Blogging Reference

10:12  A misty, sodden morning.  It was raining when I woke up.  Tender shrubs ruined by the freeze.  Lantana like dark wet paper on sticks.  Working with CD today.

Power outlet to security gate has gone dead.  Report and run extension cord to next hot outlet.

Dad & son want books on the pirate Henry Morgan.  Show them Empire of Blue Water : Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catas by Stephan Talty, and others.

The movers and carpet-layers have moved on to the fiction wing, from which I can hear the floor scraper whining.

Phone:  Is the library open?  Do the public computers have printers?

The ranges in non-fiction and reference look like they've been shaken by a tremor.  The books have fallen sideways, and there are gaps where the movers took shelves out to fit their machinery.  The catalog PC's sit inert, their cables piled in tangles.  I straightened the new books shelves before opening, will do more when our volunteer gets here at noon.

11:15  Been putting shelves back.  Now one of the moving guys has started doing it, so I'm taking a break.  It's pretty quiet.  Still, as tables and carrels are again available, their regular inhabitants are soon installed at them.

The Stamp Man wonders where the 2010 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps is.  He didn't see it on the shelf.  Find on shelving cart.

Man asks CD for help with his "Wahoo" mail.

12:05  Waiting for L. to show.  It's raining again.  Patrons are starting to roll in.

MC appears w samosas!  Says L. won't be here today.  No L.

 Going to lunch.  Leftover lamb vindaloo goes fine w M's samosas.  Reading The Sea House by Esther Freud, a book that has whispered to me in the stacks over the years.

12:45  Back
Today's paper.

CD gone to lunch.

Phone:  Mr. L. wants a string of addresses for hotel chains that takes me about 25 min., during which I put him on hold to: show a man Ann Rule crime books, show mom & daughter Kennedy assassination books, show another man how turn on his numpad, assign PC's to Sean and Bryan, return ID for newspaper, tell another man about JD's handmade books display.

1:24  PC's for Willie and Christy.

Phone: SB at branch wants MC.  I think she's left, but see her browsing new fiction.

Bespectacled woman w brown bob & pink blouse is helping Ethiopian law student here on break from Miami to find financial aid.  Show them school money books.  Seeing 2010 on one of them she says to me, "In Ethiopia it's 2003." I say that they must be using the Julian calendar.  Her eyes widen, the Ethiopian nods, she gives him an I-told-you-so look, says "He's a reference librarian!"

He wants his ID back, but doesn't have the newspaper to return.  Says he already brought it.  I don't see it w our papers.  He goes back to the reading area, returns with it, says "Sorry."

Big crew cut man in black cowboy shirt w red panels on breast wants book on house wiring, preferably something recent.  Give him Black & Decker's The Complete Guide to Wiring, (2008), from new non-fiction.  It's perfect, says he, he'll look there some more, didn't know we had new books.

Returns USA Today.

PC for Kaya.

Man from Facilities here to look at dead security gate outlet.

New York Times.

Woman w list of "ancient astronauts" titles she copied down from the History Channel:  Andean Awakening, The Gate of the Gods, The Knowledge Apocalypse, The Gods of Eden, The Egypt Code, Markawasi: Peru's Inexplicable Stone Forest.  Also books by David Sedaris and Florida Panhandle mystery writer Glyn Marsh Alam.  Don't have any of her History Channel books, tell her about interlibrary loan.  Show her "ancient astronaut" readalikes:  Zachariah Sitchen, Graham Hancock, et al.  She seems happy with a couple of them.  Then show her Sedaris and Alam.

Returns NYT, takes WSJ.

NYT goes right back out.

NYT in.

Where is a working catalog computer?  First floor only right now, sorry.

2:33  Today's Democrat.

WSJ returned.

Security gate outlet is fixed.  I thank him, say I'll put the extension cord away.

Dad & daughter.  Can she donate math textbooks?  Have them complete donation receipt form, make copy.  Thank them, send copy to admin.

CD wishes they had donated Furry Freak Brothers, tells me about shamanistic eco-tours you can go on.

NYT out.

It's quiet, so I take a cart and hand truck down to store in the Media workroom in preparation for the carpeting of the Adult Services workroom in the coming week.

I escort a very frail old couple down on the staff elevator.  (The public elevator is being overhauled.)  Did they find something to read?  She exclaims that she did not know what an excellent library this was.  He says he is running out of westerns.

Today's paper.

Phone:  It's Chattahoochee Man.  Addresses for Dillard's headquarters and for the Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Where are books on writing poetry?  Take to shelf.

KP, a shelver, says her back hurts, is going home.

Phone:  Number for Lowe's of N.E. Tallahassee.

3:33  Still cold, wet, heavily overcast and misty out.  It will probably start raining again when I leave.  [It did.]

Very little printing at the public PC's today, a sign that the universities are closed.  Patrons have thinned out.  No wait for a PC.

Where can they sit and talk?  She is practicing Vietnamese with a young Vietnamese man in preparation for a trip.

Times Crossword Woman wants City of Night.  John Rechy, I think?  Surely not.  No, Dean Koontz.

Talk about food w CD.  We both like to get Phö at Far East Cuisine.

Help w copier.

Take my framed print off the wall above my desk and store in Media w my other stuff.  Take some pictures of desk & carpet laying progress.

Attractive older couple.  Do they live in the Kleman Plaza condo?  (See photo at top.)  She's new to the library, can't find anything.  I apologize for the mess, fetch her books:  A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo, First Do No Harm by Lisa Belkin, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett.  The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is out, she'll wait on that one.

4:42  Time to wrap it up.