Sometimes the questions that come in from our virtual reference service are amusing, but on days when the phone is ringing off the hook, people need help with using the computer or looking items up I just want a feature on the inbox that deletes certain questions or maybe a virtual hand to smack the senders into their senses.
Message: My history teacher brought up a person that was the only first guy that they cannot prove isn't a socerer. She said his name is Rass Putin. Do you happen to have any books referring to or about this person?
Message: It says there are 5 books lost. What are the 5 books?
Note: This user did not leave their name or library card number and the return email address bounced.
Message: Hi, I'm looking for any books that would help me with my topic for my science fair project. Also, is there any information on other studies that have been done by other scientists that would make good science fair projects? ~ Thanks! Reagan
Answer: To all of the above: Ahhhh!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The library goat
Because of the snowstorm (which I will not refer to as snowpocalypse, snowmageddon, or the snotorious B.I.G.) patron activity has been picking back up, but on Tuesday when our county made the poorly advised decision to stay open, very few members of the public were willing to step outside much less risk driving in the new storm that had already begun, leaving just us library staff chickens to look at each other and stare, knowing that we were only there because we lived within walking distance or didn't have enough leave to call in.
All day long I answered the phone ("You're open? Really? No Really?! Well, I'm just calling to say I won't be coming in today, but will you hold my copy of New Moon until Saturday?") and answered the chat and backlog of email from the weekend of when we were closed ("Why is the library closed today? I spent two hours digging my car out to drive over and return my late DVDs and you aren't even open!"). While I was talking and typing away I kept hearing this noise:
Be-uhhh! Bee-ah-ahh!
I would twist in the desk chair and try to look around for what sounded exactly like a goat in the library. While few people were actually in the library, we did have some of our regulars like Homeless-Poetry-Guy or Pretending-To-Job-Search-But-Really-On-Facebook-Guy, but none of them seemed like the culprit. But after it happened a few more times I began to wonder if Pen-Stealing-Grandma had smuggled a baby goat in her purse.
Bee-ahhh! Be-ah-ah-ahhh!
The sound was coming from right behind me and I realized it was coming from one of our regulars: Lady-Who-Hacks-The-Card-Catalog-So-She-Doesn't-Have-To-Wait-To-Use-The-Internet-Even-When-There-Are-Computers-Available! The sound was hacking lady hacking up phlegm and clearing her throat constantly in a way that sounded just like a goat bleating. This went on for three more hours. Not as much fun when the mystery is solved though.
All day long I answered the phone ("You're open? Really? No Really?! Well, I'm just calling to say I won't be coming in today, but will you hold my copy of New Moon until Saturday?") and answered the chat and backlog of email from the weekend of when we were closed ("Why is the library closed today? I spent two hours digging my car out to drive over and return my late DVDs and you aren't even open!"). While I was talking and typing away I kept hearing this noise:
Be-uhhh! Bee-ah-ahh!
I would twist in the desk chair and try to look around for what sounded exactly like a goat in the library. While few people were actually in the library, we did have some of our regulars like Homeless-Poetry-Guy or Pretending-To-Job-Search-But-Really-On-Facebook-Guy, but none of them seemed like the culprit. But after it happened a few more times I began to wonder if Pen-Stealing-Grandma had smuggled a baby goat in her purse.
Bee-ahhh! Be-ah-ah-ahhh!
The sound was coming from right behind me and I realized it was coming from one of our regulars: Lady-Who-Hacks-The-Card-Catalog-So-She-Doesn't-Have-To-Wait-To-Use-The-Internet-Even-When-There-Are-Computers-Available! The sound was hacking lady hacking up phlegm and clearing her throat constantly in a way that sounded just like a goat bleating. This went on for three more hours. Not as much fun when the mystery is solved though.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
"You're pretty cocky for someone whose job is obsolete thanks to the internet."
As much as I love my Parks and Recreation with its smart "dealing with the public" humor, I couldn't help but notice in this week's episode when they go to the library, the circ clerk swipes a supposed library card with a magnetic strip through one of the DVD unlocking/locking mechanisms -- which is not a card reader.
In fact, most library cards that I've encountered all use barcodes and not magnetic strips, and would need a barcode scanner (though my very first card, which I still have somewhere, was printed on cardstock and had a metal plate in it). In the closing credits, the show thanks LA County Public Library, since I assume they taped the library scene there instead of building a set, but none of the library staffers showed them how the desk equipment actually worked? Look at me being all nit-picky!
