|
As the OP of this thread, I just wanna say... This started as "Haha funny/horrifying library stories". Now thanks to the 'rona, things have gotten darker. I welcome anyone needing to vent about how poo poo has changed this year. A safe space for the lieberry crowd; I dont think we have such a thread here. My heart goes out to all my library brothers/sisters/others. I know I miss having libraries (we're still not open in my county), and I for one appreciate all y'all still working in these conditions. And my sympathy for those who lost their jobs. Stay strong, and please feel free to use this space to vent your spleen. And when my husband gets home, I'm gonna post a pic of my old library's gang sign (it takes 2 hands so I can't really do a selfie)
|
# ? Aug 23, 2020 01:01 |
|
|
# ? Mar 29, 2024 02:06 |
|
I was hoping you were among the folks adjust hired.
|
# ? Aug 23, 2020 03:23 |
|
I guess I can count myself pretty lucky, we're open more or less as usual, albeit with some restrictions: opening hours reduced by half, strict maximum of visitors at any one time, masks and disinfectant and so on. Not a public library, and also not in the US, those might both help. Incidentally, we've never been at full capacity. We're providing disinfectant wipes for visitors and accidentally sent one poor girl into a panic attack when she had a bad skin reaction from what turned out to be fairly heavy duty hydrogen peroxide wipes meant for medical equipment. Whoopsie!
|
# ? Aug 24, 2020 13:42 |
|
Been a while, what's shaking in all your libraries? I've landed the job of making a short video about ours to show to new students in the new term, cause we can't very well give huge guided tours anymore. At my last job I also did videos a bit, and dug up a little known university department that lent out A/V equipment where I got a little handheld camcorder and access to a computer pool where they had Premiere installed. I figured this university would have a similar place, which it does, and the equipment would be along the same lines too. they handed me a fuckoff huge camera and approximately all the auxilliary equipment in the world and also the keys to a full blown editing room with three huge displays and professional monitor speakers. This university has a dedicated art and media faculty. They have a TV studio. I wasn't thinking about this at all. I had to liberate a cart from somewhere so I wouldn't have to lug around all this stuff every day. It's glorious and exactly my poo poo. ... video so far does look a bit amateurish with static angles if I'm being entirely honest with myself but considering I'm getting no aid whatsoever I'm probably doing good and maybe I can jazz it up in the edit.
|
# ? Sep 25, 2020 19:19 |
|
My Lovely Horse posted:Been a while, what's shaking in all your libraries? My dad used to run the A/V department at the local university, and I think a big part of why he took that job* was so he could set up his own TV studio. Glad you're having fun with it! *There was also the perk of getting free tuition for immediate family, which may have played a role. Between myself, my brothers and my mom I think we racked up about 21 years of free university education.
|
# ? Sep 26, 2020 04:41 |
|
Lead out in cuffs posted:Glad you're having fun with it! I have also jazzed it up, in case you were wondering.
|
# ? Oct 2, 2020 18:34 |
|
That sounds super cool, Horse! Glad you're making the most of this sucky situation. We're still being cautious in my area; libraries are still curbside pickup only. I was in the next town over recently for an errand and saw I was parked right by their library, so I walked over to see what their deal was. Same thing, but what piqued my interest was their huge window displays. I guess now that windows aren't needed to let light in for reading/ambience, they went buckwild covering them in book jackets & posters advertising the curbside pickup, stuff on their website, e-book services, etc. Also the drive thru and attached bookdrops had big signs saying essentially "for the love of Pete these are for library materials only, stop giving us donations!!!" On that note, the Little Free Libraries around here are thriving, and I wish I could set one up somewhere. I finally got back to work in a restaurant, so I'm only semi-homeless --- living in a cheap weekly motel. It'd be interesting to set one up here, given most of my neighbors are kinda what you'd expect: sex workers, day laborers, ex-cons, addicts/dealers of all stripes, just folks down on their luck like me. I'd love to start a LFL with books on job hunting, legal matters, hell, even cookbooks on 101 things you can do with a microwave and mini fridge. (Have seriously considered writing a book on that last one)
|
# ? Oct 2, 2020 19:38 |
|
...do weird things often go into the drop boxes? https://twitter.com/libraryseaside/status/1324137105933529088?s=21
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 09:10 |
|
Only on occasion, as a treat
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 09:34 |
|
We're planning to set up a drop box now and it's gonna have an RFID reader in the flap so it just opens for our items. In theory. The students are flocking. And since we're more or less the only university department open to the public, they're flocking to us. My city was doing very well for infection numbers for a while, at stable single digits or even zero for weeks at a time, now it's not. Could get a bit dicey, but on the plus side, we've got all the stuff still in place to go back to one of our earlier stages if we need to.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 13:27 |
|
We have RFID tags on our items and the return slot reads them, but because we do a lot of ILLs and our consortium members don’t all use the same tags we ended up making it so if someone tries to put an unreadable item through twice it will take it. We only occasionally end up with weird stuff, the most recent being a couple of railroad spikes.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 13:38 |
|
the escape goat posted:...do weird things often go into the drop boxes? Yes. At the universities I worked at, it was a common prank. Public libraries, some people just used them as a garbage disposal. And every county library system I've visited has had a story of a kitten being shoved in one. Who is of course promptly adopted by the library staff as a library cat and named Dewey because it's apparently required by the ALA.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 14:18 |
|
Cythereal posted:Yes. That did actually happen at the library in my hometown! (Here's a link to the museum 'cause they got a mummy and it loving owns.) Dewey is long gone by now, sadly. I had no idea pickles were a common thing to stick in drop boxes. I guess they just shrivel up, and don't rot, so it's...well, nicer than sticking a regular cucumber in, I guess.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 16:12 |
|
My library prank is when I haul 150 pounds of books to the library, and it's closed because the AC is out, so I cram the book drop full and haul 125 pounds of books back to my office.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 16:15 |
|
One of the places I used to work, kids kept putting mulch from the flower beds into the book drop and their solution was to redo the landscaping to take out the mulch. Then the kids started putting other crap in the book drop. It's not like they didn't have security cameras outside--I guess putting one next to the book drop would be too much of a hassle unlike ripping out the flower beds.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 16:16 |
|
Halloween Jack posted:My library prank is when I haul 150 pounds of books to the library, and it's closed because the AC is out, so I cram the book drop full and haul 125 pounds of books back to my office.
