The Rotten Library - from zero to NSFW in three clicks or less!
an unforgettable collection of all that mankind swore to forget, but which we have trapped in agonizing clarity to remember always
[via MetaFilter]
12-22-03: city mouse, country mouse
I came across a nice little story about public services (Role of library, buses often underappreciated) from the Saskatoon Sun on LISNews.com.
I've been riding the bus this past week since my recent injury made both walking and driving problematic. I've never made much use of public transportation before, having never lived in a place where it was an efficient means of getting from point A to point B. And to be honest, I have a phobia of public transportation. I would think nothing of getting in a car and driving through any major city, but I made it to my 20th birthday without ever having hailed a cab or ridden a city bus. I have now done both of those things without major incident, and I have to say, I feel quite liberated. I can ride the bus! To the store! To work! To the library!
My initial fear of getting on the bus (would my pass work? would I know where to get off? did I get on the right bus?) made me think about service. You never know how the person walking up to the reference desk feels about libraries. This might be the first time they've ever walked into a library. They might be from a place where a library is a very different kind of thing. They might have had a bad experience in a library. Something that is very commonplace to you can very well be new and scary to someone else.
I get questions all the time that aren't technically "library" questions. But when people don't know where to go for answers, I'm flattered that they choose the library, and I always try to help them figure out who can answer their question if I can't. It can make all the difference in whether someone remembers the library as friendly and helpful or cold and scary.
As promised, a festival of lists for your reading pleasure.
First up, Time Magazine's Best and Worst: Comics for 2003.
Next, in the "Um, wow, that's a big list" category, 500 Songs That Shaped Rock, compiled by the curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [via MetaFilter]
And now, a Crooked Timber post on cover songs. There are, in my opinion, two ways a cover song can achieve greatness: 1. By doing something totally different from the original (e.g., Lolita No. 18 covering "Summertime Blues", Uncle Tupelo doing The Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", The Residents covering anything); 2. By kicking the original's a$$ (e.g., Wanda Jackson on "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", Aretha Franklin on "Respect" (no offense to Otis Redding), Britney Spears on "Satisfaction" (you KNOW I'm kidding)).
Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, a diy librarian original list: The Two Worst Movie Pickup Lines Ever. (Yeah, there are lots of bad lines. But I've been struggling to find anything that would top either of these...perhaps this weekend's Bad Movie Festival will yield some new gems.
- "This hog ain't gonna smoke itself." (Biker Zombies from Detroit)
- "How 'bout I take you home and eat your pussy?" (Shark Attack 3: Megalodon) - This one gets bonus points because IT ACTUALLY WORKED. And the gentleman who utters this line IS THE MOVIE'S HERO. (Unless I totally misinterpreted the film and the megalodon is a tragic hero...) That's how bad this movie is.
Last but not least, the The Onion A.V. Club Least Essential Albums Of 2003.
Don't expect any posts next week as I'll be travelling for the holidays, but expect another action-packed list o' lists after the new year, as those year-end lists start piling up! And, I don't normally do this, but perhaps the excess of sugar consumed over the past few days is catching up with me...
You're a True Punk. You know that punk isn't all
about studded jackets and mohawks. If you're
political, you're actually informed. Most of
the stuff you love is from before the 80s,
though you know bands like Fugazi kept the
spirit going.
You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla
12-19-03: Ranganathan needs a blog
I know, I know. I'm sure you're all sitting there thinking, "I thought the diy librarian would never blog about classification theory!" Well, fear not, gentle readers, I'm not going to start now.
There's something seriously wrong with the world when one innovative, blogging, rarin' librarian can have more links in a web directory than one of the most important theorists on classification and indexing. - eclectic librarian
So maybe Ranganathan needs a blog so he can compete with Jessamyn.
12-19-03: more on comic book catalogs
Tangognat weighs in again on comic book "card catalogs". I think it's interesting (and very cool) that Steven Grant takes the library as inspiration, rather than using bookstores as his model. Certainly, if Diamond had come up with a similar idea, it would be much closer to Title Sleuth than to a library catalog. (And apparently some Borders employees are none too happy about Title Sleuth...) I think the comic book industry is somewhat different than the book industry, and if Steven Grant's idea is ever realized as an open source distributed effort, not tied to Microsoft products, open to all publishers, as Augie De Blieck suggests, then I'm all for it.
12-16-03: the sound of one hand typing
Due to a shoulder injury (involving running and a stone wall--don't ask!), the diy librarian is typing with her left hand. Expect sporadic posts, if any, until I have both hands back--and then expect a flurry of posts and Friday lists!
12-11-03: Steven Grant visits the library
Steven Grant visits the library and has an idea about comics marketing: an OPAC-like catalog, accessible via terminals in comic book stores. Why not? Many bookstores and record stores already have something similar for books and music.
