The Goldstein Chronicles 1.2: Is that Book for Real?

 Loyal Goldstein followers: it's the moment you've been waiting for: the Goldstein Chronicles 1.2! As with 1.1, this week we focus on cacapriciousness, the stroke of whimsy that comes with the territory of working in a library.

1.2: Is that Book for Real??

by Rob Stephens, Goldstein GA

In a single librarian's lifetime, s/he will handle thousands upon thousands of books. Personally, most of them won't don't make a lasting impression on me -- another book about vampires, a nondescript cover, a romance novel -- sometimes I don't even look at the titles of the books when I shelve them, just the call number.

But then there are days when I see a book and it truly blows my mind, to the point of no return. In other words, there's no unseeing this book, and it will change the way I think for the rest of my life.

This happened to me today, folks, and it was scary. What I'm about to show you is not for the weak-minded:

Here's a short teaser to whet your appetite:

Santa is receives two magic blades as an honor gift from a samurai friend. Things are well on their way toward another smooth and successful Christmas.

But then an angry elf with a vendetta against Santa releases evil spirits into the North Pole. Will the hoard of angry teddy bears take over the North Pole Power Plant, thus ruining Christmas? How can the elves possibly recover from this awful event?

One of my favorite aspects of the book is that it includes a map of the North Pole with a compass, though the compass isn't very helpful considering every direction is "South."

Come by today to check out this, or any of the other mind-blowing books we have here at the Goldstein! Books will change your life!

Banned Book Week Roundup!

All good things must come to an end, and on Saturday we had our last Banned Book Week Event. But we wanted to share photos and videos from our various events with you guys who weren't able to make it! Here are the highlights:

Banned Book Readout:

And here's an amazing video of Pam Doffek, our Library Director, reading from "The Adventures of Captain Underpants":

ALA Chapter Banned Books Party Costumes:

Go Ask Alice

50 Shades of Gray

Farenheit 451

The Color Purple

The Hunger Games

Lord of the Rings

Napoleon (Animal Farm)

Peter (Superfudge)

Where's Waldo

James and the Giant Peach

Lord of the Flies

Slaughterhouse 5

The Whole Group!

Awesome Patron Art Work

by Rob Stephens

If you don't know, in the back of Goldstein we have some Whiteboard tables in the back of the library for our patrons, YOU, to write/draw on, and lately you've been really knocking our lights out with some AMAZING illustrations that I want to share.

"Holmes" with some crazy awesome characters

The Hunger Games!

Write with the Light / hola me llamo Leo

TROGB ORR!!!!

Carson and A forever!!!

Someone actually doing homework? (I don't know what it means)

 Oh! And the puzzle: it's Mickey and Minnie, but they need your help to figure out where 
they are...

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)

 

No More Dead Dogs

by Rob Stephens

Eight Grader Wallace Wallace shares one thing in common with George Washington: he cannot tell a lie, not even a little white lie. And so when his literature teacher asks his opinion about a class book, Wallace “feels compelled to inform his teacher that it was one of the worst books he’s ever read. Why does the dog in every classic book have to croak at the end?” (Book cover).

If you’ve  ever asked yourself the same question after reading classics like Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows, then this is the book for you. Come by the Goldstein Library to check out this fun and excellent novel by award-winning writer Gordon Korman!