Blog about awful library books

Michigan public librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner have a blog featuring awful library books. The book above, Those Amazing Leeches, is a prime example of an awful library book. Awful Library Books (Via Hang Fire Books)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Takuan

Teresa-sama! O genki?
Takuan

g’wine down to tha rivah fer BBQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxlyKA9O9LA
Takuan

any minute now
Anonymous

the leeches are scary, sure — but the big toenail is a nightmare, indeed.
Takuan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1FQqSGxBso&feature=related
zantony

I was all set to comment, but PJKWIK said it far better than I could have. Weeding is a normal part of collection maintenance. It’s not censorship. It’s simply a reality of having finite shelf space.
benher

Awful? Yeah, how about awfully cool! (And FYI, Nerd stands for Never-Ending-Radical-Dude!)
Anonymous

The leaches aren’t the awful part of the book cover, it’s the feet.

What the hell is that on his big toe? It’s not a leach tail or something…

Could have at least gotten a better foot model.
planettom

Although some of these are funny on sight, the overall concept of that website disturbs me a little bit.

The weeding idea that “these books contain inaccurate or outdated information, get them off the shelves” is a pretty big broom. Couldn’t that be used to, for example, get rid of Jenny McCarthy’s current Vaccines Cause Autism books, or any number of books that Somebody Might Disagree With, but others might want to read?

I’m just sayin’. Librarians may not always be the best judge of whether a book is useful to the non-librarian.

For example, their argument in one instance for removal seems to be that a book from the 1980s refers to AIDS instead of HIV. Maybe that caught-in-amber view would be useful to someone researching attitudes towards the disease over the decades.

It doesn’t seem that big a leap to the banning of books, which doubtlessly these same librarians would stamp their feet at.

Maybe FAHRENHEIT 451 should be removed from all library shelves. It’s set in a future where computers have not come to pass as they really have, so the book is out of date and inaccurate! Just a modest proposal…
nutmeag

I figured what they meant was books returned in horrid conditions–like burned or ripped out pages. Now that’s horror.
Anonymous

So I should judge the book by its cover?
Diamond Jim

I gather what they mean is books that are outmoded (CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR EIGHT-TRACK, though that isn’t an actual example) and therefore worthy of “weeding” from libraries, so “awful” is at best misleading.

Apart from numerous instances of questionable judgment (with THOSE AMAZING LEECHES, this is once again truly a Directory of Wonderful Things), what really bothered me about the blog is their insistence on ending the first paragraph of virtually every entry with an exclamation point!
Robert

Look, libraries can’t go weeding out all these books. Otherwise they’d end up with, like one shelf of nonfiction. Then how would they justify the budget for that huge new building?!
Anonymous

I think I checked out this book twice: once from the county I grew up in and once in the county I moved to in 7th grade. I am not ashamed.
Anonymous

Weeding is library maintenence. It is necessary. There is no way to keep every book a library ever purchased. There is not enough shelf space. I believe the blog these ladies created was simply for fun/laughs. Lighten up!!
pjkwik

Hang on folks. Before you go burning all the librarians…

Maintaining the collection is a legitimate part of what I do as a public librarian. Sometimes that means getting rid of — weeding — books. My section is the computer books. I cannot possibly leave all the Windows 3.1, Office 97, and Macromedia Flash books on my shelf, and still have room for books about Vista, MySQL, Rails, Ajax, and any other newer concept.

If you went to a library and asked for a book about starting a business and you were handed a book from 1987, would that suffice? Or you were looking for something to help you with a parent with Alzheimer’s — would you want the “latest” science research from 1992?

There are libraries that keep all book published, geared toward researchers. Large academic libraries — like U of Michigan’s — can do this.

And all libraries — academic and public — strive for a balanced collection in every way.

But to think that somehow public librarians — which Holly and Mary are — should keep every book ever published in their collection, well, not possible and not desirable.
ghostpoint

I loved reading their blog and will go back to it again. It’s true that extremely crappy books can also be extremely cool, which is why they took the time to scan and upload this marvelous collection. Sure, they are saying what PJKWik, #21 is saying about attempting to provide healthy, up-to-date information to the public, which is their duty! It’s a duty that is extremely hard to undertake as our collective consciousness is extremely MENTAL and fad-driven, or rather, torn between ideology and perceptions of emerging knowledge. Most of these books are presented by their publishers as sober reality but are in fact complete hogwash, which makes them fascinating cultural artifacts.
These librarians obviously love books and go beyond the call of duty by cataloging this aspect of their work, in fact rescuing this aspect of our culture.
If their work results in a purge at the library, that often results in cheap books for freaks like me that treasure them in table sales and giveaway boxes. Lighten up Boing-Boing! Sheesh, why are you here?
ghostpoint

Also- That toe has suffered from a mild trauma which is why it was chosen to illustrate medical usage of leeches- they suck away the stagnant blood.It is a form of microsurgery to relieve venous pressure.
Anonymous

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with leeches.

Leeches are our friends!

They are nature’s anti-inflammatory medication!

Don’t be so narrow-minded, Mark.
MasterSauce

ohhh! gosh…

Reason six hundred and twenty three why you shouldn’t eat dinner and read Boingboing.net at the same time.

Thing is, it’s not even the leeches. It’s that toe! oh, that toe.
Anonymous

This reminds me of so many library books that I never left back. I did my work experience in one and I can tell you the women who work there don’t look too kindly on people who leave their books back late. Also they hate anyone that draws cocks and balls on the pages. Literary vandalism they call it. It worked for me in my A level English exam..I got a respectable E.
Willmarch
(Link provided by Glinner)
EeyoreX

Its easy to forget that one manÂ´s Awful is often another manÂ´s Awesome…
Beanolini

#3, Anonymous

Also they hate anyone that draws cocks and balls on the pages.

Even famous playwrights.

I’d have loved to have found the leech book in a library when I was kid.
MichaelRN

Libraries pretty much make everything wonderful.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden

That weblog bothers me. Their main title says “Awful Library Books,” but right below it they have a photo full of notably good books.
Antinous / Moderator

I used to catch those big, gray leeches when I was a child. They’re good bait for white perch.