Barack Obama may still have three years left in his presidency, but the debate over his presidential library is already reaching fever pitch. Planning the outgoing POTUS' library is an extremely sweet gig, and it's already been assigned to one of Obama's advisors. Still up in the air, though, is where it will be…

When a study gets published and its results enter our collective body of scientific knowledge it feels like it's there to stay. But without the raw data behind the study, it's hard to revisit the research and use it to take new ideas to the next level. Which is why it's such a problem that old data is disappearing.

To kick off its 2013 Summer Reading Program, the Seattle Public Library set a world record with a library-appropriate domino chain. Twenty-seven volunteers lined up 2,131 books and knocked them all down.

Rotterdam has a new public library called Book Mountain, and it's exactly what the name suggests. A pyramid-shaped glass shell several floors designed to look like a mountain made of books. This is exactly the kind of place where the angels in Wings of Desire would have hung out.

Since 2003, three students at New York University have jumped to their deaths from the atrium-facing staircases insides the university's Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.

We all watch porn. We all like porn. We don't all need to watch the porn we like in the library. In fact, we should never, ever, not ever try to—not even with headphones and in a distant corner of the stacks—because inevitably your cans will come unplugged and all of a sudden it's Ooooh! OH! Unnng Unng... YES! and…

If you pay close attention to the streets of any city, you might notice the boxy, armored shields that house telephones. Yes! Phone booths still exist. Of course no one ever uses them because everyone has a cell phone but yet they still stand, like unwavering artificial trees. But what if we convert phone booths to…

If you were worried that ebooks might kill off the public good of the library loaner, here's reason to worry a little less: Amazon's teamed up with 11,000 public libraries that'll beam books to your Kindle for free.

This library in Japan is made with bookshelves. Which doesn't sound all that cool, right? A library in ordinary town, middle America has freaking bookshelves. But these bookshelves are 30 feet tall, line the walls and tower over the library.

Man, sometimes all you want is to just settle in at the library, fire up some internet porn, and have yourself a time. That's what Brooklynite Santiago Real had in mind before he was beat up by another patron.

When I first saw this photo I thought it was really strange. For some reason, my brain didn't believe it was real. There's something impossible about it, as if it's upside down in space. But it's real.

I'm sad because I'm part of the problem—the last time I visited a library was to photocopy something. According to the WSJ, "the Amazon.com generation" is killing the humble library, with outdoor kiosks taking over. [WSJ]

If information is power, then there's no hero mightier than a librarian. Librarians are superheroes, adventurers, explorers and invaluable guides to other heroes. Here are 20 amazing librarians who save the world every day!

The secret stairs bookcase was clever and beautiful. This climbing library is clever and beautiful and comfy. Like the stair bookcase, you can go up and down, but you can also use it to lay down and read comfortably.

The Salman Rushdie archive on display at Emory, with its handwritten journals and 18GB scattered across four Apple computers, is unlike any other—you can log in to a computer, search his folders, scan his Stickies, run his apps.