You just found the ‘central branch’ Book and Zine TRADING Library!

December 13, 2021 6:05 PM

While weeding old travel books from the Greater Victoria Public Library’s central branch collection in August, she discovered something truly unexpected hiding in the 1984 book Handpicked Tours of North America: A Motorist’s Guide to Scenic Routes and Fascinating Places in Canada and the USA. Pulling the book off the shelf, she hadn’t noticed that it was missing a barcode or that it was lighter than one might have expected for a hardcover of its size. She did, however, notice a couple of zines tumbling to the floor… When she finally opened it, she was astonished: a library within the library revealed itself.
posted by Horace Rumpole (25 comments total)

This might be the best thing ever.
posted by bcd at 6:21 PM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh I love how some of the librarians might join in now!
posted by Glinn at 6:28 PM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]

That is so cool!
posted by Thorzdad at 7:11 PM on December 13, 2021

This is a fabulous article! I love the idea of this secret little library within a library. It also seems very Victoria, somehow. Thank you for posting this—I needed to read about something nice today.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:32 PM on December 13, 2021 [4 favorites]

Much cooler than the Little Library things … seems kind of endearlingly subversive, if that’s a thing.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 8:07 PM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Could be worse (sadly, as the best of Helvetica Standard shorts, the video has been taken off youtube.)
posted by pwnguin at 8:10 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

This is wonderful. More library fun (in a self-link) here.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:57 PM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

I sent this link to the librarian I know and she is DELIGHTED.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:49 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I used to work at that library. As a zine/comic lover, coming across this would have blown my delicate little mind. Thanks for sharing this!
posted by blisterpack at 4:27 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks for that fascinating link, Paul Slade, I’ve heard of the Private Case but not the Suppressed Safe. Andy Capp is pretty detestable but now I’m intrigued by the idea of forbidden Andy Capp.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:33 AM on December 14, 2021

In college I had a generic workstudy grant and I ended up with a job in the library. Since my classes were in the morning and most of the returned books had already been re-shelved by midday, I usually worked as a shelf reader. I'd methodically browse the shelves from one end of a section to another inspecting all the books, making sure they were in order, re-homing any wildly out of place ones (and imagining how long they've been "missing" and who might be looking for them) and just chilling. It was probably the best and most satisfying on-campus job I ever had.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:44 AM on December 14, 2021 [8 favorites]

A grad student where I work got busted for doing this with a few dozen books that they wanted to keep for their own research, without the annoyance of someone else borrowing them. The stacks had a space in the center, between the shelves, and this is where they made their hoard. I think they were actually prosecuted for this.
posted by thelonius at 5:03 AM on December 14, 2021 [4 favorites]

Much cooler than the Little Library things … seems kind of endearlingly subversive, if that’s a thing.

Hi, I'm avocet, you might remember me from that thing I wrote that time that is still getting us hate mail almost five years later. Some of the most intense criticism we got was from Victoria, especially from one particular individual who recorded a whole podcast episode to rail about why we were wrong and we were misunderstanding LFL®s...admitting he hadn't even read our article!

But this, this takes real effort, involves meaningful curation work, and doesn't have an individual with far too much time on their hands putting their own name on LOOK WHAT I'M DOING FOR THE COMMUNITY! FOR READING! FOR LITERACY!

This is actually rad.
posted by avocet at 6:04 AM on December 14, 2021 [5 favorites]

I love recursive, Borges-esque stuff. Sadly, when I worked at a library, the most interesting thing I found tucked into a book was...a Chick tract. I remember one book, though, that was actually a box containing loose pages, the idea being you could reshuffle them to make your own unique story.

One of my university teachers bragged about how he would write papers in college with totally fake references, then he would add cards into the library's card index to back up the references. (Yes, kids, before computers, everything was cataloged by index cards.)
posted by jabah at 6:58 AM on December 14, 2021

Could be worse

See also: Hard Boiled.
posted by neckro23 at 7:05 AM on December 14, 2021

I remember one book, though, that was actually a box containing loose pages, the idea being you could reshuffle them to make your own unique story.

Would that have been the mystery novel Cain's Jawbone? I've only got the recent paperback re-issue, but I know that was originally published as a set of reshufflable cards. Only by finding the right order for them from the clues each page provided could you discover the name of the murderer.
posted by Paul Slade at 7:12 AM on December 14, 2021

The coolest thing I ever found in library shelves was a circa-1930s book on television which included instructions and tips on how to build your own receiver.

The second coolest thing I ever found was a late-1970s publication alleging that the automobile industry had collectively conspired against "clean" running Stanley Steamers which was (of course) written by a collector of vintage Stanley Steamers.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:27 AM on December 14, 2021

Would that have been the mystery novel Cain's Jawbone?

No…after doing some research, I think perhaps it was The Unfortunates, by B.S. Johnson.
posted by jabah at 7:31 AM on December 14, 2021

I think perhaps it was The Unfortunates, by B.S. Johnson.

Not THIS B.S. Johnson, I guess?
posted by Archer25 at 8:15 AM on December 14, 2021 [2 favorites]

One of my favorite pastimes is just wandering the stacks in a library. Some of my current intellectual passions are results of stumbling unto something just sitting on a shelf. A title, a cover, who knows why it stood out. Books are far larger on the inside than the outside. A library is a universe to explore.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:06 AM on December 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

Would that have been the mystery novel Cain's Jawbone?
No…after doing some research, I think perhaps it was The Unfortunates, by B.S. Johnson.
posted by jabah at 7:31 AM on December 14 [+] [!]

I think perhaps it was The Unfortunates, by B.S. Johnson.
Not THIS B.S. Johnson, I guess?
posted by Archer25 at 8:15 AM on December 14 [1 favorite +] [!]

One of my favorite pastimes is just wandering the stacks in a library. Some of my current intellectual passions are results of stumbling unto something just sitting on a shelf. A title, a cover, who knows why it stood out. Books are far larger on the inside than the outside. A library is a universe to explore.
posted by njohnson23 at 9:06 AM on December 14 [+] [!]

What are the odds? Seems highly appropriate for this thread.
posted by bcd at 10:43 AM on December 14, 2021

Wow, this is awesome :-)
posted by dg at 2:24 PM on December 14, 2021

If this doesn't tickle your soul just right I question your MLS.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:43 PM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I love this! I'm glad the librarians found it and helped inject some new life into it. I hope it gets popular.

I am very picky about, hmm, performative use of public spaces, because a lot of it's frankly obtrusive and wasteful (remember that yarnbombing trend, where people would knit or crochet massive amounts of acrylic yarn on benches, trees, and railings? dreadful). But this is elegantly efficient, practical, and fun.
posted by kkar at 1:03 PM on December 16, 2021

A quick, belated addendum: Mrs Acroyear works at that branch of the GVPL, and added this interesting tidbit... all the books in the "900" section, including the "travel book" at the centre of this story, were packed up and moved to another floor during the changes related to the library's reshuffling during the pandemic. So a library employee picked up that book, put it on a cart with others, rolled it down to the elevators, up to the 2nd floor, and reshelved it without, apparently, noticing anything out of place. Or maybe they did?
posted by acroyear at 1:36 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]