h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right, I've done my first two weeks back in Bookland, and have found to my intense annoyance I don't get to do any meandering about in the stacks at all. I'm stuck at a desk being polite and informative and patient to the public, or stuck at a desk going through departmental reading lists. I feel just as book starved as ever

It always amazes me that people think librarians just sit and read all those wonderful books on the shelves all day long. I think I read more before I became a librarian. And they're so surprised to learn that I haven't read every single book in the building.

Oh yes, and the ones who are astonished to find I have no idea what they are talking about when they ask where they can find 'that big blue book I was reading last week - I think it had gold writing on'.

"...you know, the one Professor Wibble said we should read"

for Agapanthus (hey, why not, for all of us!). you can always wander among the in your breaks (assuming you have them).

David

How about "Do you still have that book about a dog that I read when I was 5. I think it had a blue cover. Or maybe it was red. And it may have been about a cat or maybe a goat. I don't remember. But I really loved it. Oh I know! It had pictures of trees. That should help."

That's the advantage of working in a small FE college.

"You know the book Omlette had out last week....."

Disturbingly I remember exactly which one he had, and yes I know where the other couple of copies are cowering too.

The ones who get confused are those that come in wanting a book on worms, but not specifying which particular sort of worms they need.

Yes I need more to do, it's rather quiet in here at times.....

We had a shelving party this morning! The shelving was getting pretty bad, so in lieu of our usual staff training session, we got everyone (academic librarians included, heh heh heh) to shelve in specific areas for half an hour. To sweeten things, we had radios on (in a library ) and gave everyone sweets and a gold for their efforts. Such fun!

David

Giving out sweets, and a radio!!!!! You'll be having evenings before long.

I'm the sole occupant of the library atm. The shelves are all tidy, the computers are all working , and the photo copier is humming away contentedly to itself. Role on lunchtime!

Speaking of shelving, I have just come back this very minute from my local Public Library (it's my day off, before anyone makes remarks) and couldn't find a darned thing and the state of the shelves brought me out in a cold sweat. Books higgledy-piggledy, books put back on any old shelf, out of sequence, in the wrong room, books jammed into the shelves pushing other books to the back, or so books end up tucked inside each other. Books lying on the floor, under the shelves, on top of the shelves, on chairs, on windowsills. There were only two members of staff on duty that I could see and both were busy with people. Also, both were fairly senior and let out the most alarming groans and grunts when bending to pick things up.

Bloody miserly local council. Why can't they employ more staff. They clearly need to, but don't, and it takes me an hour and a half to get to my current place of work. It'd take me twenty minutes to walk to any one of three local libraries. Will they employ more staff? Will they b****ry. So I have to commute three hours a day for my pittance.



I quite like tidying shelves. The satisfaction of a nice tidy row. The delighted finding of books that have been eluding us for weeks. The interesting surprises of pizza boxes, dead pigeons, sweetie wrappers, lost wallets, tucked away behind the books. The zen feeling of your mind turning gently to alphabet soup. The enlivening jolts of adrenaline as the Norse Sagas fall onto your head. Marvellous.

It's amazing what you can find lurking in and around the stacks!

I had a shelf canopy miss me by a couple of inches once. That was quite exciting. Myself and a colleague ended up in hysterics, not sure whether we were or scared witless, really.

Our shelves are often a complete mess, even though there's over fifty of us working here, including three part-time shelvers. We simply don't have enough time or space, so books end up beneath the shelves, on trolleys full of duplicate copies, on tables, windowsills etc. It can be quite depressing sometimes. Hence the need for our shelving party.

David

No messy shelves here.

The city council voted last night to finally put our project out for bid! Yea! After nearly 5 years of constant battles and setbacks, we're going to build a library!

H

That's great news.

No messy shelve here either. Infact it's just me and the kettle settling in for the graveyard shift.

I'm a little numb. Things had gone wrong for so long that I had about given up hope. Then there was all the hassle over moving into temporary quarters, and the delays and rescheduling and what a headache!

Now, there's at least a chance that something can get done before winter. We need to get the foundations poured before the temperatures get below freezing.

H

Congratulations. Hope your new library fits all your needs, rather than what the city council thinks your needs might be...

David

Why are people who know absolutely nothing about something always put in charge of it? Sure makes you believe in the devil.

We'll have plenty of things to aggravate us, I'm sure as the project progresses.

H