Bitchy bitchy.
I was doing my usual ILL sweep, when I hear the hastily muffled crinkle of what I assume to be a candy wrapper. I turn to the old red headed lady who thinks that she owns the place and say "You do realize that there is no food allowed in the library." She glares over at me and says "I don't have food, and you shouldn't worry about that." Well, yes I should. That's kind of the whole point of having a food policy. I apologized. (They were tissues.) Okay so I made a mistake. No biggie. It's not the first time. Won't be the last. I was polite about it. I also explain the reason we have to advise people about the food policy. Not that she was in a mood to listen. She told me to not bother about it and do my job. Gee, I thought it was. Which I point out. (It's everyone's job.) Of course she has to tell me no it isn't. She says "I've been here 5 years, I know." Hey loser, when you get a library degree and the university hires you to be my boss then you can tell me what my job is and isn't. And studying here for 5 years isn't something you brag about. I didn't realize that the part-time students were so up on my job description and the new trends in library science. Amazing.
Been a while
I am trying to make up for lost blogging time. Been on vacation and the hordes were surprisingly well behaved the last 2 weeks. I see that it has been some time since I had a ILL complaint and a boss complaint. Well today it's 2 for 1! There's nothing I like better than a 2 for 1 sale. This was a doozy. First I get to my desk and the computer has been left on and unsecured. Now that's always fun. Since I log off and lock it down every night I know something is up. The boss has been messing with my scanning program. Well, not mine per say... But she always "forgets" to return my computer to the way she found it. But if you even breathe on hers, you hear about it for weeks. And it probably goes on your record. And she likes to use the caps lock. Fine. But passwords are case sensitive. Which of course makes it a little DAMN hard to log in. I only use the caps lock for one thing so it's not high on the list of things to check first thing in the morning. Next I see an e-mail from her telling me what I did on one request 2 days ago was wrong. She fixed it because she was doing ILL. I came in and there were 7 requests that came in yesterday morning. 2 that came in Tuesday night. Obviously she wasn't doing lending! And since there were six packages for ILL she wasn't doing returns either. And the crowning glory was she called up the doctor to complain about the prescription she had picked up the day before. I really didn't care to hear why she needed it and which medication she liked. Grossed me out for the rest of the day.
Move!!!
Well, it's time for the move. Freak 1 has been slowly encroching on the space left to us semi-normal people. Today I saw that her new cubicle has stuffed animals, plants, action figures and sci-fi calendars. Let me say that overall I have no problem with any of the above items in a proper place. But is the workplace really the right display area for your teddy bears, and Lord of the Rings wizard collection? ( Okay I have one teddy bear but it's a keychain.)What really bites about this whole move is the very good, organized, polite, fun, and hardworking student had to move out of the area to make room for her clutter. Which means that there is more work clutter in the aisles and on carts and on tabletops which are already crammed with stuff. Another downside is that she is the closest to the kitchen and therefore the snacks. Talk about a snack vacuum! Sheesh. Not that I need any more sugar in my diet, but still. Sharing well was not on her kindergarten report card!
Its all Harry.
The world is at a slow down as everyone reads and discusses Harry Potter. Hopefully my patrons will live up to my (low) expectations and take another few days to finish the book so they stay away from me with their silly questions and problems. mwah-ha-ha
Please Do Not Toss Food to the Librarian.
The librarian is currently in her summer hibernation. Tossing food into her office may cause her to wake prematurely. A librarian disturbed from her hibernation is very foul in temperament and often becomes violent. Scientists have carefully studied the patterns of librarians and have acquired remarkable insight into the reason for this bizarre sleeping cycle. Its seems that in the months of July and August many of the species travel outside of their territories for 'vacations'. Those of the species who do not do so are left with few of their kind with which to communicate, interact, or otherwise carry out their daily patterns. Additionally, the librarians food source, the patron, also takes this time to travel between territories. For these reasons, those librarians who remain within their normal hunting grounds often hunker down in their offices to sleep, play computer games, and otherwise avoid jamming pencils into their ears to escape boredom. It is a wondrous sight at the end of august when all the librarians are reunited. Those who slept vow to vacation next year and those who vacationed vow to stay home. And thus, the cycle continues.
