Website of the Week

National Library Week, April 1-7, 2001

Casonova
J. Edgar Hoover
Mao Tse-Tung
Golda Meir
Jorge Luis Borges
Goethe
Immanuel Kant
Archibald MacLeish

All of these people were librarians.

The first full week in April marks National Library Week. Below are a list of links related to National Library Week and the profession of librarianship.

• The American Library Association leads the celebration of National Library Week, as it has since 1958. The ALA website contains
  • a collection of quotations about libraries and librarians, https://cs.ala.org/@yourlibrary/quotes.cfm. "Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." Walter Cronkite
  • a selection of quotable facts, https://cs.ala.org/@yourlibrary/facts.cfm. "There are more public libraries than McDonald's — a total of 16,090, including branches."
• The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions also maintains a collection of quotations about libraries and books at http://www.ifla.org/I/humour/subj.htm. 
• LibDex, the Library Index, http://www.libdex.com/, contains a directory of the world's libraries websites and web-based catalogs. The directory is arranged by country, then by state/region/province. All types of libraries are represented including academic, government, hospital, law, medical, military, public, religious, special, and veterinary.
• LexisNexis joins the National Library Week celebration with a Toolkit, http://www.lexis-nexis.com/infopro/events/NLW/nlw2001.htm, which offers games, such as match the quotation to the speaker ("I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book." ), word scrambles and puzzles, and trivia games.
• The Labor Department's Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2000-01 edition, contains a description of the work of professional librarians, http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos068.htm.
• Our own Mary Whisner has written an article on Choosing Law Librarianship: Thoughts for People Contemplating a Career Move, http://www.llrx.com/features/librarian.htm.
• From Katherine Hepburn in Desk Set to Shirley "Marian the Librarian" Jones in Music Man to Parker Posey in Party Girl, librarians have made appearances in movies over the year. An annotated filmography is available at http://www.lib.byu.edu/dept/libsci/films/introduction.html.
• For the real scoop on a rare breed of librarian, check out The Lipstick Librarian, http://www.teleport.com/~petlin/liplib/.
• Selected library humor:
  • Patron: I am looking for a globe of the earth.
    Ref: We have a table-top model over here.
    Patron: No, that's not good enough. Don't you have a life size?
    Ref (after a short pause): Yes, but it's in use right now!
  • Telephone patron: Do you have books on leaves?
    Library worker: Nope, we keep them on shelves.
  • (Telephone call to reference desk)
    Patron: "Can you tell me what the gestation period of the lemming is?"
    Librarian: "Just a minute"
    Patron: "Thanks very much"
    Upon which the patron hung up.