Blogging Reference: Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008

With Susan E. again.

The Festival of Lights is happening downtown today, culminating in the Jingle Bell Run and a Christmas parade tonight. Yeah, it's still a Christmas parade because it still has Santa Claus at the end. Had to detour up MLK Blvd. to get here.

Meters are bagged on Park Ave.

We refill golf pencils & scrap paper by catalog PC's, crank up the Internet workstations, refill printers with paper, wipe monitor screens, put out todays papers, (the few we still get), count money in change drawer.

10:00 Doors open.

Where are law books, Florida Statutes?

He's meeting someone to take an engineering test. We haven't seen her.

Phone: reverse lookup, no luck.

Susan brings me a Vocera, the cool little communication device we wear.

Engineering test woman wants to get a room. Hand off to Susan, our proctor.

Where is Internet #60?

Cimarron by Edna Ferber. Take to shelf.

Handsome, polite Belafonte lookalike with West Indies accent wants geometry textbook. Take to shelf

LSAT and GED test prep books. Hand LSAT book, demo our online test prep, reserve GED, update patron record.

Unattended small Asian boy in men's room. Call V., Supervisor of Day.

Help printing. Printer B printing light, have her use backup instead.

Quiet.

10:50 Out for smoke. Cloud cover's burned off. Perfect day for a festival. See James the homeless vet coming up the sidewalk from the Shelter, neat and clean as ever, with his well-stowed backpack. He walks on by. Must be going up to the Presbyterian Church for a bite before coming in here.

Belafonte wants to borrow red and black pens. Is tutoring, apparently.

Street map of Atlanta? No, sorry. Can try Mapquest? No, he'll buy one. Had seen climate ref. book, where is it? Show him Climate and Weather of Florida in ref. coll. Yes.

Phone: Patterson's Final Warning and Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra. Junior fiction. Transfer call to Youth Services.

Quiet. Answer some ref e-mail questions on NetLibrary access, US Census.

Phone: Where is President Bush buying a new "home" in Texas? Dallas, says Houston Chronicle.

PC for Swag. Do we have headphones? No, can buy earbuds in gift shop.

Florida Driver's Handbook. Take phone as security.

Primary sources for Andrew Jackson. Take to Biographies, Annals of America in ref coll, Schlesinger, show American Memory project. For History Fair.

Madison phone book.

Belafonte returns pens.

Boy wants Christmas decorating books. Take to shelf. Then Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield. Too high for him., get library stool.

Mom & daughter show me how Spanish online driving test doesn't work. They can't select multiple choice answers with mouse. Give them another PC.

Boy has blue screen. reboot.

12:00 Lunch. On my way outside with sandwich, Hispanic driving test woman calls out to me, "'Scuse me, 'scuse me!" Have to keep going. 30 min. for sandwich & cig, then Susan must go right away so I can relieve S. in Media at 1:00. Susan will help her.

12:30 Back. Susan goes.

Paul, by Charles Swindoll. Take to shelf.

NADA value for 2003 Mazda MPV.

Phone: Zamba and Mosey by Ralph Helfer. Zamba in Adult non-fic. Fetch & put on reserve. Mosey in Jr. fic., transfer call to YS.

Help with copier.

PC for Doshawn.

Has his card expired? He hasn't been called about reserves lately. Check card, two books on reserve for him now.

PC for Beau.

Phone: Betty Kay Smith with huge book list for Woodville bookmobile stop on Wednesday. She's 87 & "they" won't let her drive. I copy it down, will fill as I can today.

1:10 Down at the Media desk now. Poor S. gasping for cig. "It's only been 3½ hours!"

PC for Rodina. 25 min. wait now.

Explain 2 sessions/day rule to lady.

Mom & kids looking for Sigma Beta Club meeting. (Program room A.)

Browsers flip through DVD's, walking their fingers across them.

We have a high school boy volunteering here at the Media desk, doing Internet sign-up.

Quiet, start working on Betty Kay's list.

PC for Latoya. 45 min. wait.

Darian asks for word processor, discovers they don't have Internet.

PC for Darian.

Volunteer needs Kafka's Metamorphosis for sister. Fetch from YA fic.

PC for Williams.

Can get PC in Lab? With card, yes.

Public printer asking for legal, override to print job.

Phone: Talk Desi man through to Learning Express test prep on library web page.

Woman asks about perceived double booking for same PC. It happens occasionally, sorry.

"Is this a book search computer or Internet?" Book search, get her started.

Word processor for John.

2:05 S. is back. Out for smoke.

2:13 Back at refdesk.

PC for History Fair guy.

Phone: Man w/ halting speech wants name of head man at Publix Super Market HQ, address & phone in Lakeland. He gets it after much repetition. "S-U-P-E-R. S as in snake. P-E-R. No S on the end. Yes, SUPER. Yes, that's correct", and so on.

Where are the dictionaries? Take to shelf.

History Fair guy has questions about printing out History Fair manual.

PC for dad with daughter's card. "You've got #37 at 2:35", I say. He pulls a wad of bills out, "How much, $2.35?". "No, there's no charge, that's when your session starts, about 10 minutes." Embarrassed daughter shepherds dad off to PC.

Sister from John Paul II High School asks about Double Jeopardy by Catherine Coulter. Can't find in catalog! See on her web site. WTF? Says she'll look next time. Need to look into this.

PC for Brandy.

PC for Jessie.

E-mail remaining titles on Betty Kay's list that we don't own to M. in Bookmobile Dept.

Deputy Bill swings around corner and down stairs, softly whistling, tunelessly.

Mom needs help printing out forms from son's band director's web site. Asks how to copy and paste web address.

Where to get library card, audiobooks?

College girl with question about capitalization of disease names.

3:00 Out for smoke. Clouding up again.

McDonalds: Behind the Arches, by John F. Love, for History Fair. Take to shelf.

Books on camping. Take to shelf.

Which computers are to look up something in the catalog?

Fast Food Nation. Take to shelf. For History Fair? Yes.

Staple remover.

Clear misfeed in copier.

Where is the elevator?

3:50 Out for smoke. Light beginning to fade. People walking up Park Ave. to the festival.

Big black woman needs to break a twenty for copier. "You give me all these ones like I'm a stripper, heh heh!"

Susan takes break.

PC for Beau.

Phone: Florida's Highwaymen, by Bob Beatty. Don't own. Offer another title by Gary Monroe, The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters, plus DVD, The Highwaymen: Florida's Outsider Artists. Tell her about pieces at Strauss Gallery in Betton Place. Create ILL request for Beatty. Man selling paintings at Market Days. She wants, but husband advises research first. Seller wants $800.

Reserve GED test prep book.

30 min. announcement.

Books on geneograms. Nope. How about Brown v. Board of Education? Yes, take to shelf. Line at desk, call Susan, who comes right out.

Been trying to answer home-schooling mom's e-mail question about trapper/mountain man fiction all day. Bear down and send reply, with titles from Genreflecting.

Susan counts money. Time to close down.

Go to Men's Room. Young fellow who approached me yesterday to call Public Defender at courthouse, as he had just gotten out of jail and back in town, asks me, as we wash our hands, if I am going to the festivities tonight. No, is he? Yes. He got some work setting things up this morning, so he's got money in his pocket, and is clearly excited about having a good time and listening to some live music. Open-faced, friendly, clean-cut. What had he done? Bar fight, or some such? Ex-military?

Asian guy: Is there another public library that is open later tonight? No.

Black lady: When do we close on Sunday? Six. She thought we closed at six on Saturday too. No, five on Saturday.

Police the Internet area for trash, shut down catalog PC's.

5 min. warning.

Sign out.