The library scene fun starts around 7:58:
In fact, most library cards that I've encountered all use barcodes and not magnetic strips, and would need a barcode scanner (though my very first card, which I still have somewhere, was printed on cardstock and had a metal plate in it). In the closing credits, the show thanks LA County Public Library, since I assume they taped the library scene there instead of building a set, but none of the library staffers showed them how the desk equipment actually worked? Look at me being all nit-picky!
The library scene fun starts around 7:58:
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sorry we're not Office Depot
Today a man who looked eerily like James Lipton came to the reference desk and basically demanded that I let him have some index cards.
When I told him that we didn't have any index cards his shoulders slumped and he let out a long sigh. "I don't even know why you call yourself a library," he muttered as he stalked off in a huff.
When I told him that we didn't have any index cards his shoulders slumped and he let out a long sigh. "I don't even know why you call yourself a library," he muttered as he stalked off in a huff.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Facebook Forevs?
I was reading this little news story today about how Facebook is "locking in" its internet dominance, which ironically mentions how many of these sites end up going the way of the digital graveyard while quoting a tech-savy college student who claims that FB is a more valuable internet commodity than Google.
Ok, I will admit that FB is smart because its creators have learned from what mistakes its predecessors made (or stole from them), and gives people the one thing they have wanted since the dawn of the internet: the ability to spy on their exs with a few keystrokes and for free! Middle-aged moms can finally find out what their high school boyfriends are up to! (Oh yeah, let's just also forget for the sake of this article the fact that Google makes beaucoup dollars and Facebook has yet to return any of its $716m investment).
The most annoying part of the article, to me, was student Ravasio's comment that, "It's your real name, it's your real friends...It's the new thing you need to keep in touch, almost a requirement of modern social life."
Hold up, real friends? I would probably only consider about a 1/3 of the people I've had to accept as friends as my real friends, and that's in my personal account. What with Great Aunt Betty, the girl bully from my 8th grade class, and my creepy polly-o-string-cheese-eatin' first boss friending me in FB, who needs real friends? Or real privacy, for that matter?
I guess part of my problem is I'm too nice in real life, or I'm still kind of scared of Heather Williams and afraid she'll show up at my work to kick my ass if I don't friend her. But if these connections as well as the never ending flood of fake flower gifts, lost farm animals, and "Which Thundercat Are You" quizzes are a requirement in modern social life then I'm not sure I'm going to make it.
Where's my time machine? Send me back to the socially repressed '50's quick!
Ok, I will admit that FB is smart because its creators have learned from what mistakes its predecessors made (or stole from them), and gives people the one thing they have wanted since the dawn of the internet: the ability to spy on their exs with a few keystrokes and for free! Middle-aged moms can finally find out what their high school boyfriends are up to! (Oh yeah, let's just also forget for the sake of this article the fact that Google makes beaucoup dollars and Facebook has yet to return any of its $716m investment).
The most annoying part of the article, to me, was student Ravasio's comment that, "It's your real name, it's your real friends...It's the new thing you need to keep in touch, almost a requirement of modern social life."
Hold up, real friends? I would probably only consider about a 1/3 of the people I've had to accept as friends as my real friends, and that's in my personal account. What with Great Aunt Betty, the girl bully from my 8th grade class, and my creepy polly-o-string-cheese-eatin' first boss friending me in FB, who needs real friends? Or real privacy, for that matter?
I guess part of my problem is I'm too nice in real life, or I'm still kind of scared of Heather Williams and afraid she'll show up at my work to kick my ass if I don't friend her. But if these connections as well as the never ending flood of fake flower gifts, lost farm animals, and "Which Thundercat Are You" quizzes are a requirement in modern social life then I'm not sure I'm going to make it.
Where's my time machine? Send me back to the socially repressed '50's quick!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
How to get that stylish "librarian look"
As I am fond of reminding others not involved in the library profession: we are not all hobbits with cat obsessions.
Thanks to Anthropologie, one can obtain the stylish librarian's wardrobe featured in their new catalog in a section called "From the Archives."
Thanks to Anthropologie, one can obtain the stylish librarian's wardrobe featured in their new catalog in a section called "From the Archives."
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
New Blog
I decided to start a new blog -- a blog for bad books. Now, I know there already several out there that I already enjoy that show off terrible covers and questionable content, or others that specialize on the worst of certain genres, BUT mine will be reviews of bad books I'm actually reading, usually while preparing to weed them from the library. Basically, I was going to read all these goofy Sweet Valley High/Christopher Pike/pulp books anyway, but instead of putting my review on librarything or goodreads , I'll put them here: The Very Bad Book Blog!
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