Librarians do Gaga

In this smashing video, students and faculty from the University of Washington's Information School perform a Lady Gaga remix ("Catalog") with enormous humor, verve, and grace. Librarians are so goddamned awesome. Seriously.

Librarians Do Gaga (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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jeligula

Spent my time at the Suzzalo & Odegaard libraries off of Red Square. This song stinks, however.

I once saw a guy playing acoustic guitar on the steps to the Suzzalo library in 1987. He was alone but didn’t stay that way for long. He was ripping it up in a major way and when I walked up to him I saw that he was none other than Carlos Santana. I later learned that SeÃ±or Santana had a habit of giving impromptu performances in cities he was scheduled to appear. Not saying that Lady Gaga is untalented, it’s just that this song seems to point to a profound lack of song writing sensibilities.
sfazzios

If anyone is curious about the antelope reference, it actually refers to the work of Suzanne Briet. She famously asked the question, ‘What constitutes a document?’, and whether an antelope is a document. She argued that an antelope is a document if it’s in a zoo, but not if it’s in the wild.

The antelope-document has become an in-joke among librarians and other information science folks.
Anonymous

Holy Hot Librarians, Batman!

Being a Physicist, I cannot express myself strongly enough how librarians are awesome, and how my work would be almost impossible without them.
bklynchris

“boolean limits pare things down to just what fits” ROFLMAO
Anonymous

I’m pretty amazed also, slitybrilig, about the Codex Seraphinianus.

For those of you out of the loop, the Codex Seraphinianus is an ultra-rare book that is probably one of the oddest and most singular published in the 20th century. It is an atlas/encyclopedia of sorts about an imaginary, surreal world. It is written in its own language and uses its own base 21 numbering system. It is completely and wholly strange, and any happy mutant worth his or her salt needs to know about it.

Here’s the wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus
Slorrin

I left an anonymous comment about the CODEX SERAFINIANUS (sp?) and they never moderated it. nowi look like a 2nd man man.
Anonymous

Passing this on to my librarian-colleagues here in Finland :D

@bklynchris +1

(btw. respect for using recaptcha for spam-moderation. It’s one of the wickedest tools around)
Anonymous

“This is my information detector… it goes ding when there’s stuff” I sense Doctor Who fans among those librarians! This was great!
Anonymous

Can’t use my… Catalogue?

I know you HAVE Thesauruses, Ladies! I know you have rhyming Dictionaries!

Did you ever consider… DATABASE?
- freshacconci
  
  Yeah, but “catalogue” is more associated with librarians than “database” in the popular imagination.
Glindie

So, the Codex Seraphinianus is a “poor” man’s Voynich manuscript? Cool.

Anon #30…”d-d-d-database” would be *really* awkward, imo. Thus “c-c-c-catalogue”.
Anonymous

Librarians and Doctor Who references FTW! Excellent!
Marilyn Terrell

At National Geographic, our librarians take mud baths in volcanoes in Colombia: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/03/colombia.html
Jaan

I’m so glad human civilization has progressed to the point where librarians are genuinely desirable.
Anonymous

@Anon#30:
Listen carefully to the lyrics: “Can use my, can use my,you can use my catalog (don’t forget the databases!)”
saintlaurent

Thanks for posting this video. It really made my day.
Anonymous

flippin’ sweet dog!
David Carroll

Of course librarians are seriously awesome! It’s a fact. Ask any librarian.

Here’s another fact: Boys who don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses are idiots.
freshacconci

I’m lucky to be married to a librarian. This video is very nerdy in all the right ways.
apoxia

I used to be a librarian and it is true, we fucking rock.
Anonymous

Nicely done.

I’ve been re-writing lyrics for my class to perform a Phys Ed based song to this same tune, and that semi-rap part is especially difficult to scan.
Anonymous

Wonderful share in a fun way, I think I’ll share this with faculty we train.
Anonymous

That’s just genius!

I will be showing it at the next meeting of our Library Marketing group. I am also going to flag it up with CILIP and see if it gives them any ideas.

