Working with Susan today
"Brett, do you want a cup of coffee?" (No thanks, had 2 already.)
10:00 Doors open.
Sky very grey, threatening rain. FAMU game at 1:00, FSU homecoming game at 8:00 v. Boston College.
Open Henderson Room for Florida Panhandle Romance Writers.
Look for A Drink with Shane MacGowan. Wet young man, (probably slept rough), was reading it yesterday, but someone took it. (Not on shelf or carts. Does he have card to place hold?) No, passing through. Do we have Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diaries? (No, sorry.)
Mom & daughter. Info on career as registered nurse. (Ency. of Vocations, Occup. Outlook Hdbk) Daughter wants PC. Get mom's card, sign her up.
Older blond woman w/ blue satin baseball jacket admires library. From Daytona Beach, has never seen library this big. Can get guest card? Staying at shelter. (No. Will give her quarter to buy used pb book from gift shop if she would like.) Where are museums? Wants to take grandson. (Point out window toward M. of Fla. Hist., Science M.)
Job application. Starting salary at library? (Suggest he call HR job line, have them walk him through it.) Retired from state 5 yrs. Jeb cut his job. Bored.
Do we have a bathroom?
Mom w/ stroller: Do we have Good Hair? (author Benilde Little, take to shelf.)
"I'm looking for a meeting room." (Romance Writers?) "Yes." (Show her to H. Room)
Send obit scan to man in Canada.
10:54 Out for smoke.
Phone: Numbers for Gene Chatham and Denny & Hugh Sprayberry in LaGrange Ga. (ReferenceUSA db.)
PC's about half-full.
Phone: Ticket specials for N. Fla. Fair
Take paper, give ID back.
More time on PC? (No waiting list, should get more time.)
Phone: N. Fla. Fair admission & ride questions. (Don't know about wristbands. Give Fair info number.)
Phone: Directions to library.
11:11
Lots of oldsters browsing new books.
11:25 Quiet. Oldsters have cleared out.
Do we still sell used magazines? (Yes, in the gift shop.)
He puts money in copier, but nothing happens. (Copier asleep, wake it up.)
PC's full now.
Help woman print pdf of newspaper from Access archive.
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son. (Take to shelf.)
Free Tallahassee street map.
So we discover that we now have a full license for Access Newspaper Archive. Why didn't they tell us? Susan says it will be great for the school history fair. A boy intently writing a note with a golf pencil at the counter near us says quietly to himself, "History fair... I hate history fair." We are amused after he leaves, but Susan regrets having reminded him of school on Saturday morning.
Picking up. Families are arriving.
Youth Services is hosting a Game Day today, to which children may bring their favorite indoor games to share, be they board games or video games.
I glimpse Deputy Bill's green trouser legs pass by up on the third floor as he makes his round.
Desi couple with tot at self-checkout.
12:00 Lunch
Still overcast, and cooling. On the landing, I hear call and response shouting in the direction of FSU. Can't make it out, only the rhythm, as in "What do we want? Do-nuts! What do we want? Do-nuts!", and so on. Are they homosexuals, perhaps? Supposed to be a nation-wide protest today about the anti-gay marriage amendments.
12:35 Back
Costa Rican music? (Oh, boy... We check the Grove Dictionary of Music and find a good long entry, though the bib. is all Spanish sources. Point her to JSTOR and FSU Center for Music of the Americas.)
"If I tell you someone's name, can you tell me which computer they are on?" (No.)
Make round of floor. Couple of head-down-on-desk type sleepers in carrels, with reading matter arranged as defense. I don't bother them unless they are snoring or have arranged a "nest", such as a second chair to support outstretched legs. Nobody needs help. Snug up bookends on Oversized.
Phone: NADA value of '99 Toyota Celica convertible
Where to apply for library card.
Newspaper. Man upset about suspended football players. "It's gonna hurt us!"
More help for Costa Rican music girl. Don't have title in bib. but is at Allen Music Library at FSU. Find hrs. and directions.
PC for Rachel
PC for Cole, the history fair hater.
Susan goes to lunch.
"Can I get same PC again?" (Sorry, no. Is reserved following her session.)
Four or five security gate alarms in a row, all false. Check receipts, pass them through.
Phone: Cervantes' Exemplary Novels? (Only copy missing. Maybe Project Gutenberg?) "What's Project Gutenberg?" (Hmm, how to describe. "It is a repository of digitized texts.") "So I can Google Project Gutenberg, as in the Gutenberg Bible?" (Yes.) (Later, checked PG, yes!)
Which wireless network to choose with laptop? (Not sure. Try them & see what works best.)
Have I seen black purse? (See one by lost articles basket. It's hers)
Has PC reservation for #61, but someone else is there. Give him another and check. Was expired.
Jacob, to pick up envelope left by Susan. Can I find wage withholding chart? (Not right away, can look more after I help those waiting.) No, it's ok, he thanks me.
Two black ladies looking for class for seniors doing day-care, sent up here from Info Desk. (I call the B.L. Perry branch. It is happening there.)
Check on PC 61. PCRes client was turned off. Have patron enable.
1:53 Susan back.
