Quirky Encounters

Man in corner laughing with eyes closed, possible hyperventilating.

Quite elderly with cane.

Patron asked me to check on him.

Seemed annoyed with me.

Hello, are you okay?

Annoyed response of affirmation.

Yes? Just checking.

Moments late he proceeded to take a chair from one of the computer terminals and wheel it around with stack on the seat. His personal shopping cart. He has then THREW them on the circulation counter and walked away leaving the chair.

I guess he just has a breathing problem. That sucks.

Also, a nine-year old girl approached the desk.

Does the library have really old movies?

Yes, do you have one in mind?

Really old....

Ok.

Star Wars Episode 6.

I feel soo sooo old.

Wild red hair, leathery face, woman perched on scooter peering at me...

What'ya gotta do to take this newspaper outside while I smoke a cigarette?

Uh, sorry they have to stay inside (never mind the fire hazard!)

How about a magazine, they can be checked out?

Sure, I'm waiting for a friend, just need somth'n to look at.

Strong southern accent.

This is the same woman who moments earlier amazed me by zooming into the library at high speeds on an electric scooter and didn't even stop when yanking the bathroom key smoothly off the hook and sharply rounding the corner to the bathroom. That's skill!

Well-Booked

Latest entry of interest from Word Spy this week...

well-booked adj. Having access to a substantial number or a wide variety of books.

Example Citation:Bill McCoy, the general manager of Adobe's e-publishing business, says: "Some of us have thousands of books at home, can walk to wonderful big-boxbookstores and well-stocked libraries and can get Amazon.com to deliver next day. The most dramatic effect of digital libraries will be not on us, the well-booked, but on the billions of people worldwide who areunderserved by ordinary paper books." It is these underbooked - students in Mali, scientists in Kazakhstan, elderly people in Peru - whose lives will be transformed when even the simplest unadorned version of the universal library is placed in their hands.-Kevin Kelly, "Scan This Book," The New York Times, May 14, 2006

Read the whole article on google's digitization project - available from the Canadian Newstand database via your local public library website...

I think it is mean spirited, I have to go to the federal government and get forms before I can get any more money...I'm stubborn I'm half Irish, half Norwegian, and half English. Tough as nails, I wouldn't be 64 if I wasn't. I'm tough, not violent, I believe in peace. I'm going to get a studio and be an artist but right now I need to get those forms filled out. I'm about peace, not violence, I'm a hippy but all the hippies are bums or lawyers now....Why are they all so mean-spirited now?

A drunken homeless man just came in yelling, not sure what to do ... I finally just stopped what I was working on, stood up and was about to walk over when he said, "Oh I'll stop complaining I'm just waiting for the washroom." Yet it continued a bit more...

Now there is a HUGE man with special needs asking, "Who is talking in the library?" I just shrug and say, "I don't know, some man...."

What a circus tonight! He's out of the washroom and talking solely to me now rather than the entire place, I want to interject with a "please keep your voice down," but I also don't want to rile him up more. He is now complimenting me for being a good listener and apologizing for the fact that he's been drinking beer all day....hmmmm. An old man with beautiful eyes that should be someone's kindly father or grandfather at this point...

PS - several staff members expressed discomfort with how long I allowed him to go on. One was about to get a male staff member from the back when he disapeared into the bathroom. It's always hard making a judgement call as the supervising staff member, but I felt comfortable with the situation. I do find it a bit annoying that no one had any problem with him talking solely to me, it was only when he was loudly talking to the whole library...Oh no, a dozen people are trying to write emails, better keep it down!!

I like to leave alone...

Tonight I'm going to post a couple entries that I wrote during the week but couldn't post due to technical problems! Yes, Friday night and home again! Although, it doesn't feel like the weekend for those of us who work all day Saturday! I trolled the waters for fun but everyone is engaged in family commitments, studying for exams, heading to sports games, etc. That's okay, for those who know me, I've been actually having a lot of fun lately with a particularly great guy - soooo.....anyways.

This week, I helped an incredulous seeing impaired fellow find literary quotations, jokes, and photocopied an article on immigration for him, all the while trying to change the topic or express non-verbal disapproval of his rants about "letting all the immigrants in." Eventually he got around to questioning my age, my education, and finished off by asking me what time I'd be getting off work. I vaguely replied, oooh, pretty soon (5 hours away!)...early enough to enjoy the good weather (or not)...

