Muns, Raleigh. "This week: Beer, books and Abbie Hoffman"
The Current (University of Missouri-St. Louis) September 12, 2005 (vol. 38, no. 1160), p. 4
So why don't libraries, including those at UM-St. Louis, purchase copies of Abbie Hoffman's famous 1971 work Steal This Book? I'm imagining a loud chorus of readers immediately snorting "duh." Luckily, since UM-St. Louis is part of a larger consortium of libraries, you can use the MOBIUS online catalog (mobius.missouri.edu) to check if one of 57 other institutions in the state own it. Central Missouri State is the single MOBIUS owner of a copy and by clicking on the online catalog's "Request" web link you can have it delivered to good old UM-St. Louis in about three days. Unfortunately, CMSU's copy of Steal This Book has been stolen. I didn't make that up.
The libraries recently had a contest to come up with an official motto. I submitted "Don't be a schnook. Don't steal that book!" Alternatively, I suggested "Reding and riting are gud" which I thought was pretty funny. Neither motto was accepted by the Dean of Libraries who is responsible for keeping flaky librarians in check (she does). I think the eventual winning motto was something like "Knowledge is Good" which is also the motto of Faber College, alma mater of one Bluto Blutarski of Animal House fame.
Many of my suggestions here in Library Land are routinely quashed, such as an annual attempt to turn the space beneath the glass pyramid at the Thomas Jefferson Library into a pub. Alternatively, I've suggested that the library turn the Reference Desk into a bar, where librarians can dispense wisdom, assistance, and beer. Belly up to the reference desk, ask your questions, and place your order (tips accepted). "The Oxford English Dictionary is over in the PE call number section, and did you want Bud or Bud Light with that thesaurus?" The Reference Department could finally put its copy of The New World Guide to Beer to good use. As a librarian, it's part of my job to research how accurate our reference books are. After gallons and gallons of "research" on my own time, I can certify the author's contention that Belgian made beers are the best in the world. I am continuing my research, just in case.
Unfortunately, the space behind the Reference Desk is already taken up by computing equipment used to run the Library Research Commons so it is impractical to set up a bar and install a tap and cash register. As for my Pyramid Pub suggestion, in addition to being politically incorrect to suggest that the libraries should participate in encouraging the use of alcohol in college students, that space is already occupied by the Mercantile Library.
By the way, currently among the many things on display in the Mercantile Library is a Double Elephant Folio of Birds of America by John James Audubon. Sheikh Saud of Qatar bought a copy for nine million dollars a few years ago, so don't even think of stealing this book (note: it's impossible to fence a hot copy of Birds of America). Head to the Mercantile Library to see what a nine million dollar book looks like. It's currently opened to a page with the once thought extinct and recently rediscovered Ivory-billed Woodpecker. My suggestion that it be opened to the page with our beloved bright red cardinal during baseball season has been filed by the administration next to my Pyramid Pub and Reference Desk as Bar suggestions. One of the reasons Birds of America is is so huge is because Audubon painted his birds in life size. One word best describes that: groovy. |
Email Address: muns@umsl.edu
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