The Goldstein Chronicles 1.1: "The LUV Collection"

by Rob Stephens

Hello, loyal Goldstein Library fans! Here at the Goldstein, we're always looking for fun ways to serve FSU, so today I am starting the inaugural issue of The Goldstein Chronicles, a diary of the comical, whimsical, and capricious occurrences from our library. Here it is:

1.1: The LUV Collection

Shelf reading: grunt work of libraries. A rite of passage: all librarians spend days of their lives grabbing spines and putting the word back in order. But it's also zen: order and space, the beauty of the mundane, dusty hands. And every once in a while, during the practice of reading shelves, one stumbles upon a flaw that is perfect, like the one I found today.

The section I am currently shelf reading is located in the Goldstein's Juvenile (JUV) collection, ranging in LC call number from LSL JUV PZ 7 .K46825 to LSL JUV PZ 7 .S2492.

In case you don't know, the "LSL" stands for "Library Science Library," the old school name for "the Goldstein Library" (we prefer Goldstein Library now, thank you!). "JUV" stands for the Juvenile Collection (as opposed to our EASY collection or PROF [professional] collection, for example).
  
As you might imagine, shelf-reading in this area can be particularly mind-numbing because the smaller call numbers are so close together. However, today I came across a special book entitled Shadow People by Joyce McDonald, pictured left,

And that's where the magic happened, because you see, Shadow People is shelved incorrectly. To the right is a close up of the call number:






where is the LUV collection??

[NOTE: If you haven't already got the (admittedly really cheesy / awful / lightly comic / hilarious / bibliophile-only / SPINE-breaking) joke, this book is listed not as being in the Juvenile collection, but in the LUV collection. Didn't know we had that here]

I was forced ask myself, in a moment of existential crisis, "Do we have a LUV collection? What do I do? What does it all mean?"

So, first I decided to investigate: why is this book placed in LUV? Here's an excerpt from the inside cover:

"four seemingly different teenagers [...] are thrown together by a chance meeting at a deserted camp. Or maybe it isn't chance. For there are bonds that tie them to each other, bonds of loneliness, of frustration -- and of anger [...] These five voices combine to tell the chilling tale of what happens in a small town when teenage fury is unleashed."
   

huh?

"Teenage fury" sounds like the opposite of the LUV collection. But who am I to challenge the ways of the catalogue? (I'm just a GA / I need no sympathy...) At least there are "bonds..."
  And then, after wandering about the Goldstein, looking for this "LUV" collection and realizing that the collection had no home, I decided that I needed to create a home for LUV.


Attempt 1: The LUV Collection Shelf (LSL LUV PZ 7 .M478418 SH 2000 through LSL LUV PZ 7 .M478418 SH 2000)





No, that's no good. A one book collection? (I'm not scouring the entire collection to find another...).

How about this?

Attempt 2: The LUV Collection


That's better. Ok, I'm just kidding of course. This book belongs in JUV! But I do wish we had a LUV collection... maybe I can convince Goldstein to do a LUV display...



(that's better)