I should mention that Tangognat already blogged this, even though I got it directly from Comic Book Resources. I like Tangognat because I think the world needs librarians blogging about comics. LibraryPlanet.com is another good one for comics-related tidbits. I'm sure there must be someone, somewhere, writing a blog specifically about comics in libraries, but I haven't come across it yet. Anyone?
12-11-03: nursery rhymes and medical research
Here's a candidate for next year's Ig Nobel Awards: Nursery rhymes put kids 'at risk'.
Grammar geeks unite! It's not every day you read an article in The Economist in the category of Punctuation. In fifth grade, my English teacher told me I was using commas improperly. I found a style manual and pointed out that, while the manual gave plenty of instructions on where a comma was required, nowhere did it say that inserting additional commas would be inappropriate. So, perhaps, my use, of commas, was a bit excessive, but said teacher did relent and let me use them. Hence the sudden good cheer I feel upon reading this passage:
Harold Ross, a former New Yorker editor, and James Thurber rowed frequently over commas. Thurber, who disliked them, usually lost. He was once asked by a correspondent why there was a comma in the sentence, “After dinner, the men went into the living room.” “His answer”, says Ms Truss, “was probably one of the loveliest things ever said about punctuation. ‘This particular comma’, Thurber explained, ‘was Ross's way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up.’”
Some might call me obsessive. I prefer "attention to detail" (to quote many a job application).
It was the kind of homecoming celebration that could only happen in Allston: A benefit concert, at a nightclub, for a library. (Rock & Roll Library cranks up the volumes, Boston Globe, 12/7/03)
I don't know anything about this Allston place, but it sounds cool. Go check out the Rock & Roll Library. [via LISNews.com]
A while back, I mentioned David Byrne's PowerPoint book. Xeni Jardin interviews Byrne in Wired News:
Byrne: Yes, because people make art out of all kinds of crappy things
[via Boing Boing]
Go to Brains4Zombies.com to satisfy your hunger for brains and online shopping. No word on whether you can search inside the brain or not. [via MetaFilter]
diy librarian list day returns. First, a list posted by my upstairs neighbor Anthony, Stuff I'd heard of but never heard before last night. Then, because the snow makes me feel all romantic, a list of my favorite romantic songs.
- You Send Me (Sam Cooke) - One of the most beautiful voices in the world (I don't care what Frank Sinatra said).
- Stand By Me (Ben E. King) - Another beautiful voice, and a beautiful song. I was torn between this and "This Magic Moment".
- I Wish I Was Your Mother (Mott the Hoople) - No, this is not a dirty song. Listen to the words. Alejandro Escovedo does a nice version, too.
- I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton) - Pretend Whitney Houston never recorded this song.
- Save the Last Dance for Me (Ike & Tina Turner) - Lots of people have done this song, but this is my favorite version.
- I'm Sticking With You (The Velvet Underground) - The only song on this list I would ever attempt to sing.
- In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel) - Yeah, this song makes the list because of Say Anything, but it's a great song regardless.
- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson) - You had to figure there would be a tragic story song somewhere on this list.
- Heroes (David Bowie) - "You/You can be mean/And I/I drink all the time"...real life romance!
- Let's Get it On (Marvin Gaye) - After all that sweet talk...
Maybe next week I'll get that promised guest post...
This is too cool. Aaron has made a dada poem, Perfect Day Heroin, comprised of Google search phrases that led people to his site. Dada Is Not Dead!
I'm pleased as punch (and how pleased is that, exactly?) to learn that Dark Horse Comics has a site for librarians, Dark Horse Libraries. But I was disappointed to see that you have to log in to get into the site. Don't they realize how much time I've already invested in creating false identities so I can read the New York Times online? [via LibraryPlanet.com]
And in other news, here's a comic for kids that American libraries probably won't want to purchase for the children's room: TITEUF. According to a column at Ninth Art, "TITEUF is one of the few children's comics that doesn't try to treat children like a group of dumb, asexual, out-of-reality aliens." Yep, that's right, sexual feelings don't just magically appear on your eighteenth birthday. But never fear, parents, this book is in French.
TITEUF delivers gags about condoms, dirty magazines, and what lies under girls' skirts, and nobody raises an eyebrow about it in France, because it's amazingly well done. It's presented in a way that is natural and unthreatening. These feel like real children talking about their problems and sharing their jokes.
The French, way ahead of us, yet again.
12-1-03: ack! where did my fall go?
Apologies to any readers out there for not posting for a whole week. I've been busy, my promised guest poster sprained his ankle, so it goes. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving (any readers out there not in the US, I hope you had a nice last weekend of November). Mine was relaxing, offline, full of good food and football. Speaking of which, I must sign off now--go Titans! Library talk will resume tomorrow.
All content on this website, unless otherwise noted, was created by Tara Murray and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
