Book Titles Weird and Monotonous

Another link courtesy of American Libraries Direct: the Weird Books Room on AbeBooks!

Some of my favorites from this selection:
Why Do I Vomit?
Soldier Bear (you have to see the cover)
What to Do When the Russians Come: A Survivor's Guide
Oedipus in Disneyland
Is Your Dog Gay?
Poop-Eaters: Dung Beetles in the Food Chain
Nuclear War: What's in It for You?
How to Survive a Robot Uprising
The Bible Cure for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Lately I've also noticed an increasingly annoying phenomenon in trendy scholarly book titles. We're an academic library, so of course we buy a lot of academic books, and it's become obvious to me that the format Trendy Title: A Trendy Subtitle That Explains What the Trendy Title is Actually About is very popular. I would vote for an even more original trendy title that can fit in one line and can also adequately represent what the book is about. Here are some examples of what I mean from the recent batch of books that we ordered:

Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin
World Without End?: Environmental Disaster and the Collapse of Empires
The Sea Woman: Sedna in Inuit Shamanism and Art in the Eastern Arctic
The Borders Within: Encounters Between Mexico and the U.S.
Al'America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots

There are SO many of these that whenever I see one I just want to shake the author, or the publisher, or whoever is responsible for it and say "We get it already! The trendy title is very clever! Can you just tell us what the book is about instead?"

I guess I'm stuck with book titles in this line of work, from the amusing to the downright obnoxious.

Terrible Book Title

I just ordered a book called Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling.

Let the bad puns roll.

1947

This is odd... it kind of seems like librarians haven't changed that much since 1947, aside from the technology aspect. And the director being a man with an army of women to command.

Good Librarian/Bad Librarian

I've been gone for four months, busy getting married and honeymooning and the associated. "My husband" added to profile interests... check!

Well, the campus closed at 1pm on Wednesday and was closed all day yesterday due to the snow. We haven't had this kind of weather in over ten years. Paul (aforementioned husband) drove me to work today and we saw one of those flashy billboards stating it was 9F/-12C outside. Good times.

AL Direct mentioned both a good librarian and a bad librarian in their last newsletter. Thought you would get a kick out of them.

TS

This is like the place where I work, except that this is massively bigger. It looks like they have about twenty tech. serv. staff, whereas in our library we have two--me and my supervisor. Our library is a lot smaller, so my supervisor and I do all of the acquisitions, cataloging, processing, mending, and stacks maintenance (which you don't see in this video--consists of inventory, shifting the collection to make space, some shelving, dusting, etc.). Kind of a goofy video, but it gives a good idea of what we do.

Faux Websites

Our systems librarian linked to this page on our college's website. She uses it in her courses to show students that you can't always tell what is legitimate information and what isn't on the internet. Some of the stuff is hilarious--be sure to check out "Facts about Beluga Whales" and the links under "Current Headlines."

And if you haven't had enough after that, learn about the dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide, and help contribute to saving the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

National Library Week: College Reference Desk

April Fools' Day

These are the kinds of things librarians joke about on April Fools' Day.

Ms. Dewey

One of my co-workers introduced me to Ms. Dewey the other day. She is probably about the cattiest search engine you will ever use--pretty impressive. Is this an example of the new stereotype of the librarian as a sexy college grad. in a suit and glasses?

These are the days when information is "in" and geek is the new chic.

Be sure to ask her about country music.

Organization of Info-what?

After a spectacular January that included a horrific incident, the untimely death of a loved one, an acute attack of the stomach flu, the complete and utter depletion of all of my sick leave, a sluggish return to my normal full-time work schedule, and the start of the Spring semester course that I didn't drop, February is looking up.

This semester it's time for "Organization of Information." From what I can tell so far, it explains the abstract theories of organization and all of the strange and complex words that librarians have created to describe simple concepts. For example: no longer is it a "book" or a "DVD" or a "website," it is an "information package." Then there is "metadata," or "data about data."

"Metadata" is one I'd heard before--the idea is that an "information package" contains data, and thus any data describing that package, such as a bibliographic record, is metadata. Compare this to a similar word--"metafiction" (you guessed it; it's fiction about fiction, those wacky stories about people writing stories, or movies about people making a movie, etc.).

The most thought-bending one I've heard so far is that a "work" is the abstract, intangible idea in a creator's head, such as the David statue before Michelangelo carved him out of that block. An "expression" is the original tangible form that the work took, such as the David statue itself. A "manifestation" is a particular version or form of the expression, such as a picture of David or a book about David. And an "item" describes the particular copy of a given manifestation, such as that 4th printing of that picture of David, which happens to have a torn corner and exist in your local library. This is all part of the new-ish "FRBR" concept--"Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records."

Confused? Try reading my textbook.

What it really all comes down to is that library school is what you do if you want that piece of paper. And I want my piece of paper. But I think we could all benefit from some of the courses suggested by The Annoyed Librarian (read them and laugh, laugh hard. It's things like this that make school bearable and life livable).

Book-sniffer . . .

. . . is apparently my new nickname.

It all started yesterday. Towards the end of the day I was knee-deep in processing work, which basically means I was putting stickers and tape on books over and over and over, until I build up a healthy thickness to the skin on my fingertips (good for playing the guitar!).

As I whisked the cover off of one new book and tossed it on the pile to be laminated, I noticed that the book released a hint of that fresh new-book-scent. Paper and vinyl.

And I lifted the book to my nose, and sniffed it. "This book smells good!" I exclaimed.

My supervisor and the systems librarian were well within earshot, and that started them on a five-minute laughing spree. "Is that the good stuff, Heather? Are you an addict?"

Fast-forward to today. I am commenting to my supervisor on how great it is to have this job, since after spending about $4,000 per month of other people's money on books, my own desire to buy books is curbed. "And," I add with a wicked grin, "of course I get to sniff all the new books when they come in."

This sets them off laughing again, and the nearby work study assistant is bewildered. While I'm trying to explain the conversation from Thursday, my supervisor chimes in with "Heather has a book fetish!"

Which of course is right when the media guy comes around the corner. He stares at me. My supervisor repeats what she said. Media guy says, "I . . . don't think I'm coming over there," shakes his head, and walks away.

When the joke has finally run its course and I've wiped the tears from my eyes, I walk by the work study on my way to see if there are any donuts left.

". . . book-sniffer!" she whispers.

I smile. Such is life in the library near the end of the week.