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.
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.
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