Help reserving GED test prep book. Phone: put on hold & call Susan w/ Vocera.
2:14 Out for smoke. Never did rain. Clearing, streaks of blue sky showing through.
Another false security alarm.
Asian-American girl has 5 call numbers for books about immigrants. (Take her to shelf,)
Quieting down. Couple of browsers on floor. PC's still full, but no wait.
(Help woman w/ self-check? No, she's got it.)
Woman wants room for study group. (Have her fill out application.) Donaldson Enterprises.
Man says PC reservation receipt doesn't work. (It works.)
Woman wants Book of Enoch, Babylonian/Sumerian Mythology. (Which Enoch, Old Slavonic or Ethiopian/Amharic?) She didn't know there were two. Ethiopian, she guesses. Where in The Bible is the quotation, "My name is Legion, for we are many"? (Gospels, Gadarene Swine, no?) She thinks Revelation. (Find Enoch online at Internet Sacred Text Archive, entry on Mesopotamian Religion in Ency. of Religion.) Asks me if I'm religious. (Yes.) What religion? (Catholic.) She was brought up Catholic. (I, a convert.) Hopes I don't mind her asking. (No.)
Susan goes to give S. in media a smoke break.
"Where are the random magazines you used to have for sale?" (Gift shop.)
Phone: How to spell "anecdote".
Boys return scissors.
3:00 Sunlight breaking through the clouds.
A Wolf at the Table, by Augusten Burroughs. Young man says catalog says "being returned to shelf". (Discharged 11/14. Check shelf, carts, find on cart of new books in circulation workroom.) "No way", says college boy, with smile.
Woman says PC reservation receipt doesn't work. (It works.)
Mythology woman engages me at length on subject of psychic investigation. Says she is a sort of freelance sensitive. Says she was asked to "cleanse" the supposedly haunted Sunland Center building on Phillips Road before it was torn down. We used to get teens coming in, asking to see our vertical file on Sunland. Says she photocopied the entire file. Thinking of my collection of psychic detective novels, (Dr. Orient, John Silent, etc.), I ask if she's ever read any Dr.Taverner stories. A lot of people have asked her that, she says, but no, she is too busy to read for pleasure. She is wearing a black, short-sleeved sweatshirt with a Cthulhuvian skull image silk-screened in gold. She has a Goth vibe, like she was one when younger. Dark, straight hair, with pale, blemished, melancholy face. I glance away to see if anyone is approaching for help. She breaks off and withdraws.
4:10 Make round. Everyone good, working in carrels or looking into books in stacks. Donaldson Enterprises has not used the room they reserved. Turn out lights and lock door. Very quiet. PC's full but no wait. Out for smoke.
4:20 About time to bring it on home.
Contacts for Tallahassee Genealogy Society. Glad she found our Florida Collection.
Help staff member V. with fax machine. Hear 30 min. warning announcement.
Count money in change drawer.
Do we have The Changeling? (Which one? Popular title.) The one on which the movie with Angelina Jolie was based. (Is no book, film had original screenplay.) Then pick one we do have. (I pick The Changeling of Finnistuath.) She takes it.
Start shutting down catalog PC's.
5 min. warning.
Man with two canes wants Robert Jordan's Shadow Rising. ("Wait here, I'll be right back." Walk double-time to shelf, fetch book. Man very grateful.)
5:00 Closing announcement. Douse some lights. Shut down remaining staff PC's. Lock Park Ave. doors & take door count.
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4 comments:
Oh hi Brett! You're a dark horse, sneaking in a tiny (w) in my comment boxes!
(Wanted to make the first comment, but I'll have to content myself with number 2, in a manner of speaking.)
Got to rush to work now, but looking forward to reading every post later. It's a rarity to find a blog new enough to be able to do that.
Heh, I wondered when you'd notice! I am so happy to have you as my first commenter, (from the blogging world, at least).
Lurkers, Peter's "Naked Blog" has been an inspiration to me. Peter is a master of the personal blog, the blog written neither for money nor reputation, but rather to simply say, "I exist!"
He has put up with my ill-mannered off-topic commenting on his blog for a couple of years now, always too polite to tell me to bug off. On occasion, he has even been so kind as to re-post some of my comments for his readers, as a sort of Florida correspondent, (Peter blogs from Edinburgh).
Thanks to Peter's forbearance, I eventually realized that I had something to say. Hence, "Branches and Rain", this blog.
At least thanks to Branches and Rain I've got a reputation at last :) Now let's work on the money. Man does not live by comments alone.
Here we're just about to get the first proper wintry day tomorrow, so the weather presenters are getting themselves all worked up and important-looking. Because of our island nature, and global warming, there's really less and less winter each year. Where once there was settled frost and snow, now we tend just to get week-long blasts of wind.
sodowine
Well Peter, in today's digital market, money = eyeballs. If we can manage to be interesting enough, we can sell ad space, (as you already do, but my Foxfire browser has the Ad-Block plug-in, so I don't see the ads).
I don't know what to think about Global Warming. We are in for our 2nd sub-freezing night in a row, very unusual for late November. I hope you get some bitterly cold weather this winter.
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