My Evil co-workers

Yes. Evil. Why oh why are you weeding so much? There is no need for you to weed the 800's and gut it dry! Leave us please some poetry, some sonatas, some shakespeare! PLEASE! If you don't like books, don't be a librarian! Don't take it out on our small collection.

Are you looking for A Long Day's Journey Into Night? Sorry, it's gone! How about some classic Emerson? Nope try another library. OH! It hurts just thinking about it. (sigh) Stop the madness!



Patron Stories:

An aide tells me a patron is using his cell phone to listen to music in the computer room. He won't turn it off. I ask him to please turn it off. He says, "I have come before and if I can't afford to get earphones for the computer, someone else has told me it's ok to lower it so I can hear it softly. How is that different from using my cell phone softly?" Me: I'm not sure who you spoke to, but that is not our policy. If you don't have earphones you can't listen to the sounds from the computer you must turn it off. Patron: I see how it is. Fine.
(p.s. if you can afford a cell phone you can afford $5 earphones if you want to listen to music at the library so badly! )

Patron (thinking): hmm? The librarian just came up to me and asked me not to use the cell phone in here. Let me talk even louder and walk to the echoing hallway that resonates all over the building. That will be better right?
Me: Can you please get off the cell phone or go outside. (ARGH!! The hallway is not outside!!!!)

Intresting Ref Questions

Patron: You don't have banned books here right?
Me: Yes, we actually have a lot of them. Which one are you looking for?
Patron: Well it's a movie. About Christopher Columbus.
Me: So you want a movie about Christopher Columbus?
Patron: Yes, but I don't remember the name of it.
(WHA?! How? Huh? What does that have to do with banned books?)

My day

Situation: Emergency door is opened. Alarm goes off. Librarian 2nd in Command is walking by. He pauses. Looks around to see if anybody saw him notice it. Doesn't see anybody. Walks away. Alarm is still blaring.

My Reference Log

A Wednesday afternoon two hour stint at the reference desk:

1. Can I have a computer?


2. Do you have Hawaiian music?


3. Can I order some movies?


4. Can I get a computer?


5. Can I get a study room?


6. Can I get a computer?


7. Can we both sit at the computer?


8. What computer was that again?


9. Where can I sign up for a computer?


10. Why can't we share a computer?


11. Let me speak to a manager.


12. I'll go find another computer somewhere else! (after speaking to manager)


13. (Phone) Can I talk to the CRC? What are their hours?


14. Is this where I make a computer reservation?


15. Can I have a computer?


16. How do you spell "cirrhosis"?


17. Can I get a study room?


18. Can I get a computer?


19. Can I get a computer?


20. You can't use your cell phone in here.


21. You can't eat that in here.


22. Please keep it down you are very loud.


23. Can you restart my computer?


24. When is your next computer reservation?


25. That's your earliest one?


26. What computer did you say I had?


27. Where are your "Halo" books?


28. Where are your scary stories? Like Goosebump?


29. Can i have a computer?


30. Can you help me find this book in the shelves?


31. Can I get my ID back?


32. 
    
    

Patrons

Patron etiquette:
When you see an Information Professional such as myself speaking to somebody else, don't just come up and interrupt asking if you can ask me a question. I am busy! Yea, you are not the only person in the library! People standing in front of you in line got there first even if you think you are the most important person to your self, you're not for the rest of us. K. Thanks.

Patron: Can I check to see if someone I am looking for is here or has used a computer. Me: No, sorry. We can't give out that kind of information.
P: Oh really?
Me: Yes.
P: Well can I ask you if you've seen this girl? She is about 5 feet tall, with dark hair and "morenita" complexion.Me: (pause) are you serious?
P: Yea.Me: There are a lot people that fit your description here (In East Los Angeles!!! And you are talking to one of them dumbass!). Sorry.
Same patron later on.
P: Can I make a computer reservation?
Me: Sure. The next one is at 12:30. Is that ok?
P: Sure. Is that for half hour or a full hour?
Me: Full hour.
P:What time do you open?
Me: 10am
P: Why are your reservations in increments of 30 minutes? Like 11:30, 12:30...?
Me: Because not everyone shows up at 10am to use a computer. They come in later on and use it from 10:30 till 11:30 and the person after them uses it from 11:30 to 12:30 and so on.
P: wow that is weird.
(Really?!?! Is it really that weird? This is an adult I'm talking to, right?)

