Did you know it’s illegal to play BINGO in North Carolina for longer than five hours?
Did you know that it’s illegal for dance halls to be within a quarter mile of a church or cemetery in South Carolina?
Check out this video from Mental Floss for more weird laws involving states.
Hungry for more?
~Jamie Sunnycalb~
We will all be moving to a new library soon, so I thought I would show you all some of the stranger libraries around the world.
Kansas City Public Library.
The Philological Library in Berlin.
If you haven’t guessed, the building is shaped like a human brain. Check out our earlier posting on this building for more information!
Geisel Library.
Want a really tall building but don’t want to fool with all those lower floors? Just put the building on stilts! It’s supposed to look like lantern…
Peckham Library is a see-through colored glass exterior on a extreme “L” shaped building
Oh, and this wooden monstrosity that looks like it is about to crush 6 people? That’s a meeting room.
I hope you enjoyed this tour through the strange.
~Aaron Greene~
So, libraries are a central part of many schools. It is a place for students to study, to meet with other classmates, and to find a wealth of resources. Along with the basic necessities, what makes a library unique?
Well, the Philological Library of the Free University in Berlin, Germany creates a unique environment for students with its creative and visionary architecture. This library is shaped like a human brain! Perfect for a library!
This library is comprised of a five story tower enclosed by two layers termed the “skin”, with the first layer being a glass-fiber fabric and the outside layer comprising of steel and glass. These two layers create a geometric pattern which is seen from the outside of the building.
Along with the aesthetically appealing exterior, the glass fibers of the “skin” are used to filter the daylight creating natural lighting throughout the library. With this natural lighting, the study areas are lively and welcoming, creating an atmosphere of concentration and an ideal space for reading.
The Philological library is also energy efficient! The exterior of the building is used to heat and cool the library with solar-driven currents. So, over half the year, the library is ventilated by merely opening the outside panels and filtering the fresh air.
The Philological library is unique and inspiring, from the outside to the inside! This library is the centerpiece of the Free University but is also an architectural landmark in Berlin.
~Brooke Rideout~
Filed under Hidden Treasures, Librarians Can Be Fun Too, Unique Libraries
There are so many fun activities showering upon the month of April!
Free Cone Day at Ben&Jerry’s on April 9th
Alive After 5 returns to several locations across Charlotte
Celebrate Earth Day at Earth Day Play Date
For the music lover: Eric Clapton with the Wallflowers, All Time Low, Barstool Blackout Tour, Diana Krall, EmmyLou Harris, Romeo.Juliet, Miss Witherspoon, Rory Scovel, The Good Lovelies, Cedric Burnside Project, Lake Street Dive, Andrew McMahon, Breaking Laces, Kim Richey, Lavell Crawford, Spin & Record Store Day
For the fashionista: Girls’ Night Out to support the Ronald McDonald House, Passport for Fashion
For the foodie: Taste of the New South, Taste of the Nation, Wanted Dead or Alive: a Murder Mystery Dinner, SteaksBeer & Shakespeare
For the fun of it: Sinbad, Caroline Rhea, Crazy Late with Johnny Millwater, Jeanne Robertson, David Sedaris
For the art lover: Sensoria Arts Festival , Art on the Green, Kings Art Drive Walk
For social justice: Sexual Assault Awareness Walk
For the cinephile: Architecture + Film, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Saturday Night Cine Club: Even the Rain, Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, Nicky’s Family
For the runner: Charlotte Race Fest, Joanna’s Barefoot 30, Race to the Top, CPCC Charlotte Skyline Run, Electric Run
For the kids: Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music, Pinkalicious: the Musical, Treasure Island, NC Science Festival with Alton Brown: the Science of Cooking
For the furry kids: Pet Palooza, Bark in the Park
Sporting events: Wells Fargo Championship, Queen’s Cup Steeplechase, Rural Hill Scottish Festival and Loch Norman Highland Games
Other events: Opera Open House, World Parade and Festival, Charlotte Auto Fair, 9th Annual Hope Floats Duck Race, Paddle Fest, International Pillow Fight Day,“Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth”, Thank you for calling customer service! the stage play, Celtic Woman
Events outside of Charlotte: Winston Salem River Run Film Festival, MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC
Filed under Librarians Can Be Fun Too, Local Happenings
National Library Week is right around the corner and the library would love your help in deciding what activities/programs to put on during that week.
Please take a brief moment to choose up to five of your favorite activities/programs, and feel free to add some more ideas to the mix!!
You know that when the dedication in a book reads, “To Crime!” that it isn’t your ordinary law treatise. The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law gives you all the information you could hope to know about criminal law, but in a different way. The author uses humor and an illustrative comic style to inform his readers about every aspect of criminal law. Some of the chapters included in this book are entitled, “Rehabilitation: For the Love of God, Why?” and “Responsibility and Depravity: The Axes of Evil.”
The author, Nathaniel Burney, graduated from Georgetown University, where he was an editor of the American Criminal Law Review. During his time in law school he also found the time to work at the Supreme Court as a personal assistant to retired Chief Justice Warren Burger, and additionally played music in a band called The Ambulance Chasers. After law school Burney joined the Manhattan DA’s office as a prosecutor in NYC. He also spent some time in Special Narcotics and the Rackets Bureau. Burney eventually returned to the defense side of things, where he focused on cases involving wiretaps, securities fraud, antitrust, and loitering. Mr. Burney also teaches the “Hope for Hopeless Cases” series for West LegalEdCenter.
If you are looking for a book that discusses the complex issues of criminal law in a slightly different format, why not give The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law a try?