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 16:21 |
|
queserasera posted:One of the places I used to work, kids kept putting mulch from the flower beds into the book drop and their solution was to redo the landscaping to take out the mulch. Then the kids started putting other crap in the book drop. It's not like they didn't have security cameras outside--I guess putting one next to the book drop would be too much of a hassle unlike ripping out the flower beds. We also had mulch-in-the-drop pranksters! I guess it's... comforting? to know it wasnt just us. The two weirdest items I recall getting during my circ days were a used diaper (ewwww) and a circular saw blade (WTF).
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 19:08 |
|
My Lovely Horse posted:Then you get a reminder and fines for 125 pounds of books. Pranked right back!
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 19:12 |
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:and a circular saw blade (WTF). “Hmm, this is long and skinny, and the slot is long and skinny, I wonder if it would fit...”
|
# ? Nov 5, 2020 19:13 |
|
Midjack posted:“Hmm, this is long and skinny, and the slot is long and skinny, I wonder if it would fit...” Never put this together but... circulation materials. Circular saw blade. Sure, why not?
|
# ? Nov 6, 2020 01:07 |
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Never put this together but... circulation materials. Circular saw blade. Sure, why not? Alternately, someone who had one of those razor blade disposal slots in their bathroom medicine cabinet at home and thought this was just a bigger version for bigger blades.
|
# ? Nov 6, 2020 01:53 |
|
Midjack posted:Alternately, someone who had one of those razor blade disposal slots in their bathroom medicine cabinet at home and thought this was just a bigger version for bigger blades. Ha! As a kid I used to live in an old house with one of those. After i asked mom what it was and she told me, naturally my next question was "well, where do they go?" "Just between the walls of the house, I guess." "So, like, if you had to fix the house by tearing the wall open, thered just be all these razor blades?" "I guess so, honey" This disturbed yet intrigued me. I was (still am) fascinated by things like Egyptian tombs, secret rooms with hidden treasure --- hell, we were on vacation when Geraldo did that live opening of Al Capone's vault, and I demanded to stay in the motel room to watch it instead of going to the pool, lol. So I started slipping little drawings and notes into the slot, for future contractors/archeologists to find. One day a plumber is gonna find a pile of razor blades and some goofy pictures of dragons and notes saying "be careful!" and "hello from 1982" and such.
|
# ? Nov 6, 2020 13:50 |
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:
This is so cute
|
# ? Nov 7, 2020 00:31 |
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:Ha! As a kid I used to live in an old house with one of those. After i asked mom what it was and she told me, naturally my next question was "well, where do they go?"
|
# ? Nov 7, 2020 01:11 |
|
JacquelineDempsey posted:On that note, the Little Free Libraries around here are thriving, and I wish I could set one up somewhere. I finally got back to work in a restaurant, so I'm only semi-homeless --- living in a cheap weekly motel. Since the major newspaper around here has basically quit printing paper copies, I got them to donate a machine outside of the laundromat where I work for a LFL. I still need to repaint it, but it's got an official plaque and so far it's seen a lot of use!
|
# ? Nov 7, 2020 21:54 |
|
vortmax posted:Since the major newspaper around here has basically quit printing paper copies, I got them to donate a machine outside of the laundromat where I work for a LFL. I still need to repaint it, but it's got an official plaque and so far it's seen a lot of use! That's super awesome! And a laundromat is a great place to have one, people are sitting around doing nothing, so having a book to read is great. (I dunno about yours, but my laundromat had a TV and chairs, but they took them out thanks to the covid, so your options are the benches outside or sitting in your car, if you have one.) Take a picture and share it, if you like!
