Library Pranks - Got any ideas?

[kiesterfeaster]

I love the library.  Just the whole idea of libraries in general where people share information just makes me smile.  THere are a handful of books at my local library that I know I'm probably the only person who reads them but occasionally I'll see someone has checked them out and it makes me feel warm and happy inside.  I've written messages to people who check out 'my' books at the library.  Sometimes I'll put stickers or draw cryptic emblems in books that I like.   We all have our idiosyncrasies...this is one of mine.  Sometimes I'll find poems that people write and leave in books.  Sometimes they'll leave lettters they're writing or lists of things they need to do.  I treasure these things and keep them.

It's kind of out of the realm of possibility that I'm going back to school to get a library science degree, I know it's nearly impossible to get a job in the library system without one.  However, I did not give up that easily!  I figure I'd get a volunteer position!  I might not get paid to work at the library but lack of a salary cannot stop me from my dreams.  So I've been volunteering at the library for nearly a year now and I frickin' love it, dewd!

Anyhow....I started small putting mail order steak catalogs in the vegitarian cookbooks and photos of horse hung black men in the Dr. Laura books but I know there are some really cool pranks I could be doing.  Like there are so many signs that could be altered.  There's plenty of room on the breakroom corkboard for general hilarity.  I tend to like pranks that are harmless and are generally absurd and silly.  If I wanted to be malicious that would be easy.  I could screw up the whole system if I were a sociopath.  I just want a few lulz and giggles.

Any ideas?  Keep in mind there are cameras pretty much everywhere except the bathroom and breakroom.

[rbcp]

You should print extra pages to be put into a book.  Try to fit a bunch of bizarre writing into the book's story and make it fit perfectly on the front and back of a single piece of paper, using the same typeface as the book.    Maybe put a little glue along the edge of your new page to make it stick in there forever.  And put something completely bizarre and out-of-character for the story.  Like killer robots in a Mark Twain book or flyer saucers in Harry Potter.

[kiesterfeaster]

That's actually a great idea.  In older books there sometimes is a page which tells about the typeface.  I think that would be the hardest part.  Making it the same size, making the paper the same color, etc.  I can see it now, Injun Joe is revealed to be a killer robot from the future!  Tom Sawyer and Huck finn are gay lovers on the down low.  Thanks RBCP.  I think I might have better luck with a newer book who's pages haven't yellowed yet.  I'm thinking I'll get a more dramatic response if it's an emotionally charged book.  Maybe a religious studies book?  Lately there have been many historical novels with religious topics.  Anne Rice (the vampire lestat author) recently became a born again Christian and has been writing an account of the life of Jesus.  Harry Potter's a good idea though.  Lots of people read that stuff. 

I don't want to deface any property though.  The funding for libraries is being cut across the country.  ...but I could anonymously donate a copy of whatever book I glue pages in.   

I'll keep yas posted.  More ideas please.  I have a few but I'm going to do them and post what happens!

[nomadcowatbk]

you could just check out a book and put it in there

[MIB]

A few ideas,

Rearrange an entire shelf of books. If the shelf of books go:

133.7pla--books in between---139.7hax, reverse the order to read

139.7hax--books in between---133.7pla.

If you can do this with the entire library, go for it.

Find a book that the library does not have in their system and put it on the shelf. Go as far as putting a stamp that read "Property of the OMGPLAHAX library", the Dewey Decimal number on the spine and a clear book cover and any other markings. Since libraries have computers to check out books, the librarian will go nuts trying to check out the book for someone.

Do the same trick above but don't put any markings on the book.

Do you have access to the system that allows you to input any books in their inventory?

Pick a series of books that are checked out often. Years ago Harry Potter books were published often. Recent years we all saw the Twilight vampire books coming out. The trick is to input a book title of a popular series that doesn't exist.

When people come to look for other books in a particular series, they will be shocked to see another book in the series has been  published and they will be all over the library look for the the non-existent book.

Find some company that will make a book with nothing but blank pages. Make sure the front and back of the book have writing on it.  Have the front cover read "Invisible Ink: How the CIA Communicated with Spies During the Cold War". Give a fake name as the author. When people come to you about the book with no words, you simply look at a few pages and say, "damn I guess the invisible ink really does work."

While at work have a friend phone the library to have some book reserved for later pick up. Make sure they ask for the following,

Yellow River by I.P Daley
Tigers Revenge by Claude Balls
Ruptured China-man by Won Hung Lo
Brown Spots on the Wall by Wu Flung Poo
Brown Spots on the Piano Bench by Beethovens Last Movement
Lines in the Sand by Peter Dragon
50 Days in the Saddle by Major Ashburn

MIB

[purity]

-if its a school library, ppl tend to accidentally leave ti-84 calculators & Especially flash drives there which often wind up in lost-&-found, so u can usually go up to the front desk & just describe "your" missing flash drive (or drives) as "small & dark w/ silver on the end" &, in my case, the student worker at the front desk would just bring out a box full of them where i would just look for the highest capacity one(s).

-bring in a bunch of the magnetic strips that they deactivate at stores, run magnets over them to reactivate, & put them on ppls shit so they set off the alarms. same can be done if they use RFID tags or whatever; just peel them outta books (requires patience, exacto knife speeds the process) & put them on shit.

(& obviously there's a plethora of shit that can be done w/ the PC's)