~Brian Trippodo ~
With the school’s impending move looming on the horizon, the library has undertaken some significant weeding projects, where old and non-updated versions of materials are being withdrawn from the collection and discarded. Much as when you’re moving to a new house, it’s always best to clear your clutter before you start anew.
Even though discarding books sometimes feels a little like death to librarians, weeding is a vital part of library collection management. Think about it – your library takes in new books almost every day. Can you imagine how quickly a collection could get out of hand if there weren’t policies and procedures in place to cull irrelevant and older materials? No library has unlimited space available for their resources, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.
Luckily, we’re part of a law school where new and updated materials are part of every day life, making it easy to determine what should be weeded and what’s out of date. When the not so easy decisions rear their ugly heads, it behooves libraries to take into account feedback from other librarians and staff, their patron base, their collection development policy and their circulation statistics.
You would be amazed at the things you can unearth in the library when undertaking a weeding project. And sometimes, you run across things so entertaining, you just have to share.
Awfullibrarybooks.net is a site run by Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, public librarians in Michigan. They state that their site is “a collection of library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection.” And amusing they are.
For instance, Diet, Crime and Delinquency is a book that was published in 1981. The back of the book states that this tome ““…demonstrates how ‘junk’ food diets, sugar starvation, vitamin deficiencies, lead pollution and food allergies can convert a normal brain into a criminal mind.”
But even books published recently can spark a need to weed. Check out My Beautiful Mommy, published in 2007, in which Mommy picks her child up from school to take her along on a trip to the plastic surgeon.
The little girl asks Mommy about the trip and her Mommy tell her she is getting a tummy tuck and a nose job and why.
The girl worries that her Mommy will look different, but is corrected that Mommy will just be more beautiful. You have to see it to believe it, right?
One more, and then I’ll let you check the site out for yourself. Macrame Accessories: Patterns and Ideas for Knotting was published in 1977, and features some of the grandest macrame phantasmagoria I’ve ever laid eyes on – with a little something for everyone.
Are you a shy hot pants wearer?
In need of a new vest for that moot court competition?
In the mood for a his and hers set? This book has you covered.
The moral of the story is, weeding in libraries is a necessary survival skill. Painful sometimes, as librarians, to physically let go of materials. But gratifying both by making additional room in the collection for even better materials and by running across treasures like these. I’m hoping we find something half as fun during our project…
~Ashley Moye~
The law library wished students good luck on their midterms last week by providing healthy snacks. Test-takers took a break from studying to enjoy apples, clementines, snack bars, and dark chocolate.
Filed under Events, Librarians Can Be Fun Too
Spring into some fun this month with:
Festivals: St.Patrick’s Day Festival and Charlotte Goes Green Festival, Green River Revival at the US National Whitewater Center, 5th Annual Green Party, Aquavina Wine Festival
Sports: CIAA basketball tournament, NCAA March Madness, Harlem Globetrotters, Bring Fido to the Charlotte Checkers Pooch Party
Running: Alston and Bird Corporate Cup Half Marathon,Spartan Race, Color Me Green 5K, NC Half Marathon at the Speedway
Performing Arts: American Idiot, Wicked, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , The Whipping Man, Wit, How we got on, All the Great Books, Love Loss and What I wore, Spring Forward, Guys and Dolls
Musical Acts: Pink, Dropkick Murphys, Taylor Swift, Charlotte Symphony Pops: Natalie Merchant, Bon Jovi, Mike Epps, Coheed and Cambria, Mad Monster Party, George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, Creole Choir of Cuba, Jazz at the Bechtler: Rick Simerly, Holly Williams, Gaslight Anthem, Ari Hest, ZZ Ward and Delta Rae, John Corbett Band, Cappadonna, Tim Reynolds and TR3, Third Day, Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys, Minus the Bear, Missy Raines and the New Hip, Tristan Prettyman
Flicks: Jewish Film Festival, The ABC’s of Death, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, We have a Pope
Just for laughs: An Evening with Bill Maher, DL Hughley, Jim Norton
Tasty Treats: 2nd Annual Sweet Tooth Festival , Sugar Rush, BYOF (Bring your own friend) to IKEA for free breakfast, giveaways, and free blue tote bags
Fundraisers: Runway for the Ballet, Bright Blessings 5th Anniversary Gala, American Cancer Society Cure by Design, SHIFT Charlotte
For the kids: Easter Egg Hunt, Eggstravaganza, Lunch with the Easter Bunny, 2nd Annual Easter Celebration, The Great Easter Egg Roll and Hop, Easter celebration at Morrison,The Red Badge of Courage, Barker Bill’s Ragtime Revue, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz presented by Charlotte Youth Ballet, Criss Cross Mangosauce bilingual storytime
More fun events: Green Drinks Charlotte, InkFest
~Jamie Sunnycalb~
Filed under Librarians Can Be Fun Too, Local Happenings
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) tournament is back in town, February 25, 2013, through Sunday, March 3, 2013. The CIAA consists of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) along the east coast. CIAA holds annual tournaments for a variety of sports. The CIAA basketball tournament, which is currently in town, has been hosted in the city of Charlotte since 2006.
There are expected to be hundreds of thousands of fans in town to support the tournament festivities. Throughout the week you can catch luncheons, symposiums, a career expo, a step show, men’s and women’s basketball games, day and night parties, and a host of other free family events.
The CIAA tournament has been a tremendous success and boost to the city since its move in 2006. For additional information on official CIAA events check out http://www.ciaatournament.org/ . For additional information on unofficial CIAA events check out http://clclt.com/qcafterdark/archives/2013/01/28/cl-presents-our-list-of-ciaa-2013-parties .
~Minerva Mims~
Filed under Events, Librarians Can Be Fun Too, Local Happenings
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