Mental Floss http://mentalfloss.com/node/25784/atom.xml 2017-04-24T17:16:04+00:00 http://mentalfloss.com/article/25784/libraries-librarians-save-lives 2010-09-16T00:04:00+00:00 2010-09-16T00:26:19+00:00 At the Libraries: Librarians Save Lives Miss Kathleen

Every Wednesday, Miss Kathleen provides links to a variety of stories about libraries, authors, and books. If there's something fun going on in your local library, leave us a comment!

Wow – I had no idea you guys were ready for an e-reader debate! There were some really great comments from last week, so make sure you take a look. I myself am not ready for one, but I'd love to hear from those who use or eschew them!

And now, on to the good stuff:

Book burning has been much in the news lately. Is it ever okay to burn books? Well, in some cases, perhaps...
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Now it's time for everyone's favorite activity: book bashing! Totally different from book burning, of course. The New York Times asks, Which children's book do you hate? It seems pretty de rigueur to bash The Giving Tree, but I gotta say to all the haters out there: As a child, I loved it. Loved. It.
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Ever wonder what the best-selling books of all time are? See how many you can guess before clicking the link. (No Twilight yet!) HuffPo has a roundup.

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I actually saw the above on a great blog I read: Stephen's Lighthouse. A wonderful mix of libraries, technology, and education, this is a must-read for me! Anyone else read it? And check out this amazing desk that Stephen linked to – made out of recycled books!
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I wouldn't say that I myself work in a "sexually charged hostile work environment," but every library is different. And one Alabama librarian just can't take it anymore. There's a movie, or at least a YouTube flick, in this story!
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As we've seen, there are lots of library scenes on the silver screen. It'd be nice if someone compiled them all into categories. You know, like a librarian would. Well, your prayers have been answered—someone has! A tip of the hat to you, A.G. Graham! Into the Netflix queue!
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Here's your funny of the day, courtesy of Love the Liberry: "A woman commented—that was a good book, but man! the paperback was so much better!"
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Here's another role I bet you didn't know that librarians fulfill – emergency contacts! Yup, the NYPL created a crisis policy after fielding a call from the NYPD, trying to identify a girl threatening suicide whose only piece of identification was – you guessed it – her library card. We protect information AND lives!
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And, in the course of such protection, we might get cold. So, we might put on a cardigan. That does not make us old, hateful, and lonely, despite this Venn diagram suggesting otherwise. @saulpims, you are way off!
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Is this the next hot writer? He gets arrested in bookstores and his writing captures the "aimless malaise of the Internet generation." Everyone loves malaise! My library doesn't have his books yet, though, so I'll have to wait.

If you follow a great library blog, site, or twitterer, please share it with me! Hit me at atthelibraries@gmail.com or leave me a comment. See previous installments of At the Libraries here.

September 15, 2010 - 4:04pm
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