push the button, Frank*

Today I received the fourth in a series of emails at work regarding duress alarm training. For the sake of elucidation, I have photographed the underside of my reference desk:

That whitish thing is the duress alarm. It is a recessed switch to help us avoid accidentally triggering it while trying to adjust the motorized desk (which happens anyway, but maybe not as often as it could). In the event of major unpleasantness, which we experienced last month, you put your finger in the hole and pull toward you, and county security, police, SWAT team, what have you, are notified that the library, and your desk in particular, is experiencing duress. An excellent feature to have in a public building. But honestly- how much training does it take? Mind you, this is not training for what to do in the unlikely event of a [fill in duress-inducing situation here]. This is training for the alarm itself. If I don't see the need for the training, does it mean that I don't need it, or that I don't realize how badly I need it? Would I enjoy the training as ironically good fun, or would I later mourn the loss of 30 precious minutes of my life? I may step up and do it just to find out.


*kudos to you if you got the reference. If not, educate yourself.

booksites a-plenty, booksites galore

Oh dear, it has been a while, hasn't it? In my defense, I've been regularly blogging my books over at Book Barker, which maybe accounts for why things are so quiet around here.

To avoid the triple-posting I'm currently doing to get my reading list represented on all the sites I use, I'm considering consolidating and putting everything on Good Reads, now that they have a widget for here on MSR (see left margin), and an app for Facebook. I'll make an effort to get something more interesting posted here this weekend. Hey, maybe there'll be wild stories from our big off-site library staff party tonight. Woo-hoo! If that sentence made you laugh, you've obviously never partied with librarians before.

I Love Lucy

A few things I love about my niece:

1. For several months now, her young toddler vocabulary has included "hummus" and "tortilla." Also two of her favorite foods. Chips are really just a vehicle by which to shovel massive quantities of hummus into her mouth. The soggy chip remnant is then put back in the hummus bowl for the next person's scooping convenience.
   
2. Sometimes when she says "puppy" to my dog, she mimics an adult's lower-voiced warning tone, as in, "puppy, no hummus for you." But when she does it, she sounds like Eddie Vedder, or some other loose-voweled rocker (read that carefully).
   
3. Ever since Christmastime, not a visit to my parents' house goes by without this exchange eventually taking place: Lucy: "Jesus?" Us: "Where is Jesus, Lu?" Lucy: "Box." The Fisher-Price Nativity set. It's not just for Christmas anymore, no matter how many times my mother tries to pack it away.
   

yuppies getting younger all the time

fAs I was out in the library trenches this morning, looking after my beloved graphic novel section, I heard a particularly obnoxious phone ringer. It kept going and going, so I went to find the source and educate them in the ways of library cell phone rules. I stepped around a pillar and there was the culprit: a four-year-old with a Spongebob Squarepants play cell phone. I was prepared to give the phone spiel, or the noisy game/toy spiel, but somehow the combination of the two left me momentarily speechless. Once I recovered, I went with the Sesame Street-ified version of the cell phone policy. I felt pretty stupid, though. Even though the parents are the ones who should have felt stupid. I mean, really- who brings their child's noisiest possible toy to the library? At least she didn't give me some line about being in the middle of an important business call with Squidward.

talk about your frozen digits!

It is currently 12 degrees below zero. That's without windchill, which makes it -37. Yes, Fahrenheit.

In other news, I was just elected to my church council this evening. I am honored, and not entirely sure what I've gotten myself into. I should have gotten a hint when not 10 minutes after the vote results were announced, someone asked me, "Alicia! You're on council. Explain this line of the budget." Yeah, they haven't uploaded me with that knowledge from the Collective yet. Maybe next week? But this is all a step of faith for me, and we'll see what God does with it.

how macabre

I had a meeting today at a different library. On the way back to my car, I passed this curious sight:



That is a parking spot marked, "RESERVED: PATRONS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN". And that is a hurse. Darkly funny, don't you think? By the way, the driver came back as I was taking the picture, and she had no children with her. Parking Cheater! Using people's respect for and/or fear of the dead to park close to the door while you return overdue books? Shameful. Funny, but shameful.

the stories bookmarks could tell

Today's RPLM needs no introduction or explanation. It's perfect all on its own.