LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Today, May 3, is free ! Make sure you go pick yours up as nothing beats free stuff!

A Modest Proposal I think we can all get behind:

First, close all of the school libraries. They are filled with books that can be found in our Port Washington library. As you are well aware, the Port Washington Library is considered one of the best on Long Island. Why not put it to better use? By closing our school libraries, we would be saving the cost of updating the resources that are used by our children (not to mention the salaries of the librarians and support staff) and the children would still have access to our local library. So what if we would have to drive them there, spend time waiting while they do their work and drive them home. The savings would far outweigh the inconvenience.

Baby Got Book: Inspired by a shirt on ShelfTalker, Cheryl Klein wrote new lyrics for classic Sir Mix-A-Lot...

I like big books and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an big fat book
And glasses on her face
You're all thrilled, wanna talk to her quick
Cause you notice she's reading Dickens
Deep in the tote she's carrying
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring

For all you whippersnappers out there who never had the experience, here's a video primer on how to use a rotary dial telephone. Produced by Big Brother ... I mean, the telephone company ... in the 1930s, the film explained the dial tone and busy signal to consumers used to having the operator connect their calls. From the Retro Futurism post at io9.com.

Are you tired of reading banal BS on Twitter?

Or maybe, just maybe, does it scare you that so many people Twitter the most personal things?

Well it scares Tycho too. And today's Penny Arcade tackles the topic of Twittering when it goes a little too far.

Warning: Language is not for the easily offended. Regardless, it's still hilarious.

Bill Is both thrilled and relieved to announce that our sixth collection Frequently Asked Questions is at the printers now and available today for preorder.

This is a good one. The cover features perhaps the finest turban ever drawn. Inside, as you might expect, is what you came for -- a year's worth of Unshelved daily strips, Book Clubs, and Conference Tips at a sparkling 600dpi in black, white, and color. If you preorder your copy of Frequently Asked Questions by May 31 we will sign your book and Bill will sketch a character in it. We'll also sign any other books you purchase with it.

"Today I’d like to talk about librarians. I don’t know how many of them watch my show. If they do, they probably watch my show while reading or working on the Dewey Decimal System. They probably don’t watch much TV at all. They just wait for the transcripts. If they do watch the show, they probably keep the sound turned down and put their fingers up to their mouths and say, “Shhhhhhhh” every time the audience laughs."

From My Thought...And I Do Have One.

Okay, so it's not Friday and I'll not post this under the Friday Funnies topic. Besides, there's nothing funny about J. K. Rowling suffering a "wardrobe malfunction" at some kind of red carpet extravaganza because she wore a dress with a low neckline which was utterly incapable of containing her breasts.

It's also not funny that her agent gallantly leapt into action to protect the modesty of a woman who is far richer than the queen of her country. And it's not funny that he did so by valiantly grabbing and, um, manually containing the (ahem) offending breast.

It's not funny.

It's hilarious.

Shall we schadenfreude? (pictures are SFW)

Does your library use barcodes?

Sure, most of 'em do! Even those making the move to RFID tend to keep the barcodes around for a little while, if not indefinitely. But barcodes are bland, boring, banal, and blah. So why not do something different?

Get creative with your barcodes and turn them into little artistic masterpieces!

Our friends over at The Onion have printed a new Dr. Suess poem, where he chastises Hollywood for making films from his books.