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This is just absofuckinglutely hilarious:

Library 2.0 idea and equation generators.

Does ALA just get their publicity ideas from the Advertising Slogan Generator? It's no wonder libraries suck at marketing, when ALA encourages marketing suckosity. Next year's official theme for National Library Week:

Come together @ your library.

Jessamyn has already made three wonderful posters using this theme. But, of course, to really publicize National Library Week activities, libraries are going to need to get the word out on their outdoor signs, too ...

(Flynt and Jong signs edited from images made at Church Sign Generator; Friends sign made at Atom.Smasher.)

The sign says "Quiet" because they don't want anyone to hear what's really going on! Hidden Truths: The Public Library has its slow parts, but these kids cracked us up a few times. Gotta hand it to the "investigative reporter" for keeping a straight (deeply concerned, even) face.

Of the "messing around in the library" videos we've seen on YouTube so far, this one is our favorite. The guy just standing and reading in the background really makes it special. And the Jimmy Page hair.

(We do recognize the possibility that the audio was edited in. But thinking about that ruins the magic!)

New song in BibDitties:

Dance Dance Librarian (extended dance mix)
by Bildungsroman

"The movement of the mouses
The pecking at the OPACs
The beeping on the barcodes makes you dance."

If you're a parent who loves her/his kids, or if you're Aaron, you have a Nintendo DS in your house. One of the cool games for DS (other than Nintendogs, which is really the most adorable thing in the world) is Brain Age, a "brain training" game. What Brain Age does, is it basically tricks you into doing math calculations and memory exercises and Stroop tests and stuff, and into thinking that you're having fun.

Well, folks, 40-ish years ago, they didn't have no stinkin' DS with its stinkin' Brain Age. They (meaning our spouse's family, since this was dug out of our in-laws' closet) did have a wonderful brain-training device called the Cyclo*teacher.

The Cyclo*teacher was made by World Book. It's a plastic box, about 39 cm across, with a hinged lid. You open the lid and insert a disk; each disk is a quiz on a particular subject. A smaller, blank disk sits on top of the quiz disk, and (with the lid closed), you view each question through a small window, write your answer on the blank disk through an opening, and check your work through an additional window when you turn the disk to the next question. Math, science, geography, etc. Every subject has its disks. The Cyclo*teacher came with hundreds of them!

Here are examples of a couple quiz items from one of the disks. We don't have the instructions handy, but we're pretty sure these are the questions:

Top: You didn't cry at your mother's funeral, and you've just shot a man on the beach. Do you blame it on ...

x) the sun, or

o) a girl?

Bottom: Your cat just pissed on your favorite ...

... No, no, no. That joke is too cheap, mean, and easy.

The Lipstick Librarian calls this one "eye-searing".

It makes us think that someone, somewhere, is probably making MILF-librarian-cheerleader porn.

A couple weeks ago, InfoToday announced the call for speakers for next spring's Computers in Libraries conference. The theme of the conference is "Beyond Library 2.0", which we think is sorta clever, since it ought to appeal to today's wagon-riders while recognizing that no one will really give a flying fuck about "Library 2.0" by the middle of April. We have a really kick-ass topic for a presentation, and we'd do a kick-ass PowerPoint, but we're not sure whether we'll be going to the conf. (The theme title obviously doesn't inspire us to sign up.)

If you doubt that the 2.0 meme has jumped the shark, consider that it's now the basis for an automobile ad campaign.

Oh, hey, we ran across a poem titled "2.0", by Karl Bode. Gotta love poetry that includes the word "clusterfuck".

We also just noticed that, back in April, we were labeled a "Library 2.0 Hater", while the Heavy Metal Librarian was merely called a "Library 2.0 Nonconformist" for repeating and saying Amen to what we had said. Go figure.

Now, here's a YouTube video taken in a library that lets teens be teens.

Here's another vid of teens using their library.

And, y'know, kids really just want to be able to use their skateboards as transportation to the library, so they can go in and study and stuff.