Book Search

For her 1974 book Lighter Side of the Library, Janice Glover asked American librarians to recall titles requested by confused patrons, and the books they turned out to want:

Requested: Who Is Your Schoolmaster?
Book wanted: Hoosier Schoolmaster

Requested: Entombed With an Infant
Book wanted: In Tune With the Infinite

Requested: The Missing Hand
Book wanted: A Farewell to Arms

Requested: The Armored Chinaman
Book wanted: The Chink in the Armour

Requested: King of the Ants
Book wanted: Lord of the Flies

Requested: The Wooden Kid
Book wanted: Pinocchio

Requested: Five Pennies and the Sun
Book wanted: The Moon and Sixpence

And so on: From Here to MaternityThe Merchant of Venus; “Allergy in a Country Churchyard”; My Heart Is Wounded, They Buried My Knee. One inspired library staff finally sent a student home with Homer’s Iliad; he had come in asking for Homeless Idiot.

Book Search

For her 1974 book Lighter Side of the Library, Janice Glover asked American librarians to recall titles requested by confused patrons, and the books they turned out to want:

Requested: Who Is Your Schoolmaster?
Book wanted: Hoosier Schoolmaster

Requested: Entombed With an Infant
Book wanted: In Tune With the Infinite

Requested: The Missing Hand
Book wanted: A Farewell to Arms

Requested: The Armored Chinaman
Book wanted: The Chink in the Armour

Requested: King of the Ants
Book wanted: Lord of the Flies

Requested: The Wooden Kid
Book wanted: Pinocchio

Requested: Five Pennies and the Sun
Book wanted: The Moon and Sixpence

And so on: From Here to MaternityThe Merchant of Venus; “Allergy in a Country Churchyard”; My Heart Is Wounded, They Buried My Knee. One inspired library staff finally sent a student home with Homer’s Iliad; he had come in asking for Homeless Idiot.

Short Subjects

When PLAFSEP magazine asked its readers to nominate the silliest library subject heading, the hands-down winner was BUTTOCKS (IN RELIGION, FOLK-LORE, ETC.).

Other highlights, gathered by columnist John R. Likins:

  • AMERICAN GIANT CHECKERED RABBIT
  • BANKRUPTCY–POPULAR WORKS 
  • CATASTROPHICAL, THE, see also COMIC, THE 
  • CHILD ABUSE–STUDY AND TEACHING 
  • CONTANGO AND BACKWARDATION 
  • DENTISTS IN ART 
  • FANTASTIC TELEVISION PROGRAMS 
  • FOOD, JUNK 
  • GHOSTS–PICTORIAL WORKS 
  • GOD–ADDRESSES, ESSAYS, LECTURES 
  • HEMORRHOIDS–POPULAR WORKS 
  • JESUS CHRIST–PERSON AND OFFICES 
  • LABORATORY ANIMALS–CONGRESSES 
  • LOVE NESTS–DIRECTORIES 
  • MANURE HANDLING 
  • MUD LUMPS 
  • ODORS IN THE BIBLE 
  • PRAYERS FOR ANIMALS 
  • SICK–FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 
  • URINARY DIVERSIONS, see also URINE DANCE
  • WASPS (PERSONS)

That’s from Likins’ article “Subject Headings, Silly, American–20th Century–Complications and Sequelae–Addresses, Essays, Lectures,” in Technical Services Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1/2, Fall/Winter 1984, using data from the Library of Congress and Cataloging in Publication.

In The Library at Night (2006), Alberto Manguel gives these:

  • Banana research 
  • Bat binding 
  • Boots and shoes in art 
  • Chickens in religion and folklore 
  • Sewage: collected works 
  • Sex: cause and determination 
  • Tic: see also toc

And the Whole Library Handbook (1991) offers these, collected by the Library of Congress Professional Association: 

  • Adult children 
  • Beehives; see Bee–Housing 
  • Diving for men 
  • Drug abuse — Programmed instruction 
  • Feet in the Bible 
  • Hand — Surgery — Juvenile literature 
  • Lord’s Supper — Reservation 
  • Low German wit and humor 
  • Monotone operators 
  • Running races in rabbinical literature 
  • Standing on one foot; see One-leg resting position 
  • Stupidity; see Inefficiency, Intellectual

I think some of these may now be out of date, but there’s certainly no shortage of curious headings — in doing research for this site I recently ran across “Raccoon — Biography.”

Short Subjects

When PLAFSEP magazine asked its readers to nominate the silliest library subject heading, the hands-down winner was BUTTOCKS (IN RELIGION, FOLK-LORE, ETC.).

Other highlights, gathered by columnist John R. Likins:

  • AMERICAN GIANT CHECKERED RABBIT
  • BANKRUPTCY–POPULAR WORKS 
  • CATASTROPHICAL, THE, see also COMIC, THE 
  • CHILD ABUSE–STUDY AND TEACHING 
  • CONTANGO AND BACKWARDATION 
  • DENTISTS IN ART 
  • FANTASTIC TELEVISION PROGRAMS 
  • FOOD, JUNK 
  • GHOSTS–PICTORIAL WORKS 
  • GOD–ADDRESSES, ESSAYS, LECTURES 
  • HEMORRHOIDS–POPULAR WORKS 
  • JESUS CHRIST–PERSON AND OFFICES 
  • LABORATORY ANIMALS–CONGRESSES 
  • LOVE NESTS–DIRECTORIES 
  • MANURE HANDLING 
  • MUD LUMPS 
  • ODORS IN THE BIBLE 
  • PRAYERS FOR ANIMALS 
  • SICK–FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 
  • URINARY DIVERSIONS, see also URINE DANCE
  • WASPS (PERSONS)

That’s from Likins’ article “Subject Headings, Silly, American–20th Century–Complications and Sequelae–Addresses, Essays, Lectures,” in Technical Services Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1/2, Fall/Winter 1984, using data from the Library of Congress and Cataloging in Publication.

In The Library at Night (2006), Alberto Manguel gives these:

  • Banana research 
  • Bat binding 
  • Boots and shoes in art 
  • Chickens in religion and folklore 
  • Sewage: collected works 
  • Sex: cause and determination 
  • Tic: see also toc

And the Whole Library Handbook (1991) offers these, collected by the Library of Congress Professional Association: 

  • Adult children 
  • Beehives; see Bee–Housing 
  • Diving for men 
  • Drug abuse — Programmed instruction 
  • Feet in the Bible 
  • Hand — Surgery — Juvenile literature 
  • Lord’s Supper — Reservation 
  • Low German wit and humor 
  • Monotone operators 
  • Running races in rabbinical literature 
  • Standing on one foot; see One-leg resting position 
  • Stupidity; see Inefficiency, Intellectual

I think some of these may now be out of date, but there’s certainly no shortage of curious headings — in doing research for this site I recently ran across “Raccoon — Biography.”

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