Cats in Libraries

April 13, 2002 5:18 PM

Cats in Libraries A searchable map of libraries from around the world that have a cat in residence.
from ResearchBuzz
posted by lucien (18 comments total)

...the Library Cat Society, an organization whose mission is "to promote the establishment of a cat or cats in a library setting."

Exactly the sort of overly-specific special interest community the internet is perfect for.

My favorite? jasper barcode mouser
posted by malphigian at 5:28 PM on April 13, 2002

Cats In Shops. bookstores, hotels, bed & breakfasts, libraries and so forth, too. No maps, though. And every library should have one, along with a yellow Lab, or so I think.
posted by y2karl at 5:30 PM on April 13, 2002

Every library should have a cat or two, with optional mellow dog, is what I meant--yellow Lab was the generic example.
posted by y2karl at 5:32 PM on April 13, 2002

The dog would be too interested in the patrons... "Put down that copy of The Scriptorium of Margam Abbey and the Scribes of Early Angevin Glamorgan : Secretarial Administration in a Welsh Marcher Barony, C.1150-C.1225 and let's play fetch! C'mon!"

And the librarian would have to walk it, leaving no one to be rude to the patrons.
posted by evanizer at 5:56 PM on April 13, 2002

the librarian would have to walk it, leaving no one to be rude to the patrons

thwart not the librarian.
posted by jessamyn at 6:30 PM on April 13, 2002

Sorry, jessamyn. I like most librarians. But the ones here at the Beinecke are pretty surly.
posted by evanizer at 6:38 PM on April 13, 2002

Well if it was a fat old lazy dog... Or well sedated. And, heck, make the patrons walk it, leaving wallet and car keys so they wouldn't kidnap it, of course.
posted by y2karl at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2002

you'd be surly too if a student worker stole $2 million worth of rare stuff from your library. apology accepted otherwise.
posted by jessamyn at 7:05 PM on April 13, 2002

Our campus library could definitely use a cat to cheer things up. Which is a slam at the decor (apparently, concrete was the in thing that year), not the helpful librarians. CSU-Long Beach used to have a large supply of resident (semi-feral) felines, as, I think, did UCLA.

Mr. O'Gara, of O'Gara and Wilson's in Chicago, always argued that second-hand bookstores had to have a cat--although his own store has been feline-free ever since he decided the resident Persian, Hannah Gray, wasn't people-friendly enough. (Does anybody in the Hyde Park area know if Mr. O'Gara is still alive? I don't think I ever saw him after the store moved across the street from the Medici.)
posted by thomas j wise at 7:19 PM on April 13, 2002

The worst part about that situation is that I saw that kid several times while he was still interning there, and once handed him a hand-colored copy of William Blake's Songs of Innocence when I was done with it. I was horrified when I heard the news of his thefts (and destruction) of articles from their collection, and worriedly checked that the beautiful Blake book was ok. To my relief, it was. Even so, I want to find that kid and wring his neck for doing that stuff.

</offtopic>

There aren't any cats at the Beinecke (or the Yale Stacks). I think it's amusing that this site also lists sculptured cats.
posted by evanizer at 7:29 PM on April 13, 2002

(that first part of my post refers to jessamyn's comment about a library theif.)

And someday I'll learn to do the fake html tag thing...
posted by evanizer at 7:32 PM on April 13, 2002

WTF?
posted by delmoi at 7:36 PM on April 13, 2002

I keep asking myself that again and again, delmoi.
posted by gleemax at 8:13 PM on April 13, 2002

i wish there was a cat at my school's library.. my excuse for visiting all the time would be to pet the cat, and not so i could "check out" the delicious-looking library girl like a dork...

it's a shame that i think i'm allergic to cats though... bah, small sacrifice.
posted by lotsofno at 8:41 PM on April 13, 2002

This is neat, I have a calico who likes to bite me, but I also have a sister who has asthma and allergies to cats. I am wondering how they deal with that, being public libraries.
Come to think of it, my sister works for the Gates foundation giving computer equipment to libraries that are short of funds and cannot get them on their own.
posted by a3matrix at 8:44 PM on April 13, 2002

That's nothing, I stole one of an edition of 10 or so copies of Voltaire's Candide illustrated by Paul Klee. Just had to remove the magnetic strip.

Yeah I feel guilty. At least I don't shoplift.
posted by Settle at 9:37 PM on April 13, 2002

it's a shame that i think i'm allergic to cats though... bah, small sacrifice.

There is the bubble boy solution. Of course, that's not going to help with the looking like a dork part insofar as the delicious-looking librarian is concerned. On the other hand, it is hygenic.
posted by y2karl at 9:49 PM on April 13, 2002

No wait, I didn't. I stole one of those golf pencils. Same difference.
posted by Settle at 11:49 PM on April 13, 2002