31 March, 2004

Titanic

Another staff member described today as,

"rearranging the shelving on the Titanic"

I'm going to go home now and drink more than is healthy.

30 March, 2004

Fame Awaits

Tell Tarantino

There is at present a film crew in our library. TheyĆ­re filming a commercial and I confess I have been watching them rather than working.

The interesting thing is the 'librarian', no it isn't a middle aged woman with her glasses on a chain. It's a middle aged man with his glasses on a chain.
I'm so glad they're not using a stereotype.

Do you think I could start an international film career by wandering around in shot?

29 March, 2004

Secondpost ? today!

I don't know if it is the ADHD or just that I'm an arsehole, but the world if full of people who know my name. But I don't know whom in the hell they are.

Person: Hi john

John: Hi............. you?

Just a sample of I conversation I have every day a hundred times. That's the trouble with a town of only 30 000.
Do I know them from the library? Church? Rugby? Kids School? Aren't you my brother?

You see there are two kinds of people in this world,
'me' and 'not me'.


mmmmmmmm sometimes I wonder when ADHD stops and Autism starts
ohhhhhhhhhhh look shiny thing

Theft

It's the bane of my life at the moment.
Nothing I seem to do can make the library secure because I have firemen telling me that I can't lock any of our exits. This old library has had too many extensions done, which means that there are more corners than the hall of mirrors and there is no money in our budget for surveillance.
There is the constant trill about the place of people opening fire doors and by the time staff work out which door it was there is no one to be seen. On top of this our courtyard gates need to be unlocked (for emergency exits) so anyone can wander out with whatever book they like.
Despite this we are still buying security tags for the books and getting the technicians in to fix the book theft alarms on the front door.

The latest problem occurred over the weekend but wasn't picked up till Monday morning. Someone had levered off the coinbox on the copier in our local studies room.
Now this wouldn't have been an easy task. They must have done it when we were open as there was no alarm overnight. They would have needed a screwdriver and some significant force to get the thing to open
And they would have got about $2 if they were lucky.

25 March, 2004

Interesting day today

Storytime morning and I was surrounded by the preschoolers.
(where else in a library would you find the ADHD boy?)
Anyway I was half way through the first story
"The Tricky Truck Track" when a mother interjected with
"Slow Down"
now being the caring and considerate guy I am I muttered
"no"
and carried on regardless.
A short time later she gets up with her kid and walks out.

Now I know my 'no' was short sharp and rude but so was her interrupting the story. If the kids interrupt I can deal with it, ignore it? Say that's nice now sit down. But when the parents do it can I treat them the same way?

So was I reading fast? Sure, the book is a bit of a tongue twister and it works well at a fast pace the kids roar with laughter when I #$%^& up and stutter my way through it.

End of the story?
No,
it turns out she was so unhappy with my performance she complained (to one of the library assistants).
In a conversation which went something like this.
Patron: "what happened to the other man who tells stories?"
Staff: "umm, there's only one man who tells stories"
p: "oh. Well I'm not happy I told him to slow down and he said no and he tells stories like he's on crack."

Now let me interject, how does she know what a crackhead reading to preschoolers sounds like? Does she go to the crackhouse storytime on a Tuesday and the library storytime on a Thursday?

Anyway she has vowed never to come back to the library. If I believed her I'd be happy but experience tells me that the patrons who complain most about our services are the ones who will not go away.