Thursday, 17 January 2019

Library Humour

The stereotype of a Librarian as staid, dour and frowning upon noise of any kind is a classic trope of film and fiction.

Display at Tavistock Library
Photo: Stephen Lloyd
But follow various libraries on Twitter and you will find that is far from the truth. Accounts such as @OrkneyLibrary will soon alter your view and convince you that librarians have a very good sense of humour.

I particularly look forward to their Bookface photographs, always intending to create one of my own. Tales of Booky McBookface, their travelling library van, are the stuff of legend. And the song lyrics they replicate using various book titles are ingenious.

In stark contrast to such levity, Tavistock Library is embracing the darker side. In October 2019 they are playing host to Tavistock’s ‘first Gothic and Neo-Gothic Celebration, including Literature, Art, Architecture, Theatre, Film and Creative Fun.’ As part of that event there is to be a short story and poetry competition which I thought I might enter.

Later today I am travelling to Devon to visit my brother. While there I hope to do some research into local mythology to provide me with suitable background knowledge.

Thanks to Tavistock Library for letting me use this
photograph of their bodice-ripper display.
Mind you, when not embroiled in the gothic, the folks @tavilibrary have a keen sense of humour too. Having had fun with their “Have you seen my shirt?” display, they promised a similar collection of bodice-ripper fiction under the title “Anyone know a good seamstress?”. 

Does anyone have more examples of library humour?
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. Patsy18 January 2019 at 17:26

    The local librarian saw the funny side of it when I put her in a book! (Phew!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bea Charles18 January 2019 at 17:59

      That’s a brave thing to do, Patsy. Glad she approved.

      Delete
  2. Carolb21 January 2019 at 20:30

    That's fun. They probably have a reasonable selection to choose from for that category.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bea Charles21 January 2019 at 23:17

      It does look like fun, doesn’t it? I’m tempted to see what themes I can make from my own bookshelves.

      Delete
  3. Bea Charles1 April 2019 at 08:50

    If you’re looking for more examples of humour from a library, check out Jesmond Library’s April Fool’s Day post:
    http://jesmondlibrary.org/2019/04/01/library-jokes-theyre-long-overdue/

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)