Wednesday, June 9, 2010

We need a librarian in the OR, stat!

I'm assuming that most of you know about the unfortunate news of Gary Coleman's death. I've read that he fell and hit his head, and was taken to the hospital, where his condition worsened until he passed.

I'm not trying to make light of the situation here, but it brought about a perfect example of how odd my job can be at times. Because on the morning that this happened, one of my co-workers got a call at the library and was asked, "So what's the update on Gary Coleman?"

Excuse me? Let me just run down to the ICU and check. We're not working in a newsroom, people. Do you need a book? Or would you like to know how late we're open? I can help you with that.

Not that she didn't look it up for him. She did. I've actually had patrons tell me that people tell them if they ever have a question about anything, just call the librarians at the _____ library and they'll look it up for you. And it's true, we will. But if it's especially ridiculous we WILL make jokes about you for awhile.

*Just a note: things I do NOT consider ridiculous: trashy romance novels, books about how to make love, how to identify a strange skin fungus, or anything that you might be scared to ask a librarian. I'm a professional and when I get questions like these I don't think any more of it than I would for a copy of Harry Potter. The things I do think are funny are the people who call and ask for the price of apples at a local market or the example above. So breathe easy and go ahead and ask your librarian where to find the Star Wars section.

4 comments:

Ross and Kathy said...

I have a question. Why is "How to make love" follow by "strange fungus"?

Kylen and Adrienne said...

Ah...that brings back so many memories of working as a 2-1-1 specialist/phone picker-upper. We got all kinds of crazy questions, plenty that were not in any way related to health or human services. I wish now that I would have written the funny calls down. I seriously have forgotten so much!

Ann-Marie said...

Can you tell me in what states 14 year olds can get married?

Breanne said...

Ann-Marie,
I can now!