My Winter of Discontent

I have just had one of those Rip Van Winkle moments. I feel that I must have fallen asleep and awakened in my office chair in some future decade. Only my messy desk looks the same.
Earlier I was remembering a book my parents read when I was small. I don’t know anything about it except the title. It is called The Winter of Our Discontent. I was thinking that this, of all years, truly IS a winter of discontent. I began to wonder about that book, so I looked it up on Amazon. I typed in the title and hit “search”. I should have remembered to check the category “books”, but I didn’t and my search results sent me into a world where nothing made sense.
The book title was listed first, but then several entries followed it that I didn’t recognize. First was The Winter of Our Discontent/ Echoing Green. After a little research, I found out that Echoing Green is either a global nonprofit organization dedicated to early-stage social sector investing (whatever that means) or a rock group. I chose rock group because I didn’t want to research early-stage social sector. The next entry was The Winter of Our Discontent/Warhammer. I’m scared to look up that one, so I decided it must also be a rock group. The next entry was The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit. I couldn’t leave that alone. I was hoping it was a book of recipes of spicy, warm drinks to while away a long winter. Alas, it is another rock group.
If you are an Amazon shopper you will be familiar with the feature on Amazon that says “customers who viewed this also viewed…..”. It is a method of showing you some other related items that Amazon hopes you will buy, too. When I looked up Frightened Rabbit, Amazon suggested I might be interested in tickets to Vampire Weekend. Only $40. Seemed reasonable until I found out it was rock performance in Edmonton, Alberta on March 14. Boy, I’m not that discontent. I was a little more tempted to travel to Miami Beach on April first to see the Arctic Monkeys perform for the same bargain price.
Finally, after 20 minutes of reading everything Amazon randomly threw at me, I did find out that The Winter of Our Discontent is a book written by John Steinbeck in 1962. I would have been old enough to read it, but probably not old enough to appreciate Steinbeck. All that chasing down information is a normal trait for a librarian. We all have found ourselves still researching some bizarre fact long after the person who asked for the information has thanked us and gone home. Librarians just can’t stand not knowing something. That doesn’t mean we will necessarily remember it next time someone asks, but the second time we’ll find it faster.
About half of the library material checked out in Humboldt is children’s material. That means about half of our patrons are children. They are smaller than adults, so you wouldn’t think they would take up much space, but since they don’t stay put, they seem to command about twice as much area. They also produce about triple the decibels. Thus, all these years, early-out-Wednesdays here in Humboldt have been busy enough to try any (and every) librarian’s soul. School dismissed an hour early on Wednesdays, so we had an extra hour of chaos. Now, without asking my permission, the school district has given up early-out-Wednesdays in favor of even earlier-out-Fridays.
Not every week, but sometimes, school will dismiss at 1:00 pm. on Friday. The library closes at 5:30 on Friday. Think what that means to a child who is told “just go to the public library until mommy/daddy gets off work.” He/she/they will be here at least four hours. Is there any four hour stretch of time in a day when a child doesn’t need a snack and some physical activity? Of course not. No one, especially children, can come to the library and behave well for four hours running. The adults begin to snore after an hour or so and the kiddies lose control. Please, please, before you send your young’uns over for us to babysit after school, consider their maturity level. No child is equipped to sit quietly and calmly for long stretches of time. Please don’t ask that of your children. Nor of your library.

