LISNews: Librarian News

A man accused of stealing a Shakespeare folio valued at £3m arrived for a court appearance in a horse drawn carriage; report with video at BBC.

Raymond Scott, 52, of Wingate, County Durham, was dressed in Highland tartan and was accompanied by a bagpipe player at Durham Crown Court on Friday.

He faces charges relating to the theft of a first folio that went missing from Durham University Library in 1998.

Librarians aren't used to raking in a lot of dough, but Toni Bonnema, a middle-school librarian, had to make the adjustment rather quickly. She won almost half a million dollars playing the slots at Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek MI.

On her seventh play on a 25-cent, Tower of Power slot machine Thursday morning, Bonnema hit it big -- really big reports M-live.

Bonnema, 55, a Schoolcraft Middle School Librarian for the past 12 years, won $469,626.84 about 15 minutes into her first visit during the casino's second day of operation.

``It was like I was dreaming,'' said the Schoolcraft resident Thursday afternoon, a few hours after hitting her 8:15 a.m. jackpot. ``Everyone was asking me how I could be so calm after I won, and it was like I couldn't believe what was happening.

``I honestly thought my husband was going to wake me up and ask me what I was dreaming about.''

When I mentioned the SLJ article I posted here earlier--My Mom, the Librarian--on Twitter, @ryanwlarkin asked, "What about librarian dads?"

Good point. I did some digging, and here are some famous children of librarian fathers: writer Amos Oz, writer Jhumpa Lahiri, writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, chef and The Cook's Companion author Stephanie Alexander, and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.

I've always been fond of the fictional heroic librarian father in Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Iron Frog Productions has created an interactive world map of library cats. Click on a state or country to see all known library cats in residence (or formerly in residence) at local libraries.