Librarians

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) Now this was a cool job, being part of a brand new program from Virginia Beach Public Library, initiated by librarian Kellye Carter, called Books at the Beach.

On this day another librarian with 33 years experience was helping us out, Denise Barnhart. The WVEC reporter, Joe Flanagan (pictured, center) was worried that offering free books to Oceanfront visitors may be a challenge because he didn't have any librarian skills.

From the CCPL website: Charleston County Public Library is devastated by the senseless shootings Wednesday night at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston that took the lives of nine members of our community, including one of our own - St. Andrews Regional Library Manager Cynthia Hurd. Cynthia was a tireless servant of the community who spent her life helping residents, making sure they had every opportunity for an education and personal growth.

James Billington, the librarian of Congress who has led the world’s largest library for nearly three decades and brought it into the digital age, announced Wednesday that he will step down at year’s end.

The Library of Congress said Billington, 86, will retire on Jan. 1. He notified President Barack Obama of his plans, and the post will be filled by a presidential nomination with Senate confirmation.

From 2Paragraphs (written for the modern attention span):

500 Questions is the new TV quiz game where contestants try to answer a series of rapid-fire questions. The show is being broadcast for seven consecutive nights. Tonight, May 27 is the sixth night (8pm on ABC). .

Somehow, they seem forever tied in my mind to librarians. Does anyone know how that came about?

Here's their story:

After a long day of answering questions and serving up information to the public (students, etc), a librarian could use a laugh. So pick up a copy of Roz Warren's OUR BODIES, OUR SHELVES: A COLLECTION OF LIBRARY HUMOR (HOPress, 2015) and see what might be between the covers that tickles your funnybone.

Here's an excerpt from one story: Freeze! It's the Library Police [a librarian's fantasy of recovering stolen books]

"Open up bitch! It's LIBRARY SQUAD!

Laurie Chipps quit her library job and abandoned her apartment and her many friends to explore new avenues....on a bike.

But Chipps, 36, said she still wasn't happy — a state that led to her decision to ride a bicycle 4,229 miles across the United States. Chipps' trip — which will take her from Yorktown, Virginia, through 10 states before ending in Astoria, Oregon, — begins today.

Besides author Jessamyn West, it might be any a number of folk.

Story via Medium. https://medium.com/message/king-of-the-dipshits-139658a95e0e

It's the anniversary of the death of Darrington librarian Linda McPherson and her library honored her memory. She was one of 43 people lost a year ago in the Washington state mudslide.