In big city libraries with lots of branches and bookmobiles and fancy stuff, there is an ILS (integrated library system) that connects them all to one another. If you were to go into the Springvale branch, the computerized card catalog could tell you that Gone With the Wind is checked out at Springvale, but both the Dakota City and Jerry Hatcher branches have a copy on the shelf. Those big libraries will also use the ILS to order books, catalog them (put the records of the book into the card catalog) and keep track of how many times Gone With the Wind is checked out.
We aren’t so backward that we don’t have an ILS; we’ve had one in Humboldt since 1992. We just haven’t had a very modern one with all the bells and whistles. Not only is our system of the bare bones variety, the company that sold it to us not longer supports it---the warranty is up. No more customer service. Lots of libraries in our part of the state are in the same situation. We could replace our systems for around $5000 per library. Multiple that by about 50 libraries and we are talking REAL money. Enough money to buy one of those fancy systems. In addition to all of us public libraries, there are many, many schools with the same outdated system.
Hey! Let’s pool our money and buy a real Cadillac of a system! We called our baby BEACON. The schools, including Fort Dodge, began using it last August. Now, it is time to begin to merge the public libraries into BEACON. Every library is different, different books, different movies, different checkout times, different library hours, different everything. Some pretty sophisticated computer programmers were required to make it all work. Now the time has come that we cannot enter any more books into our old system. And, we can’t enter any books into the new system until mid-April.
We add around 300 new items every month. We don’t have enough storage space to stack up boxes and boxes of new books, magazines and movies until April, so we came up with a sort of work-around method to carry us through. It is very old fashioned and not at all without flaws. We will probably create a real muddle to pull ourselves out of come spring.
The Bestsellers Club is a program at our library that allows readers to sign up for every new book written by particular authors. Just fill out a short form and we will always put you on the waiting list for a new James Patterson or Danielle Steel book. You will never miss a new Nicholas Sparks or Stephen King again.
Are you beginning to see our problem? Since we won’t be able to enter new books until BEACON is up and running, we won’t be able to put your favorite books on reserve for you. We don’t want to just stack them up in a corner and deal with them in April-we buy books so that people can read them. For the duration, all Bestsellers will be up for grabs. We will try to shelve them together in one spot for you. There will be no new waiting lists. If you are on the list for a book that we already have in the library, great. We’ll call you when it’s your turn. But, if a new book comes in that should have a waiting list, it won’t.
If we could figure out any other way to do this, we would. We are going to have to ask your patience through this process. We will keep a list of books that should have had a waiting list. When BEACON is going, if you’ve missed one, just ask. We will put you on reserve for it.
Meanwhile, have patience. I promise that Beacon will be worth the wait. By the time May rolls around, all 100+ libraries will be linked with shared system. Change happens. @your library.

Home Therapy: Fast, Easy, Affordable Makeovers by Lauri Ward. I was so excited when I saw that book on the library shelf. All winter long I’ve known therapy was desperately needed. I’m delighted to learn that it’s my house that’s in the doldrums, not my psyche!
This slender book has been around for a few years. It’s full of real-life home decorating stories. Each chapter tells the story of a particular room. The homeowner feels his/her room isn’t right, but can’t quite decide what needs to be changed. The author swoops in, evaluates the problem, moves a couple of furniture pieces, changes the slipcovers and the room looks like a design magazine centerfold. The real message of this book may be that it takes an unfamiliar eye to spot decorating problems. Perhaps, in our own homes, we are just too close to see things as they really are, or as they should be.
A library patron and dear volunteer, Sherri Crowley, once mentioned that she loves to move furniture. I, also, love a change, so I invited her (begged is more like it) to give my living room a new look. Like all rooms, mine has certain requirements….the tv can only be moved a short distance from the cable outlet, the rickety antique pie safe can be moved, but not too often, the front door needs room to open. Also, my house is very tiny. The backyard playhouse my daddy built for me when I was little wasn’t too much smaller.
Sherri took one look at my living room, shoved the sofa to a new wall, stuck it out at a peculiar angle, moved a few end tables and I have a whole new room! Every chapter in Home Therapy has a small section call “I never would have thought of that!” That’s just the way I felt when Sherri got through with my living room.
Every year I save a few days of vacation time “for an emergency”. Just like every year, no emergency arose, so I had those days available for a decorating project. A few years ago, I remodeled the upstairs and added a bath. Since that time Brady –the-Daschund and I have both grown older. I can still climb steps, but Brady needs to be carried up and down. This year’s emergency days can be used for a downstairs bedroom makeover. I’ll save the charming attic space for guests.
The Impatient Decorator: 201 Shortcuts to a Beautiful Home by Glenna J. Morton must have been written for me. Glenna knew I only have three days to spare. Chapter one is Color. Rule #1 is You Are the Boss of Color. Right away I knew this was a book for me. Color Rule #5: Any Color + White = Crisp. Wow! This is easy!
The first day I spent cleaning out the closet and under the bed. I found a couple of rawhide doggie treats Brady had stored when I moved the furniture out. The second day I painted a little, took a nap, finished a book (Think No Evil: Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting) and started a new book. The third day I ran out of paint.
Now, I’m back at work. Not only is one downstairs bedroom unusable since I still have to finish the second coat and paint the woodwork, but the second bedroom is full of all the stuff I moved out of the other one. Watch! Someone else will have an emergency and need to sleep over. That relative or neighbor will end up on my rather short, but artfully arranged sofa.
Other books that I’m taking home to consult for decorating advice are $500 Room Makeovers by Lisa Quinn, Decorate Rich by Jo Packham and 500 Quick & Easy Decorating Projects and Ideas. Surely, I will have this room finished in no time!
If you and/or your home are in need of a little winter therapy, before you call a psychiatrist, look over the decorating books @ your library.