Libaries in the news this week: What's unique about your collection?

We start off with a beautiful visualization of catalog searches from the entire state of Wyoming.
Filament Mind from yongjulee on Vimeo.

You can read more about this unique installation in the Wired article Massive Fiber-Optic Installation Lights Up Library Queries.

Public libraries around the country are adding some creative check-out options to their collections: Libraries offer weird things to draw new borrowers. I wouldn't necessarily call these "weird", just... new. Multnomah County is one of the libraries in Oregon offering the "Kill-O-Watt" meter to measure energy usage.  What does your library offer that might be considered "weird" by the uninitiated-to-libraries people? Please tell me there is a library in Oregon that checks out seeds.

And finally, a couple congratulations:
First to the folks at the Broad Channel Library, which just reopened after being wrecked by Sandy,
And second to Paralibrarian of the Year 2013: Laura Poe.

What's the holdup?

Umm... has this ever happened to you?  You're going through donated books and hello! A library employee in Indiana got a surprise last month.  The weirdest thing? It's not the first time.  Be careful in the book drop, fellow SSDers.

More Retro Library Posters and One Amazing Garden

Visit your school library!  This is part of a flickr set posted by user Enokson, who is a Library Technician in a school. I especially like the one with the cat reading about lions.  She also has some fascinating photos of textbook damage, although why I find them more fascinating when photographed instead of in real life, I don't know.  Have any of you dug up any treasures in your libraries?



And I highly encourage you to check out the Huntington Library's fully renovated Japanese Gardens. The photos of the grounds are breath-taking. I, for one, would not mind having that kind of an area for breaks during work.  Where is your favorite place to take breaks at your library?

Interesting Library Tidbits

The New York Public Library has digitized stereogram images in their collection, and artist Joshua Heineman began animating them. Read the New York Times article.

More break-ins at the the library!

A janitor discovers a cache of rare coins in the State Library of Passau in Germany

Tanja Höls, a janitor in a library in Germany, discovered a box full of coins that may be worth millions. The staff think the box may have been hidden in the library in the early 19th century by local prince-bishops who wanted to dodge some taxes.

Tanja will be promoted to the curating department of the library and will receive a reward.

(DPA/Newscom)
What have you found in your library lately?