Blogging Reference

10:00  Open.  After a scramble up the stairs by people rushing to queue up for tax help, it's dead quiet.  Not even PC sign-ups.

Check to make sure Negroes and the New Southern Politics, (Matthews and Prothro, 1966), is really missing before I make it so.  Tidying up records after some weeding in the 320's.

Put-putted on the Vespa past the March of Dimes people setting up by the Korean War Memorial in Cascade Park and in Myers Park..  Call R. to warn her not to go that way.  How many charity walks are there?  A lot!

Book about Scandinavian pagan 1000 years ago who converts & journeys to Holy Land.  Read it 7-8 years ago, can't remember title or author.  Take card number, say I will work on it.

MC. asks if story about Jewish family that adopts inner city children in NYC rings bell.  Patron thinks it was featured on Dianne Rehm show 10 mos. ago, but she can't find anything.  Say I'll work on it.

Boy teen:  legalization of marijuana.  Show Opposing Viewpoints db.

Phone:  Mr. Little.  Did I get list of companies he wants contacts for?  Yes, working on it.  Tells me about church steeple supplier he's rep for now.

Where is tax help?

Where is PC 40?  Where does it print?

10:56  PC's almost full.

What is street out front?  Call Street.

PC for Julian.

Ebony mag from 1960?  Only FAMU has it that far back, on microfilm.  Bound volumes appear to be uncommon.

Help kid make PC reservation w card.

PC's for Steve and Jimmy.

Paper for printer.  Already? Freestone says man had printout inches thick.

Where are State Archives?

Books by Lee Child in Large Print.  Don't have Persuader or The Killing Floor in LP.  Take ILL requests.  The Hard Way at bindery, will have to wait till it comes back.

Where to apply for card?

PC for Sarah.

PC's for Henry, Misha.

Phone:  How many miles is 1500 meters?  0.93

Will copier take a $5 bill?

12:40  Back from lunch.  L. is here, our volunteer.

Phone:  Woman upset at having lost work on PC at branch.  Hand off to Super.

Phone:  Middle-eastern voice.  Man concerned about ILL request, Will need in a couple of weeks.  Is waiting for pickup at PKY Branch.

TDD phone rings.  Type greeting, but no response.  Prob. wrong number.

Scandinavian Pagan man checks back.  No luck so far, but I will keep trying.

Make round.

Try to help woman find resources on Antisocial Personality Disorder, but she's already done the things I can think of, searched her school db's, etc..  I notice that there are lots of papers on this topic for sale on the web.  Her prof won't let them use web sources, which I see the Wikipedia entry  cites a lot, from the Mayo Clinic and elsewhere.  She thanks me anyway.

Phone:  Number for Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods in Milwaukie, Oregon.

Refill printers.

Phone:  Numbers for two Atlanta flea markets, and a somewhat inappropriate question about her pelvic radiation treatment.  I caution her that I'm not qualified to confidently provide her with good information, but I do end up reading her some material that I don't understand at all about "belly boards".  She seems to want to tell me all about her case, and I am feeling uncomfortable.  After a few minutes, though, she prods me again for more details about "belly boards"  I tell her in an apologetic tone that she really does need to ask her health professional.  She takes it well and thanks me.

2:45  Out on floor.  Help wholesome young hippie woman find Plenty:  One  Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon.

Where is section for American English?  She wants a book on dialects.  We find American Talk:  The Words and Ways of American Dialects by Robert Hendrickson.  "This is perfect!"

3:10  L. is gone.  Back at desk.

Show man where to plug in earbuds.

Phone:  Is Joan, who spent her life with her husband in the Panama Canal Zone, now a widow.  Do we have courtesy wheelchairs?  Don't know, call MC.  She thinks we have one, but it might be broken.  She goes to check.

Meanwhile, I'm giving out a PC reservation to a guy, and a man w a cane is sitting staring at the PC reserved for the guy, with a slip in his hand.  I realize that he has no idea how to start his session, and that it has expired already.  I ask the guy if he will let me give his slip to the man, and he kindly agrees.  I explain to the man how to type the confirmation number in to start.

MC returns, and yes, we have a wheelchair in good condition.  I tell Joan, who is glad to hear it.

I give the guy another reservation, but notice that the other man has still not managed to start his session.  I put in the number for him and open the session.  The browser opens.  He says he wants to get on the Internet.  Oh brother.  "Where do you want to go?", I say.  He wants to look for poetry publishers on Google.  I get him to the Google start page.  Has probably never touched a keyboard or typewriter in his life. 

Elizabeth at Georgia Bell Dickinson Apts., another of my ladies, has been holding for me on another line.  She doesn't like TV anymore.  It's too loud, hurts her ears.  Can she watch news broadcasts online with a smartphone?  I'm not sure, but I manage to hail MC who is passing.  She's pretty sure you can listen to streaming video on a smartphone.  I offer to mail the latest Consumer Reports smartphone roundup to Elizabeth.  She says she'd love to have it.

And here comes old Lee walking up.  Lifelong Tallahassean and patron of the library,  He has heard that our director is retiring, and wants to know when the party will be.  He reminisces about all the locations the library has had over the years.  He asks about proposed branch expansions, and wonders how the bookmobile is doing.  Can it be 10 years since I left the bookmobile, he exclaims?

Copy cell phone article.

Phone:   How to read Florida Statute citations.  What's the "squiggly, essy thing", (§)?  I call House Bill Drafting.  It's a symbol sometimes used as a stand-in for "section", though it is not used in the Florida Statutes themselves.

Help woman resize and print Word doc.

Phone:  How many households in Tallahassee?  Statistical digest only gives figure for county.  Find number at AOL Real Estate, but recommend he call city planning dept.

4:34  Heard the closing announcement while I was on the phone.

Help "unmount" USB drive.

Phone:  Portrait in Death by J. D. Robb.  Place hold.

Can he use the self-checkout machine?  Yes.

15 min. announcement.