The end of the Almost Librarian

You may have noticed there haven't been any posts here of late. I left the library for a new job in London in March 2011, and so have had to bring this blog to an end.

I am still blogging regularly about a whole plethora of things including books, so pop over to my new home here and say hello!

I'm leaving this blog as an archive for now, but it won't be updated any more.

refgrunt highlights 24/1/11

1-3pm:

driving theory books & practice

where's the Whoosh centre?

can I borrow a magnifying glass?

No rest for the wicked by Kresley Cole

pen & scrap paper

Reassured a gentleman he's not alone in needing/wanting to learn about computers & the internet, and enrolling on our course

the stages of child development

is Direct Access 3 working?

do you take any computer magazines?

more refgrunt highlights 22/1/11

From my 12-1 shift on the desk:

Can I update my account and get a new library card?

I live in Rochford, where can I recycle my old flowerpots?

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (small boy with the man asking for this: "Dad, are you absolutely sure it's a book? Positive? Certain? Three million per cent sure?" - I found this hilarious)

I've seen the "please do not watch live Internet TV" sign - how would I go about watching live Internet TV?

Sikh history - foundation of the Khalsa

Can you find out the name of a boardroom drama from a few years ago starring Rob Lowe? Is it on DVD? Can I borrow it? (Lyon's Den, no and so sadly not)

SolidWorks for dummies (I still don't know what SolidWorks is, but I found & ordered the book the customer was after)

From my 10-11 stint:

children's toilet

sociology section

children's party cakes

Seabiscuit on audio CD shelf check

Lion King 3 DVD

access to pc, printer & scanner

what does In Transit mean on your catalogue?

children's toilet again (ok, it's not a highlight but seems to be the thing I've been asked for most in the last two weeks)

Very Best of Robert Palmer CD

computer/internet please

what time is my computer course?

where would I find books about Cyprus?

refgrunt highlights 22/1/11

From my 2-4 stint on the desk:

What else has the author of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo written? (And what's his name?)

Can you take a laptop home on Monday to drop at a colleague/friend's house on the way home?

Could you help me scan & email on the computer I've booked at 3pm?

I need any of Shakespeare's plays in the original Old English, I'm reading them for pleasure

Can you find me that series with Billie Piper in it on DVD please? (Secret Diary of a Call Girl)

I've been listening to the 'Book at Bedtime' and it's stories by Julian Barnes - do you have any of his books or short stories in stock?

Can I look at the Essex Chronicle?

From 5 - 5.30:

I'm after things on cake decorating and knitting? (my colleague looked at me and said "I think this is probably more your enquiry than mine, don't you think?!")

Ray Davies CDs

refgrunt highlights 12/1/11

9am-1pm:

Dein Perry's Tap Dogs DVD

Can I look at this CD on the computers?

I'm hard of hearing but I want to do First Click

There's a customer having trouble on the microfilm machine

I'd like some photos of my house from history, please

Do you have a directory like Crockfords for Congregational Methodists, dating back to 1850?

Why can't I run thsi CD on this computer? (it was a CD of the Windows 98 operating system)

OCD workbook & overcoming OCD

audio materials for French, German & Spanish

when's your book sale and do you sell audio books in it?

simple musical pieces by Chopin

2pm-7pm:

GCSE maths revision book

birds of the Gambia

books on gold trading

really reeaaalllly slow public computer

where's your nearest phone box (I've had this a lot recently, not sure why)

refgrunt highlights 10/1/11

how many years do you need to be separated to file for divorce?

Despicable Me DVD

Internet for the older & wiser

Adrian Wesker plays (Roots & The Kitchen)

Room on the Broom as an audio book

Zog by Julia Donaldson

refgrunt 7/1/11

World Reports - from worldreports.org (at subscription cost of £450) - this customer dismissed the things we do subscribe to and provide as "kindergarten stuff"

Yesterday's Financial Times (this is another really popular request, usually from people that I've seen in the library the previous day... I can't for the life of me work out why they don't look at the current papers)

Last two weeks' editions of the Essex Chronicle

I'd like to donate these books to the library

Children's books on medieval society

refgrunt highlights 6/1/11

Royal Albert Hall - book on the architecture etc

books on philosophy for an OU course

can I book a computer for 1 minute?

Can you type my CV for me?

Can I book the family history PC?

where would you buy duvet slippers? (weirdly, I knew this, because I have some!)

Can I use your phone to call the council about my daughter's school? (no)

weight training books & DVDs

slow writing

Customer: Hello, would you be able to look a book up for me on your computer?

