tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75625052009-11-08T02:37:35.195-05:00The desperate life of a tormented library clerk.Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.comBlogger293125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-32254959794020701752009-11-07T15:24:00.003-05:002009-11-07T15:37:01.965-05:00

It wasn't the best week at work. Miss Information was annoyed by the number of coworkers with "flu-like symptoms" and also the usual lack of communication in the library. E-mail people! Jeez. How hard is it to send e-mail explaining stuff?So, Miss Information was burned out and cranky on Thursday evening when a fellow came to the desk. He was scruffy in an "I'm an artist" not an "I'm a

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-24814724287346752622009-10-25T16:14:00.004-04:002009-10-25T16:33:07.426-04:00

...maybe just baffled.To recap, Miss Information understands only about 10% of what goes on at library school. For one thing they've stopped calling it library school. It is now Information School and she is getting a degree in information. Not to put too fine a point on it, but isn't all school informational on some level? In kindergarten, Miss Information learned that you shouldn't eat glue

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-6676014518734142122009-10-07T09:01:00.006-04:002009-10-07T13:31:37.632-04:00

It happened again. Miss Information was in hour 8 of her 9 hour day at school and it happened again.It occurred in the middle of a fascinating discussion about the inevitable crisis that will result from the recent decline in the quality of adhesives used in spine labels. Not really. It was some dumbass discussion of some dumbass library issue though. One of Miss Information's fellow students

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-76520493919462852312009-09-24T19:44:00.003-04:002009-09-24T19:49:34.170-04:00

Miss Information woke up with an evil bastard cold and the knowledge that due to circumstances beyond her control, she was conducting today’s author visit. She decided to make the most of it and dress female for once. She must have been feverish.The program got off to a bad start when she neglected to unlock the outside doors based on the assumption that people coming to a library program would

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-49662739283602700482009-09-16T15:35:00.002-04:002009-09-16T15:43:37.427-04:00

Miss Information is back at school and she has a couple of complaints beyond the usual one of not understanding what anyone is talking about. For some reason this isn't a problem that has had any negative impact on her academic success. Go figure.Here's the biggest annoyance. The school year started on a Wednesday. This throws everything off. Week one for some classes was last week. For

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-54761814356981485942009-09-09T18:30:00.003-04:002009-09-09T18:48:47.881-04:00

It was Friday. The woman had a question. Sigh. That's how it always starts. Her question didn't make sense to Miss Information but that happens a lot too. The question was something along the lines of: what does "wear rags" mean? Miss Information tried to get some context or clarification but the woman kept repeating the same thing.Eventually Miss Information did some kind of secret library

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-67190805895791545382009-08-29T13:22:00.001-04:002009-08-29T14:15:14.153-04:00

Actual conversation5:10 pm. FridayWoman: I want a computer for an hour.Miss Information: The library closes at 6, so you won’t get a full hour.Woman: What? The library closes at 6?Miss Information: Yes. On Fridays in the summer the library closes at 6.Woman: Wait...it’s Friday?Miss Information: Yes. On Fridays in the summer the library closes at 6.Woman: The library closes at 6?Miss Information:

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-63273444062781130392009-08-13T17:50:00.003-04:002009-08-13T17:54:57.679-04:00

Miss Information has seen pictures before but this was her first encounter with the real thing. Last night she was in line at the grocery store behind a man whose tattoo proudly proclaimed "Scared for Life". Oh sure it could have meant what it said but the fellow did not seem at all the nervous type. So, this is why everyone should learn to spell.

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-52393995240207818452009-08-06T17:36:00.004-04:002009-08-06T18:11:54.773-04:00

The nice-neighbourhood library has its flaws. One of them is the vast array of buzzers and alarms which are forever going off. Miss Information has yet to differentiate between the "someone's at the staff entrance" buzzer, the "hey the building's on fire" alarm, the "someone's stealing something" alarm and the "whoops, shouldn't have opened that door" noise.When she arrived at work today, her

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-46770219771564188212009-07-25T12:04:00.004-04:002009-07-28T16:29:09.840-04:00

It has been a week of wackiness at the nice library. A new librarian started and was immediately labelled a pervert by one of the regulars. Thanks Crazy Woman. You’ve saved Miss Information a lot of “getting to know the new guy and figure out whether he’s a pervert” trouble. Apparently this woman has a history of accusing library staff of various evil deeds. Miss Information is working with a

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-60355138602080989802009-07-16T17:46:00.004-04:002009-07-17T12:06:35.296-04:00

Annie Lennox, Boy George, David Bowie...Miss Information used to think androgyny was cool. Although she has always been too voluptuous to pull it off successfully herself, she has worn her grandfather's tuxedo jacket on occasion.Well, she's not finding the gender bending thing quite so amusing this summer. Once again it is Force Your Child to Read season at the library. Miss Information has

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-90479267127201365592009-07-02T17:30:00.001-04:002009-07-02T17:33:40.320-04:00

Miss Information is what some might call frugal. Her friends call her cheap but tomato/tomahto. So the pennypinchers are her peeps. Usually. However, Miss Information is also a fanatic about debt repayment so people trying to get out of paying library fines really get on her nerves.The recent offenders:The woman on the phone began the conversation by asking why the man at the call centre had

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-74899140274463429772009-06-15T13:33:00.002-04:002009-06-15T14:06:57.271-04:00

