves to one "cat story" per day to avoid the risk of becoming a bore around the library workplace. Also, once you are home, limit yourself to one "library story" per day to avoid becoming a bore to your cat.

The Epic:

Kansas City Library's Epic Parking Garage (sorry, lost source)

(picture description:  Kansas City Public Library has a new parking garage.  The exterior is made to look like books in what I believe is an oxford-style binding.  While the titles are difficult to read, Charlotte's Web and the Invisible Man are clearly seen.  Sadly, I can not tell if they are in alphabetical order.)

The Awesome:

How Libraries Ensure Ongoing Freedom in America
If there is one moment at the start of our country that probably ensured our ongoing freedom more than any other it was when Ben Franklin talked everyone else into building and opening libraries to the masses. Books were too expensive for most people in those days and therefore a lot of information was being held by a small number of people.

A system of libraries across the newly found America was his solution to making sure the ideal of democracy was kept alive for generations to come. He set the tone by not requiring that libraries leave out other ideas, and in particular political views, therefore making it possible for people to form their own opinions.

There have even been studies in recent years that show a correlation between an active and healthy library and a lower crime rate in a neighborhood.

Libraries are still a place that are completely open to the interpretation of the warm body holding the library card and the books they check out. We can choose to learn more about history or sink into a thriller or just read about a celebrity we admire. There’s no one asking us why we picked that book and so no judgment and we are free to gather a little more information and even be entertained for a little while.

However, libraries still hold two very important things that neither Google nor a Kindle will ever be able to offer us.

The first is that libraries give everyone regardless of income the chance to participate and learn to their heart’s content. No computer or internet service required. The second is they provide the anonymity to do it.