Saturday, February 23, 2008

Interesting Saturday @ the 'brary

Well, today has certainly been interesting. We started out two circulation workers short (one being sick, the other being sent to another branch to help with THEIR shortages).

Not too much longer after that, I was approached by a very nice, very talkative former Bostonian. He had been appalled to find out that while he had been living in TN for a year, he was not able to vote in the primaries because he had not registered. After I found him a Voter's Registration Form, and found out where he could mail in his form, he decided that I needed to hear all about Obama, Clinton, McCain and why Obama should win, the electoral college, the delegates (Pledged and Unpledged), the states, the American voters living in other countries, the fact that Jeb Bush is itching for the office and how he would move to Europe of that happened. The man talked for around 45 minutes - and it was awesome! He was so animated and passionate about what he was saying, that I almost forgot that Politics generally bore me to tears... (Though I do have to admit, I have become a lot more interested in what's been going on recently!)

But, Voter Man wasn't just talking to me! This man engaged a nice father who had come in looking for books about the Lincoln Assassination and Rosa Parks. But while the father was asking me for books on these topics, the Voter Man had discovered that the library provides free access to downloadable audio books with your library card. Well, Voter Man and Library Dad proceeded to exclaim how cool the library was (um, yeah!), and I then gave them both a tutorial on how to access the audio books. They were both really nice patrons, and I actually had a blast talking to them.

Come to find out later from a coworker that Voter Man was so impressed by what the library has to offer, he wanted to know how to donate money to the library. Like thousands of dollars. Wow!!! My coworker gave him all relevant information, so we'll see how all that pans out!!

In contrast to Voter Man and Library Dad, I have had a helping of a different sort of patron. I have had to find the parents of at least 3 children UNDER the age of 4 years old to inform them of library policy where children SEVEN and younger need to stay with an adult at all times. One was running all over the building SCREAMING while mom was tucked away in the picture books. And although I would rather be tucked away in the picture books, too, you still have to watch your child!!

And, as always, I encountered the computer patrons. The ones who don't really listen when you are telling them how to do something. I had to explain how to make a reservation about 12 times today - 6 of those times to one person.

I shouldn't really complain, though. It's been a fairly busy day, and it's gone by pretty fast. Hot Topics of the day:

~ Lincoln Assassination (3 families requested info - a nearby elementary school's 5th grade project)
~ Rosa Parks (2 different requests)
~ Civil War
~ Great Depression
~ Muhammad Ali
~ Warriors series

And I can't forget to mention the 10 year old who couldn't make a reservation because the computers were full for the rest of the day...

10 Year Old: Why can't I make a reservation?
Real Librarian: I'm sorry, the computers are all full for the rest of the day.
10YO: Well, that SUCKS!!

It sure does, kid!

In other news, my friend A and I had FMRNS Bonus Night last night!! WHOOOOT!!! It was great!! We watched Wednesday's American Idol that we taped (the Girls show). After that was the feature of the evening - Angel Heart. Angel Heart is a horror film from 1987 starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. Definitely creepy, but definitely a fabulous horror movie. This was our second horror movie in a month...not cool!! A maintains that I need to have a well rounded movie education, and for that to happen we need to include all genres. I guess I have to agree, but I am not really a fan of the actual watching of horror movies.

Anyway, always looking forward to the next Fabulous Movie!! I'm drafting a post that has the entire list, so stay tuned!! =)

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