|
# ? Nov 7, 2020 22:16 |
|
Necro-ing my own thread to post this, from the #blessed pics thread: ...and also to check in on my library peeps. How's everyone doing? Still nothing but curbside here, though the apartment I just moved into around Thanksgiving has a LFL the next block over. Been enjoying Da Capo Best Music Writing 2003, thanks to some cool anonymous person. I loving love LFLs! Hope someone enjoys the book on black holes I donated.
|
# ? Jan 4, 2021 23:37 |
|
We went back to pickups/dropoffs only in December, shortly before closing over Christmas. Right now I'm on holiday and kinda not looking forward to returning next week. I imagine neither are our students, who are caught between a "return to physical campus" policy from Summer and the new "holy poo poo stay online" policy. We're also planning to get our entire reception area rebuilt from the ground up in April which would be a huge disruption under the best of circumstances so I'm wishing us good luck there. incidentally I went back over my posts and caught something about dedicated library A/V person being basically my ideal job, and I'm happy to report I'm kind of worming my way into it Less in terms of live events and more video production but I've got some stuff going, tentatively. Congrats on the apartment!
|
# ? Jan 6, 2021 11:49 |
|
Over in the comic strip thread in BSS the strip Dustin has an arc going where Dustin works in a library, and I'm doing big old effort posts on the background of what they show. It's famously a lovely boomer humor strip so I'm hoping to catch it out being particularly idiotic or inaccurate but I'm trying to stay fair and so far it's been infuriatingly reasonable.
|
# ? Jan 13, 2021 12:30 |
|
I worked at my local library when I was in high school and the only patron I can still remember is the man who would stand for hours at the paperback book racks, just spinning them, and then from time to time he would loudly exclaim "sssssSSSSSSUCK MY COCK!" and then dash for the front doors.
|
# ? Jan 16, 2021 04:36 |
|
Dick Trauma posted:I worked at my local library when I was in high school and the only patron I can still remember is the man who would stand for hours at the paperback book racks, just spinning them, and then from time to time he would loudly exclaim "sssssSSSSSSUCK MY COCK!" and then dash for the front doors.
|
# ? Jan 16, 2021 05:56 |
|
Dick Trauma posted:I worked at my local library when I was in high school and the only patron I can still remember is the man who would stand for hours at the paperback book racks, just spinning them, and then from time to time he would loudly exclaim "sssssSSSSSSUCK MY COCK!" and then dash for the front doors. Nice to know someone remembers me
|
# ? Jan 16, 2021 12:40 |
|
Not exactly library related but also insanely likely to be this threads jam. https://twitter.com/dancohen/status/1350831682350415872
|
# ? Jan 18, 2021 03:01 |
|
It showed me a folding circumcision knife from early 19th century Nigeria. I think I'm done after that lol
|
# ? Jan 18, 2021 05:28 |
|
quote:0.4 inch composition punches for Walbaum (typeface series number: 374), font size 14D. In an original wooden box and no suffix relating to the typeface is marked. Manufactured by Monotype Corporation. Actually unbelievably relevant for my particular library
|
# ? Jan 18, 2021 07:09 |
|
DeadFatDuckFat posted:It showed me a folding circumcision knife from early 19th century Nigeria. I think I'm done after that lol
|
# ? Jan 18, 2021 17:48 |
|
I got an anchor (well, a scale model of one, anyway) and what looked to me like an old radio transistor. Woulda preferred penises tbh. I am going to spin it again from this thread's link, see if it improves. EDIT: uhhhh ok no penises butt... butt. A definite SA energy from this one lol. Enema syringe accesories, cased. Shellception fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jan 18, 2021 |
# ? Jan 18, 2021 22:27 |
|
DeadFatDuckFat posted:It showed me a folding circumcision knife from early 19th century Nigeria. I think I'm done after that lol I got "Sheffield plate reservoir enema syringe, piston-ac." I think I'll pass on a second look.
|
# ? Jan 18, 2021 23:40 |
|
gonna do five in a row plus one I remember from the other day Plastic thing to cover cables on the floor from 1970 that obviously hasn't been unrolled in 40 years. They're just raiding old janitor storages for their exhibits now Photo of subterranean conduits being laid in the 1910's I have read the whole description and I have no idea what this possibly is "Photo of unidentified man" that clearly shows a couple unless this is where the ghost movie plot starts Test tube I think these are the same conduit folks from the first one starting to think there's mostly a reason no one looks at these or maybe the collection is tapped out by now
|
# ? Jan 20, 2021 15:15 |
|
|
# ? Mar 29, 2024 02:06 |
|
It's what it says it is. Specifically, an interchangeable bit for a mechanical screwdriver. Which is the same as a modern electrical screwdriver except it would have a crank handle instead of a button to make the head turn. You just don't recognise it because nobody uses fork head screws any more.
|
# ? Jan 20, 2021 15:48 |