Blogging and the Career
There have been a lot of articles recently about blogging and its detriment to one's career. In particular, the Chronicle of Higher Education has one about librarians: http://chronicle.com/jobs/2005/07/2005070801c.htmWhat were those applicants thinking?!
Stupid question
Here's one straight from La-La land. How do I get out of the Oak Room without walking in front of everyone? Well, since you are standing at the Circ desk asking me this stupid question you figured it out. Oh happy day! And she compounded the idiotcy level by informing me there was a conference going on there. Oh really? Is that why all these people keep asking me where the Oak Room is and why they are wearing name badges? Why thank you tall skinny lady. I never would have known that.
Crazies are like bugs.
I have a theory. Crazies are like bugs. You know when you go outside and lift up a big rock or a pot or mat or something and there are all this disgusting wiggling creepy bugs that start scurrying every which way? This is what crazies are. Now, I'm not sure what rock was lifted, but sometime on Monday night someone lifted it and the crazies have crawled out and are squirming all over the place! Some crazies I've had: a guy who refused to hear what I said, a guy who just started yelling and stormed out of the library, a thief who kindly left me with identification, a really bad liar, hostile emails b/c the librarian who was supposed to help a person didn't, a guy who broke the copier, a DUFUS who came up and asked me for staples and when I gave him some he yelled "What the hell is this?", 3 old guys with really bizarre research questions that I had to spend hours on, and 2 students who couldn't find their classes 3 weeks into summer term. Technically, my week is only 1/2 over.
Unbelievable Lying Bastard.
A guy just came in to return an ILL book. It had no ILL sleeve, no paperwork, it just had its owning library labels. The student of course brings it to me . Immediately I recognize it's an ILL. I go out and firmly tell the moron, I mean patron, "You have to leave the sleeve and paperwork in the book." You know, the sleeve that says in BIG letters 'Do NOT remove!' "There was no sleeve." He tells me. "Yes, there was." I reply. "There's no way you could have checked this book out without it." "No. There was no sleeve, nothing. I got the book just like that." "Sir, that's impossible. How would we check this out to you?" "I don't know but there was nothing on this book." Why is this dumbass even trying to lie about this? Just say "Oh, I didn't know that." It makes you less of an idiot then to attempt to lie about something. It is IMPOSSIBLE. 100%! I just don't know if I can go on... its too much.
In the Money
I took the first bit of ALA free-book rejects in to a used bookstore and I got $45! Now THAT'S a convention! I didn't even take in the good hardcovers yet. My next trip is going to be very, very pleasant.
Happy frigging Tuesday
So here we are the day after a holiday weekend. The front door doesn't work. No way can I stand to listen to people yanking on the door all day. We even put up a sign. Does it work? Yeah right. So I ask if anyone has called security to have it fixed. Hard to fix something if you don't know it's broken. Sigh. So let's see, I've been here 20 minutes. Maybe? So I call and leave a voice mail to the fix-it guy. Hopefully he'll come when he promised. Freak 1 has a new job. I got all excited when I read the e-mail. Until I came to the part where she wasn't actually leaving the library. She's just moving to a new position upstairs instead of tucked away in the stacks like before. Great. And I know it's the day after a holiday, when I look around and see books to check in, a book drop to empty, a lost list to look for, and a cart to discharge and the student is sitting there firing off e-mail after e-mail. She needs a swift kick. Which I administered. She popped out of her little world to say she wasn't finished with her first project. Uh hello?I didn't actually ask why she was doing e-mail then. Felt like it. I did have to ask her twice to empty the book drop. And then this idiot dropped by to whine about a missing book. I'll lay even money that it is right where it's supposed to be. Since the last time anyone used it was in April. Damn lazy #&*!. Damn I need a vacation. This day has lasted 12 hours already.
Fancy Fancy
A new blog template or skin or whatever the heck its called. Yes, I am one of 'those' who gets tired of things. Yesterday I was flipping through the blogs, seeing what's out there, and by the 2nd knitting blog with our old template, well, I knew it had to go! Same old Ire, just new dressing.
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