Ohio Libraries ... Just Better

You can show me Hennen ratings, you can tell me that Connecticut State University found that Cleveland libraries are #1, but as far as I'm concerned, this is the ultimate proof that Ohio libraries are better:

At my job, I've been working on a book about ancient Egypt. Inspired, I went to the Met, as I often do, and spent the afternoon at the Temple of Dendur.

It was around then that I recalled a certain Sesame Street special I'd seen as a kid, Don't Eat the Pictures, where Big Bird and all the gang get themselves locked in the museum overnight, and then Big Bird and Snuffy meet a ghostly Egyptian kid who's been haunting one of the Egyptian artifacts, waiting in a sort of limbo-like state for the afterlife. Remember this one, fellow Gen-Xers? I loved it.

Surely, I thought, the NYPL would have a copy of this. Not just because they're a ginormous library, but also because the special was, essentially, just as much a ploy to "sell" one of New York City's most venerated institutions to children, as putting the Cap'n Crunch and Count Chocula at toddler eye-level is a ploy to sell sugary cereal.

I know, I know. Don't Eat the Pictures is nearly 25 years old. Kids today don't even know that Snuffy used to be Big Bird's imaginary friend. Still, I expected the NYPL to own one copy.

But they didn't!

Now.

I invite you to look for yourself and see how many copies the CLEVNET consortium owns. (Don't forget, search in the title field, and then click the availability tab.)

Uh-huh.