Nursing the Next Generation

A college aged girl came in yesterday looking for a book on Florence Nightingale. Unfortunately we only had juvenile books on Florence. The girl wanted something more age appropriate on good old Flo but couldn't wait three to seven business days for the book to get here because she waited until the last minute to do her paper. After a brief interview in which I had to ask the questions that would give me an idea of what she really needed, I discovered that she just needed information on someone who made a significant contribution to nursing. OMG. This girl wants to be a nurse...a nurse? And all she could come up with was Florence Nightingale? I asked her if Clara Barnes or Dorothea Dix would be acceptable. She never heard of them. She didn't even know who Marie Curie was. Arghh!!! This is an adult. I had to print out bios for her so she could decide. Oh dear. It's not the fact that she didn't know these people but how helpless she seemed to be in making any kind of decision. It takes a lot of intelligence and commitment to be a nurse and something tells me she's not prepared.

The Comb Overs

Sometimes I just don't understand fashion.



Be it Lady Gaga and her meat dress or those earrings that make the holes in people's ear lobes larger. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. Lately I've seen a disturbing trend in hair for teens. I've seen boys and girls sporting a comb overs. Yes, you read that correctly... comb overs. Unlike a traditional comb over the teen comb over starts with taking a swath of hair from just over the ear and dragging it across the forehead kinda like a head band and securing it with a bobby pin or hair clip and from the odor, a lot of hairspray. My father used to sport a really bad comb over for many years. When I say bad, I mean really awful but, you could kind of reason out why he to tried badly disguise his balding head by artfully combing over the remaining fifty hairs on the upper portion of his head with aqua net to form a helmet o' lacquer. I wonder however why a teen would do it. It's just not attractive. I have only three reasons why I think someone would sport a comb over (other than the obvious);



1. A big zit or pimple on the forehead

2. to hide a tat

3. to hide a Charles Manson carving on his/her forehead

Wheels on the Car Show Go Round and Round...

Every year our fair city hosts a car show. Every year the epicenter of this car show is the library parking lot. Library Staff dreads the car show every year. I've got mixed feelings about it though. I have a Grandfather that used to collect antique and classic cars so it's somewhat nostalgic for me. Unfortunately our fair city forgets that there are people that have to show up for work at the library and people that want to visit the library. Hence why there is little not noo no parking for us. This year is no different. One of the great aggravations of the yearly car show is the lack of communication between...well...everybody. Between the event coordinators, the participants, the police and the library there is not a clue to be had. This year the coordinator planned for parking for us but the police told us there was no library parking alotted for us and to move along. I got smart this year just parked across the street at the community building to avoid the stress. Each year the event gets bigger and bigger. This year has been the biggest yet. The only patrons who walk in are the hardcore ones who've braved the car show and walked the distance here to use the Internet. A few try to manoeuvre the labyrinth of shiny, expensive, classic cars and traffic cones to park in the assigned library parking stalls. The rest plan on staying home or go to one of our sister branches for the day. Most of the people walking into the library are the car show enthusiasts. Why do they come into the library? To use the restrooms.
I believe that is the most asked question of the day. "Where are your restrooms?"


I also get one old geezer, every car show, every year that wants some obscure information on a manufacturer, inventor, or other "notable" figure in automobile history. Although this is not always true, sometimes it's a question about a make or model of car inwhich only 20 cars were produced. Maybe around the time dinosaurs roamed the earth. This year was no different. A grizzled man without one real tooth in his mouth and ill fitting dentures, drags his potbellied, smelly carcass in with a cane to ask for an obscure figure in automotive history. He's not sure about the individual's name but he's sure this guy invented an engine that was bought by Henry Ford. He thinks. Oh, and the guy was origionally from Germany. Maybe. There was also something about a motorcycle this inventor manufactured who's name started with an "S". The guy pronounces the word motorcycle "motor sickle". He remembers reading an article the last time he was in a library from their special collection of antique car magazines. I asked him how long ago was it. A Decade. He read the article a freakin' decade ago.

Stupid Question of the Day

A Patron called to day wanting to know if our fair city had a pool. Urmmmm okay. I suppose there must be at least one pool in our fair city... somewhere. Right? He wanted to know if our fair city had a pool because the city is advertising an aquatics program. I have to say I wasn't at my best today with this question. He didn't ask where the city pool was, only if the city had a pool. I told him that if the city had an aquatics program then they would have access to a pool. He seemed okay with that. I wondered. Why didn't he just call the city and ask?

Attack of the Dumb Non-Blondes

I'm amazed. Today I've had a gaggle of preteens and teens who can't seem to read a wall clock. I wonder if it's because it's not a digital clock? Or perhaps they just can't figure out to look on the wall for a clock. I don't know. You'd think that all preteen and teens would come fully equipped with cell phones and they could check the time with that. I've had a least three groups ask me for the time and as I peer at the clock on the wall I'm wonder if they think I'm perhaps looking at my internal clock or if the hormones currently running haywire aren't limiting their ability to come to the logical conclusion that I am actually reading a wall clock.

One of the preteens was trying to get on the computer but was unable to read the printed receipt with her registration time on it. Then she is incapable of signing on by herself. She was not only having trouble with entering her card number but also her pin. Her pin is 4 numbers, it is in fact the last four numbers of her phone. So I had to do it for her. Arghhh...

Lunch with Eyebrow Girl

Yesterday I was working the reference desk when a woman came up to me and asked if we were allowed to eat in the library. Now you'd think that would be a pretty straightforward question but the library sells snacks to help fund it's book budget. So while technically we don't allow food or drink we sell items like pretzels, chex mix, nerds, m&m's. Snacks that aren't going to leave a nasty stain or smear itself on the books, furniture or carpet. Before I could explain the fine intricacies of our food policy, she explains that there is a woman in the teen section eating her lunch and it's very distracting. Okay. Time to investigate! I walk back to the teen section to find Eyebrow girl sitting at one the diner booth in the teen section with a hamburger, fries (complete with ketchup) and a coke. I tell her she can't have a lunch in the library and she looks at my like I'm nuts and leaves. Gosh if only she'd stay away. But alas, later that day she returns to use the computer. I think that she may have eaten a little too quickly because as she was passing the reference desk she let loose a big fart. You should have seen the look on the guys face I was helping at the Reference Desk. I don't know what amazed and shocked him more Eyebrow Girl's near to non existent ensemble or the amazing amount of flatuence she let loose in public. Sadly, I was not so suprised by either.

Living in the land of the indecisive...

Just decide already! I've had two SRP tweenies sift through the incentives for the last 45 minutes. We close in 30 minutes. After that I'm leaving. They are on their own. What's so hard about picking an incentive. I don't freakin' get it. Just pick something already. We have stuff. Stuff that you can choose. It's not like they are choosing a college to attend. It's a coupon for frozen yogurt or a magnetic book mark, or a book bag. Give me a break. Then there is the questions. How much frozen yogurt can you get. Can you replace the batteries on the lava lamp key chain? Can I exchange this if I don't like it later on? OMG. I told them when SRP is over SRP is over! it all goes away! No refunds no exchanges. Now it's just one tweenie and she's talking to herself....