Me: of course, what book would you like me to look for?

Customer: (hands me a hand-scrawled CV) - here you go, you can type this out for me

Me: I'm afraid that's not a service we provide - would you like me to book you a computer, or find you a book about CV writing?

Customer: No, you said you'd type for me, I need you to type this up because I'm a really slow writer.

Not a service we provide...

tin opener

As I arrived today there was a man with a can opener tapping things and talking to himself – went for the fan, a couple of the chairs and then one of the book carts...

New Year's Day

1st January, in the library... I don't mind working but it's SO QUIET! Even the shops don't open till 10, but we've been open since half past eight this morning... and will close at half past five as usual.

We had a heartbreaking customer in this morning, she said she'd 'done a bunk' from her care home and couldn't get hold of the police, so we made her a cup of tea and called the non-emergency police number... they sent someone over and we spent the majority of the morning looking after her and trying not to let her get too distressed.

Apart from that, literally nothing happened... hope it doesn't stay this quiet for the rest of the year, when it's busy it can be stressful but the days go so much faster!

hi-tech equipment for fixing trains

So it’s snowy and it’s icy, and the whole of the UK has tried not to grind to a shuddering halt, but is soldiering bravely on through the winter weather.


From Essex CC’s website: IMPORTANT: Essex is suffering from severe weather conditions. (This made me think of the county as some sort of distressed damsel in a story, lying in a darkened room hoping for

Over the tannoy on my train this morning, after a lengthy wait for it to couple to the train in front of it: “Good morning, I’m so sorry for the delay to your train service today, this was caused by compacted snow and ice on this technologically wonderful machine. The problem was solved in a delicate operation with high-tech special equipment – a kettle of boiling water and a screwdriver.”

refgrunt from a different hour today

Sage & Microsoft Great Plains (which is apparently accounting software)


“Resolution” by C J Sanson – is either “Dissolution” or “Revelation” by CJ Sansom

List of Rosamunde Pilcher books

Various back issues of newspapers

Workshop manual for a Yamaha motorbike

Can I book number 3 for 11am tomorrow?

I need to print a tax return form, can I use one of your computers?

Why is the table so much higher, is it for disabled access? Look, all the others are the same height, why is this one higher?

Can I check which computer I’m on?

Are you able to help me find whereabouts to look for a book?

Do you have sheet music?

More back copies of newspapers

refgrunt from one hour on the desk today

How to look after an African pygmy hedgehog (quite possibly the cutest animal I've ever set eyes on)


Moira Kerr cds

Metropolis dvd, remastered & reconstructed

Criminology books

On messages list: romance book called Forbidden or For Bedding (I swear these get more ridiculous by the week)

Do you do courses on Publisher?

Eye health & potential problems

This evening I took someone up to the microfilm machines, he said he was looking at something sneakily, outside of work time (but presumably work-related). When we got up there, there was already a man on one of our machines. By the time I'd got the keys out and discovered the years my customer wanted weren't in the drawer,  they were sheepishly shaking hands - working sneakily after hours on the same thing for the same place, by the looks of things. Hilarious... I made my excuses and left them to it.

where we belong? I think not..

Man interrupting his wife’s enquiry (she ignored it and carried on with her own, serenely): Oh, I see, your library’s at the bottom of County Hall – where it belongs.

Me: Actually I prefer to think of it as the foundation upon which the county rests…

A colleague & friend: Without us, County Hall would fall down.
 
 
I also walked in this morning to find a man vacuuming our photocopier... for a moment I honestly thought I was in some kind of parallel universe.

fireworks

Today we had a lady who wanted “that children’s poem about fireworks that has 54321 in it and might be about a rocket”.

the Quest for Books

I do love the part of my job where I get to disappear in among the stacks, steal noiselessly between the shelves and emerge, triumphantly, clutching whichever book the customer’s asked for.


The downside, of course (or perhaps it’s an upside) is that in the quest for one book for someone else, I inevitably spot at least four I’d like to read myself, and add them to the ever-growing list of Books I Must Read One Day.

wow, a book-related post at last

"Inspired by reading “The Red Leather Diary” by Lily Koppel, for my 25th birthday in February I’m going to order myself a five year diary, with just a few lines for each day, and try to faithfully keep a record of my life between 25 and 30.

I'm also rather liking this idea:
http://www.ohsocherished.co.uk/product/1161/0/100_year_diary
of a 100 year diary, to fill with letters, notes and photos, and details of your life over an entire lifetime.

severed heads

Sigh... I've already been asked about the history of beheadings in the Tower of London and it's not even 9 o' clock yet...