Of Interest (Librarianalia): 06.27.2009

+ Libraries are expected to "weed" their collections on a regular basis, discarding outdated, useless books. Some of these books may be sent to special, historic or archival collections, but most of them are either sold at library sales or tossed. Unfortunately, some libraries don't practice regular weeding, either due to staff shortage, lack of know-how, or pure laziness. In those cases, books from those overgrown collections may just turn up on Awful Library Books, run by two librarians who hope that this blog will encourage libraries to weed regularly. They don't post the libraries the volumes were found at, to prevent embarrassment. Although the library who still has the 1993 handbook Exploring the World of Online Services still in the circulating collection could use a little shame.

+ The government makes funny books! An online archive of Government Comic Books hosted by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Not only do they have actual comic books like The Story of a Fish in Trouble (from 1992), Mail Moves the Country - Zip Code Moves the Mail (1968), and Rex Morgan, M.D. Talks About Your Unborn Child (date unknown), they also have copies of the "Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency" reports from 1955 (i.e., "The Ten-Cent Plague"). Technical Note: The PDFs take a while to load.

+ I have a sudden urge to dust off my dormant, unused library science degree and try to get a job in The Schulz Library of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT. Here's a tour of the library: