10:39 am Tue May 12, 2026 Boing Boing / Google Gemini This amazing old sticker was found inside the cover of a book from the Pasadena City Schools Library in the 1920s. The sticker features a delightful little cartoon book with a face, arms, and legs that looks like it could be a character in an avant-garde comic book. The message reads: "What about your hands? Better wash them! Before you touch me". This label dates to an era when libraries were deeply concerned with sanitation, as books circulated through hundreds of households, during which diseases like tuberculosis, influenza, scarlet fever, and polio were major public fears. Public libraries and schools often pasted etiquette labels inside books reminding children not to cough on pages, turn pages with clean fingers, or return books promptly. There's something both charming and ominous about those old library hygiene warnings. I'm envious of anyone who owns a novel with a label featuring this anthropomorphic book giving a hand-washing reminder.…