On Saturday Miss Information got to help out with a computer training. She used to find these annoying but once she accepted that none of the students learned anything but none of them seemed to mind, she began to appreciate them as breaks away from the reference desk.This training, like all trainings, had an agenda, a goal, an objective. None of this makes any difference when the people

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-56095028601911421762009-06-09T17:14:00.002-04:002009-06-09T17:31:32.283-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Miss Information had another group presentation. It was going to be great. She had the material down pat. She was going to be charming and funny. She brought some ironically lame drawings to hold up. There were actual jokes! She couldn't wait.Her part was at the end of the presentation. Prior to this the professor got excited and interrupted to discuss at length the

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-43507781366247205732009-05-31T17:30:00.003-04:002009-06-01T15:41:53.910-04:00

Miss Information was having a peaceful and educational Saturday conducting research into the sexual proclivities of animals. What? A person can have hobbies. And seriously? Koalas may seem cute and harmless but they could keep Jerry Springer supplied with guests for years.Unfortunately this pursuit of knowledge was interrupted by a high school kid who wanted to find childhood photos of a World

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-50842171539480039872009-05-14T19:41:00.002-04:002009-05-14T19:55:32.011-04:00

Yep. The nice part of town seems to have some real weirdos in it. The woman with the wet jeans is still mad. Today she told Miss Information that she is not paying her fines because of the wet jeans incident. She also made Miss Information give her a printout of all her charges because she has trouble remembering the due dates. She explained that she has some pretty serious memory problems.

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-819803518786005352009-05-14T19:35:00.002-04:002009-05-14T19:40:41.431-04:00

Miss Information went to the gym tonight instead of working on those pesky school assignments. In the lobby there was a whiteboard promoting community centre activities. "Public Skate" it declared. "Please note: no public."So, um. More of a "skate" then. Miss Information actually has no idea what that means but it really tickled her.

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-70899218964583941122009-04-24T13:02:00.002-04:002009-04-24T13:09:47.104-04:00

Oooooh, is Miss Information ever annoyed. A couple of weeks ago she received a notice to appear for jury duty. She immediately went into a panic because the court date is only a week before summer school starts. Surely those axe-murderer murder trials take longer than a week. She called the number on the summons. Got in touch with a very nice lady who said that this wasn't a problem. If Miss

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-8301182185856868062009-04-19T15:34:00.003-04:002009-04-19T16:13:13.594-04:00

Apparently library school is good for something. It's a good buffer between Miss Information and...everything. So, while she's been trying to develop a philosophy of reference services ("Don't get stabbed"), she hasn't noticed how thoroughly annoying the world is. Now that there's a break between semesters and her brain is empty, it's all she can think about.One customer has complained

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-45176229706793432062009-04-14T13:45:00.003-04:002009-04-14T15:32:38.658-04:00

Speaking of denial, as Miss Information was a couple of postings ago, library staff are not the only ones afflicted. Miss Information remembers this time....It was a busy Saturday. Miss Information and one of her library buddies were in the staff room enjoying a lovely coffee break. One of their circulation desk colleagues came in, upset. One of the customers, she announced, was having a heart

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-27077428841023118892009-04-05T12:37:00.002-04:002009-04-05T13:00:03.559-04:00

Last semester, Miss Information was involved in a group project. The group broke up the work into 3 equitable sections, communicated entirely via e-mail and left each other the hell alone. Miss Information barely recognized her fellow group members on the day of the presentation but it went brilliantly. The professor said it was clear that they had a great rapport and enjoyed each other's

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-70756920154421485632009-03-25T11:29:00.003-04:002009-03-25T12:03:33.866-04:00

Miss Information is only working part time until she finishes school. This means she can no longer afford to eat. Coffee remains in the budget--how could it not? There are 6 coffee shops in the one block between the bus stop and the library--including 3 Starbucks. Three? Really?Well, anyway, this being part time thing means she usually misses all the good times at the branch. Except yesterday

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-87203886658481952122009-03-07T19:15:00.003-05:002009-03-25T12:06:18.083-04:00

Earlier this week a patron complained that a man in the browsing section had a cold but instead of wiping his nose on his sleeve like a normal civilized person, he was just leaning forward and letting his nose drip on the carpet. Apparently there was a puddle. Ew.On Saturday a customer interrupted Miss Information's pleasant thoughts to report that the lady sitting next to him was making racist

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-67092868527957854112009-03-06T13:12:00.002-05:002009-03-06T13:23:42.912-05:00

This semester Miss Information is taking a course on online searching. The first assignment involved 4 sample searches using Dialog. Now don't feel bad if you haven't heard of Dialog. It's irritating as hell and not nearly as pretty as Google, but Miss Information thought she had a pretty good handle on it.Last night she got her paper back. Of the four searches she messed two of them up very

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7562505.post-46445214202089900352009-02-20T13:00:00.002-05:002009-02-20T13:21:08.785-05:00

Miss Information is now working in a library in a "nice part of town" and yet, there seems to be a lot of criminal activity happening which is not just limited to the team of purse snatchers that are working the branch. Miss Information hopes they're working together anyway. It's possible there are two completely independent theives on the premises. And talk about blatant! One of the pair was

Miss Informationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06189230214867668098noreply@blogger.com5