Reading last week's Ex Libris and Marylaine's article in Library Journal Communicating Off the Page (free registration required), I was reminded of all the great blogs and zines for, about, and by librarians. And I was also introduced to some new ones.
Brian Smith's The Laughing Librarian is one which was new to me. Well, it wasn't entirely new -- I had heard of it before but I had never really taken the time to examine it in much detail. I'm glad that Marylaine's Guru Interview with Brian reintroduced me to this excellent site.
The thing that's so great about The Laughing Librarian is the attitude behind it, the point of view from which its content stems. In the Laughing Librarian Print Shop there is a collection of library bookmarks, including one titled "Learn to Cook and Sew!" with a picture of the front cover of Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs; another is titled "Shhhhh" and then reads "Shhhhhut the f*# up! You're in a library, asshole!"
I love it!
Koans of the Zen Librarian is another fabulous section, containing such pearls of wisdom as:
A student came to the Zen Librarian and said, "I need to see an article in a journal that you do not carry. Can you order it for me?" The Zen Librarian said, "You have not seen the article?" "No", the student said. "Then you don't need it," the Zen Librarian replied.
and
S.R. Ranganathan said to the Zen Librarian, "Save the time of the reader, for it is valuable." The Zen Librarian replied, "But the time of the reader is finite; value is not. The reader has no value, hence his time cannot be rescued."
You'll also find Lib.Sigs, "Quotations for Librarians' E-mail Signature Files"; Laugh'n'Links, a selective collection of kooky links of interest; and Tales of Library Lunacy, which are "true stories and examples of preposterous policies, practices, priggery, or perverse passages of personality perpetrated by librarians, library staff, library boards, or non-librarian administrators who have authority over libraries or librarians".
Brian Smith's The Laughing Librarian is one which was new to me. Well, it wasn't entirely new -- I had heard of it before but I had never really taken the time to examine it in much detail. I'm glad that Marylaine's Guru Interview with Brian reintroduced me to this excellent site.
The thing that's so great about The Laughing Librarian is the attitude behind it, the point of view from which its content stems. In the Laughing Librarian Print Shop there is a collection of library bookmarks, including one titled "Learn to Cook and Sew!" with a picture of the front cover of Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs; another is titled "Shhhhh" and then reads "Shhhhhut the f*# up! You're in a library, asshole!"
I love it!
Koans of the Zen Librarian is another fabulous section, containing such pearls of wisdom as:
A student came to the Zen Librarian and said, "I need to see an article in a journal that you do not carry. Can you order it for me?" The Zen Librarian said, "You have not seen the article?" "No", the student said. "Then you don't need it," the Zen Librarian replied.
and
S.R. Ranganathan said to the Zen Librarian, "Save the time of the reader, for it is valuable." The Zen Librarian replied, "But the time of the reader is finite; value is not. The reader has no value, hence his time cannot be rescued."
You'll also find Lib.Sigs, "Quotations for Librarians' E-mail Signature Files"; Laugh'n'Links, a selective collection of kooky links of interest; and Tales of Library Lunacy, which are "true stories and examples of preposterous policies, practices, priggery, or perverse passages of personality perpetrated by librarians, library staff, library boards, or non-librarian administrators who have authority over libraries or librarians".
Thank you, Brian! Thank you for creating and maintaining a site which makes fun of us and encourages us to make fun of ourselves, and points out some of the bizarre things that we librarians and library administrators say and do. I felt a real kindred spirit when I read the following in the About The Laughing Librarian section of the site:
Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article On The Lighter Side in Library/Information Science is owned by . Permission to republish On The Lighter Side in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Gillian Davis's Library/Information Science topic, please visit the Discussions page.