More Out-Of-Title Work

A young woman holding a big SLR camera (nothing like the one pictured) comes to the desk and wonders if I can help her. Of course I will, if I can. She explains she's taking a photography course. Okay! What does she need: a book or two? A local camera club? Help with Flickr? No...she wonders if I can show her how to load her camera with this thing they call..."film." Yes, yes, of course I can. We're a full-service agency.

Another Small Surprise In The Stacks

"God prosper and illuminate all who read this"

That's how John B. Keane, a wonderful modern Irish writer, inscribed this copy of his play Big Maggie to our library. I wasn't there, of course, this all happened in...what does that say, there, 1987? Wait a minute, I was here then, we didn't host John Keane here.

Hrm. Is it strange to be a little upset that I might have missed something, when it happened twenty-two years before I even found out about it? I'll have to ask around.

We Have Something For Everyone

drawing by W.S. Gilbert

Early evening.
A couple looking to be in their late twenties approached the desk. The man asked if we had westerns. "Yes we do," I said, and walked them both back to those shelves. As the man started looking at the books, the woman turned to me and whispered, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure," I said.
"Do you have pornography, like?"
As it happens, the short-story anthologies are shelved right next to the westerns, and several collections of erotic short stories are right there, at eye level. I pulled them out for her, and as she browsed the covers, turned some pages, and murmured "Oh, this looks nice," her companion looked up from the westerns with a big smile on his face and said, "Take your time, hon, this is gonna take me a while."

I walked back and cut two more "happy customer" notches in my desk.

In Which I Disappoint A Customer

College Student: "Do you have Cliffs Notes for the Republic, by Plato?"
Me: "Sure, right here."
College Student: (frowning) "Oh. You haven't got the skinny one?"
Me: "The skinny one?"
College Student: "There's a Cliffs Note for this that's skinnier..."
Me: (gently) "I'm sorry, that's the least substantial one available."

It's a Small, Coincidental World, After All

An intense gentleman came to the desk looking for books on Paolo Soleri, an architect."Oh, sure!" I said.

"You've heard of him?" he said. He seemed surprised.

"I've been to Arcosanti, an experimental community he designed, in Arizona." I felt quite worldly.

"That's where I'm going, I'm going there!" he said. "I want to know if you have books about it."

"We do," I said. "We have a couple."

He left happy, and still intense. Two days later, the phone rang at the desk and I picked it up. It was another very intense man, who said, and I quote, "There's an experimental city somewhere in the desert in Arizona called..."

"Arcosanti!" We said at the same time.

"You've heard of it?" he asked.

"I've been there," I said, again feeling worldly, and now a little deja-vu-ey. It was definitely a different person, a completely different voice.

"Well, I want to know if it's been built. If it's a real functioning city."

"Well, I'm not sure what you mean by a 'real' city. I don't know what kind of municipal organization it has, if any. It's more like an educational institution. But I can look that up for you."

"But it exists? You've seen it?"

"Yes, it exists. You can even stay there overnight, if you book in advance."

"No, I just wanted to know if it really exists."

"Ah. Well then, yes...yes, it does. You can look online at a site I'll give you, or come in here and do that...or look at books."

"Okay, maybe I'll check that out."

Now those two instances by themselves is no big deal; it happens all the time that something gets mentioned on a TV program and there's a brief flurry of questions about it.

But then, the day after that, I sold a pair of concert tickets on line, and because there was a misprinted ticket, I had occasion to look up the name of the buyer, and noticed he was an architect, whose company's website mentions he studied and worked at... Arcosanti.

It's a small, coincidental world after all.

On The Unreliability Of Outward Appearances

I Couldn't Agree More

A funny story often begins with the phrase, "This guy walks into a bar..."

Here at work, most stories begin with the phrase, "This guy walks up to the desk..."

Today's story (from last summer, actually,) bears out my assertion that you often cannot discern what people will ask for based simply on their appearance.

A man in his early twenties walks up to the desk. He's wearing voluminous satin basketball shorts in pale blue and a wife-beater tee.
It's hot outside, so he is covered in a thin sheen of sweat. His right hand is underneath his T-shirt, scratching his chest.
He looks at me, still scratching, and says, "I need a book on aesthetics."

Nature Will Out

It may take a while, but this sycamore appears determined to tippy-toe its way out of its restrictive metal grating. Eventually.

Bad Idea Number Two

A Wednesday night about 8:30, there's a little boy, no more than 4 or 5, wandering around near my desk. He appears to be alone. This, in itself, is unremarkable. His parentorguardian could be nearby. A security guard asks him "are you here alone? where's your momma?" The boy says "over there," waving vaguely. The guard starts to walk around with him, the boy sees his mother and runs to her, and she acts surprised to see him. Guess what the woman says to the child.
Remember, it's Jamaica, Queens, at 8:30 on a dark January night.
The child is no more than 5, if that.

The woman says to her child, "I told you to stay in the car!"

No Weapons, Please

A college student at the desk: "Do you have this book it's called Branded?"
Me: "There's a few different books with that title..do you know the author?"
College student (shuffles through her papers) "Wait, I have the ICBM..."

Bad Idea Number One

A woman came up to the desk pushing an infant in a stroller and asked for a recently released title.
"Sure," I tell her, pointing waaay across the room, "…there should be a couple on those display tables over there, in front of the elevators."
"Oh, okay," she said, and looked in that direction to the display, which was some forty feet away, past pillars and shelving and desks and kiosks.
She turned back to me, nodded at the baby in the stroller and said,“I’m just gonna leave him here.”

On The Way To Work

Here's something I meant to post earlier in the year: photos taken out of the car window on the ride in to work. (I was the passenger, no worries.)
Traffic, traffic, traffic. Spend time at the lights looking at window decals. Someone tried their darnedest to scrape this one off. What does it say? "Never forgotten." Should've taken the hint, pal.

The streets are well-patrolled, especially near these familiar shops:

Looks like we'll be patrolling on foot today...

And here, outside York College, we have the saddest-lookin' ice-cream truck in the world:

Oh, crap. I guess this street's closed again...

This railing, dressed as if for Mardi Gras, cheers the neighborhood up:

Finally, we arrive at work to find that someone has deposited a small pile of mulch, cotton wool, and bird feathers behind some of the books. Um, what the?

Leaving The Library...

On their way to the big "chicken" tournament, I guess...

Recent Inquiries at the Desk

"Miss, do you know where there are any bad parks around here?"

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"Is the Rosetta Stone true? Or is it like, part of Greek mythology?"

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"Is there any way of finding books other than asking you guys?"

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

As a public librarian, that is all I have to say about this.

Well, La-Di-Da!

You know it's a s-l-o-ow news day when I get quoted in The New York Times! Nothing to get excited about; it's just another story about how libraries get all bent out of shape when people don't return the stuff they borrow. Weird! You'd think people were stealing municipal property or something.

A Random Book From The Stacks

This one is Cosmopolis, by Paul Bourget. Part of a series of books "crowned" by the French Academy, but apparently the library only owns the one. The light-brown bits are actually gilt, but my photograph doesn't capture the shine. A 1905 edition.