Thank you so much for sharing it.
Anonymous

Don’t get caught in a bad hotel — more lady gaga – this time brought to you by the unions!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-79pX1IOqPU
Anonymous

i like how almost everyone in the video is wearing glasses
slithybrilig

Great lyrics, Nancy Pearl, Awesome moves, and the CODEX SERAPHINIANUS!!!!! OMFG! My weekend, nay my week, is now totally complete!
Bazilisk

Oh, sweet. That’s one of the top choices in my list of places to apply to get my MLS degree…
doggo

Oh baby! Them are some seriously sexy women right there, I’ll tell you what! Gaga’s got nothing on them.
Anonymous

They had a Codex Sarafinianus…. i’m flabbergasted. My university had one, but it was stolen, naturally.
- Anonymous
  
  Tell them they can find it for a relative cheap price (â‚¬89) in Italy.
  The editor is Rizzoli from Milan (Rizzoli, 2006, 384 pp., ISBN 88-17-01389-7). Serafini himself add 9 new pages as prologue to this new edition.
  Ciao!
  Corrado
spunky

Haha, love the Doctor Who reference at the beginning. Great video!
Joller

If there were any justice in the world, librarians would be more celebrated, loved, and adored than Lady Gaga could ever hope to be. There is, because I’m celebrating, loving, and adoring them right now.
Anonymous

WhooHoo! My MLIS alma mater & adored professors!
LittleTsu
Ocker3

I’m going to forward this to the librarians at the school where I work, they are also awesome and will get a kick out of this. I have known many awesome librarians over the years, but my mother said I shouldn’t become one as I would spend all day reading the books. Which is probably true
Mark Crummett

Librarians RAWK!

And I’m starting to like Lady Gaga more. Anyone who does a song _about_ librarians is alright with me.
- Mark Crummett
  
  OK, what do I know about Lady Gaga? It _should_ be a LG song!
feuilletoniste

Yay, a Dr Who reference! ‘This is my information detector. It goes ding when there’s stuff.’ (Substitute ‘timey-wimey’ for ‘information’ and you’re home and hosed)
Anonymous

And they ALL look like ‘librarians’… ;-/

Clever…catchy…but still total ‘geek’ looking
Anonymous

This video was wicked awesome!
kimnbri

Werd to the nerdy chix! HAWT!!!
Anonymous

How did they get Nancy Pearl to be in this video?
- Anonymous
  
  A bunch of us in the program have taken/are taking classes with her (on reader’s advisory, of course) so I’m sure Sarah just went up and asked her.
- klg19
  
  She works at that library, that’s how.
- Anonymous
  
  They probably just asked her. She is adjunct faculty at the iSchool. Readers’ Advisory of course!
zikman

holy hot librarians!
Chuck

All we need now is for ************** to do an in-depth analysis on this video like they’ve done on Lady Gaga’s videos.
- Mim
  
  Oh the antelopes! The antelopes!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  We don’t allow links to hate sites, even if your intent isn’t malicious.
  - Chuck
    
    >We don’t allow links to hate sites, even if your intent isn’t malicious.
    
    Hmm. I guess I perceive them as more wacky. Although I suppose there are risks in constantly telling impressionable people that the world’s a demon-haunted place. Maybe I only find it funny because I’m not insane … well, actually, I am, but …
Patrick Dodds

This reeks of meme.
JohnRomeoAlpha

Librarians, search, databases, dancing in the stacks, so many hot women wearing eyeglasses, so many books…I am completed by this video.
Anonymous

Cool. I will disclose in Brazil. Fabio Pinho
klaatuu

This is Sarah Wachter’s website where she talks about how and why she made the video.

http://www.athenasbanquet.net/
gladeye

I’m glad I’m not in college anymore.
- Mim
  
  College? This is grad school! :P
Anonymous

Yes, we do rock. Remember that a lot of us are facing layoff threats and severe budget cuts. Please let you city governments know just how much you support your libraries & librarians!
Anonymous

absoluty nice! mauro
Anonymous

Yes, indeed, THIS is the school my son will go to this fall! I love it.