Someone asked me the other day what things I'm scared of...and I didn't really think much of it...but I'd have to say my personal safety sometimes as a woman living in this city after dark...I can handle all the characters you can throw at me within the walls of the library, there's strength in unity and power in a nametag (yeah right) but when I leave at night, I just hope no one is waiting. Ever.

Unless he has four legs...

Home on the Bayou: A Cowboy's Story by G. Brian Karas

I love the illustrations, the yellows, the greens that permeate each page as a child moves from "the west" to "the swamp" to unhappily join his widowed grandfather. In the car ride over, he remains silent, in fact, "he rather eat cactus spines than answer his mom." I remember the aura that "new kids" always brought, fully of stories that soon become tiresome of some other, better, place. When I was teaching, I had a student from West Africa (Dutch?) who was always trying to fit in and always failing and who was always speaking of his homeland and the father who was still there. I love children that talk about their fathers, especially at the age of eleven or twelve.... I wanted to tell him - you don't need to fit in with all the other little monsters, just be yourself and it will get better. For any child that's ever moved this is a great book!

From the sentimental side of things with the children's picture book featuring strangely neutral and washed out rabbits...My Wishes for You by Adele Geras and Cliff Wright.

"I wish you...

Light from behind the hill spilling into the sky...

A path that goes from here to everywhere...

Trees wide enough for you to hide behind and drifting shadows, pieces of the dark ...

which vanish as the sun moves through the leaves..."

Barcode Bonanza

Elderly male patron approaches reference desk.

He places a paperback novel on my desk: Gaywyck by Vincent Virga and addresses me:

I have a complaint to make.

You see the barcode here, is placed in a way so that you can't see the face of the second person. It would be better to know the gender here. That's all. Thank you.

OK!? I very kindly wrote a note for the patron and affixed it to the cover, setting it aside, smiling and nodding (but inside I was full of the giggles). You see there were a number of other clues that may have lead the library patron to fully comprehend the subject matter of this particular literary choice...

The title, or the cover... I mean there are other features besides the face that are almost obscenely male...! And just a few lines from the back of the book...

Robert - "his soft blond hair, emerald eyes, and porcelain skin," "a seventeen year old sent to catalog a mansion's vast library..."

Donough - "Master of Gaywyck" is the "epitome of elegance and sophistication..."

Another librarian observed that the barcode was placed further to the left than usual. She suspected the catalogers were having a little fun with it!

"A single molecule from a sea of information"

Morgan O'Brien investigates research fraud for the "National Council for Science and Technology" in Ottawa. This adventure (or misadventure?) finds her heading to Vancouver's beautiful "University of Southern British Columbia" which sounds just like UBC, right down to the description of "C-Lot" parking...hmmm....The characters in this novel are fairly colourful, yet not always believable and unfortunately the "who-dun-it" plot drags out a bit at the end. I somehow doubt that the science is at all credible, though the idea of crooked professors siphoning funds into research that may cripple the fishing industry is novel and provides a unique backdrop for this mystery.

One other fascinating aspect of the Morgan O'Brien mysteries is the emergence of many characters of varying sexuality and the undertones of questioning in regards to her own sexuality. It never dominates or drives the novel, but adds a unique element. My favorite character is Sylvia, formerly David, who is now dying of cancer and providing research assistance to Morgan utilizing her skills as...you guessed it... a librarian! (Although it appears her route to the career is somewhat unrealistic as you may notice...!)

"After finishing her PhD in physics, Sylvia left the labs to get a second doctorate in Library Science, where the level of tolerance was higher than in the sciences. She quickly became an EXPERT in LARGE scientific databases and is known for her ability to PLUCK a single molecule from a sea of information. While officially there is no such thing as a forensic librarian there should be, because Sylvia's online searches could expose scientific fraud like an x-ray reveals a bone."

Just me and the blog...

Friday night and it's just me and the blog. I'm keyed up and yet totally exhausted from a day of car troubles and apartment hunting! Nothing like sitting on the couch watching a good movie- I'm going to recommend it even though I've only seen the first half hour- Le Role De Sa Vie, a Montreal film festival winner in 2004. The case is all in French so I had no idea what I was in for...so far it features the downtrodden good girl, pleasing everyone but herself...her perpetually late with the rent roomate, her new selfish actress friend, and her oblivious employers. I am anticipating an explosion or cartharsis may be coming soon...Anyways, I think I'll save watching the movie in entirety, for another night!