New FAV blogs

Thanks to OEDB's poll, "Top 25 Librarian Blogger", I have found my new favorite blog. A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette is full of sarcasm and dry humor covering clever topics such as "Being the Kick-ass Librarian", "Dressing for a library interview" and other helpful tips like "Being a Whistler". I guess those of you who are not librarians and might get the jokes, but if imagine your local librarian following these guidelines it is very humorous. I particularly enjoy the topic of being territorial in which peeing is the solution to marking your territory. Good reading. :)

Here's some patron etiquette:

When using a public computer at the library always take handy wipes with you. The person who might have been using it before you could have had a cold and sneezed their snot all over the place w/out covering their mouth. I've seen it happen folks.

TV

I have a new favorite show. Mad Men on AMC is an awesome show that deals with the world of advertising men on Madison Avenue NY in the early 1960's. I love the dress and the background settings. Even though it's full of racial, sexist and other non-pc talk, the storyline is awesome. The development of these characters is enthralling. I can't wait for the mid-60's cus I know some of the housewives will be declaring their Independence. Though it looks like they are really trying to hard to shock the audience by showing a lot of shots of pregnant women smoking/drinking, people driving w/out their seat belts or drunk and people drinking all the time. At first this last part I thought was an exaggeration, but I spoke to one of my co-workers and she says it's all true. It just so happens that she was a secretary for an ad firm on Madison Avenue NY in the 1960's and it was exactly like that. With the ass pinching and 3 martini lunches. Yup that was real.

Duck.Duck.GOOSE!!

So I decide to have my lunch outside today. My library is located by a nice park with a lake and I had never taken advantage of having this park nearby. I grabbed my sandwich and headed for the park. There are very few benches under some shade but I was able to find one by lake. As soon as I sat down, a flock of ducks headed my way. I guess they are used to having people feed them, but I was determined not to encourage this kind of behaviour. So I refrained from giving them any food. They slowly realized it and moved on. As I sat there, there was this one duck that would not leave. He kept waiting for me to drop something. He was like a dog waiting for my every move. He even chased a napkin I had tossed to the trashcan, but was not able to reach it. He is a beautiful black duck with luminescent feathers that change from green to purple to blue when the sun hits them. Here he is standing by my legs waiting to snatch my napkin. The little punk got to so impatient that he started nibbling at my shoe!

He did not give up! Never even flinched when I tried to shoo him away with my foot. Instead he brought reinforcements...
Stupid goose started circling me. I hurriedly ate my lunch and bolted out of there! LOL! I did not want to become another LA duck mauling statistic. This was almost as bad as my "squirrel incident" at The Huntington. It was a bad experience. I don't want to talk about. lol

Oh Cuba!

Loving Che by Ana Menedez is a wonderful novel of family, political romanticism and love. I really recommend this book to everybody. It deals with family separation after the Cuban revolution and how one woman tries to find the truth to the past. The ideals of the revolutions are given a human face and the treatment of the Cuban people after the revolution is very well described. You can feel the desperation of the people who escaped it and remained.






Patron Stories: No Shoes No Service
Me: Sir, can you put your shoes back on please.
Patron: Oh no, I don't have any shoes. You see I have a foot fungus that bothers my foot.(Pointing to the foot.)
Me: (Looking at him like he's a moron.) Yes, that is why we want you to put some shoes on. We have small children that crawl on the carpet and we don't want them to get your fungus.
Me: Oh? Ok. I'll be leaving anyway.

My Cuba streak continues

In Cuba I was a German Shepherd by Ana Menendez started off good, but then lost me. The book mainly deals with the dislocation of the Cuban families and how they adjusted to their new life in the US. Menendez uses stories that jump from one character to another, which makes it hard to follow. She also uses symbolism which I don't like. The symbolism is overly used and make the stories seem convoluted. I like the first couple of stories that deal with old men and their jokes, but after that she looses me.

I'm reading two other books that have to do with Cuba and it's people so stay tuned.