Things Learned, version 12
Jan. 7th, 2009 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptTime passes, knowledge is gained, and weird situations abound. Here’s what I’ve learned in this stretch of time.
1) Our patrons are of all types of people. We serve all types of people. Thus, as a professional, I will not go whomping on the person who insists that America is a Christian nation, that we’ve been on a downslide since the adoption of separation of Church and State, on Masonic conspiracies, that we’re trying to displace God from the country and bring back everything that the Greeks were doing, including professional sport, homosexuality, and watching football over going to church. The really interesting part was the skillful weaving of that which is fact and that which is opinion. As a professional, I will continue with my work as I listen to what is being said. This part of the discipline that we have. I reserve the right to be quietly amused by the matter, however.
1b) I have the requisite professionalism to take someone seriously when they ask about information on a One World Government or a North American Union, cite Ron Paul as the person who is talking about it, but nobody is paying attention to, and to advise them that they will likely find a dearth of scholarly information on the matter, while still finding them a book about the currently-applying Constitution so they can study it, because they are trying to inform themselves about the shadowy cabal, whomever they are, planning on writing a new one for the OWG/NAU. I am That. Damn. Good. I still reserve the right to go, “Huh. Met a Ron Paul supporter today.”
1c) Similarly, I do not miss more than a beat processing and reconfiguring my approach when someone tells me that they do not go on the Internet at all, because they are afraid of it and are certain it is full of violence just waiting to spring upon them as soon as they log on. And can manage to guide them to a successful interaction despite the most likely avenue of getting the information they want is through said ciolent Internet.
2) Teenagers can be ladies and gentlemen when they want to. They can also be little snots when they want to.
3) I apparently have a bit of a black thumb on maintenance calls. The one I made, that was supposedly fixed? Broke again the same day. And continued to break even after having been fixed twice.
4) There’s nothing better than seeing someone’s face light up when they ask you a question like “I might be grasping at straws here, but do you have any books about parents going to work?” and a catalog search later, the response is, “Actually, yes we do.” As it turns out, two or three in the system, in fact. These are the moments librarians live for, where all the mofoery that the profession puts up with melts away through the joy of finding exactly what someone needs.
5) There are few things more cool, professionally, that listening to a parent do awesome parenting and encouragement. I hope that all parents can be like that.
6) Gamers are the wave of the future. Libraries need to be able to talk to them on their own terms and to provide places for them to hang out and to create. More generally, libraries ened to keep up with technology and move siwftly to adopt the new ways of communication that the young are using. If we don’t, we lose them and they may or may not come back when they have kids.
7) There’s no large print version of out library card application. But they are working on making it more accessible for those with poorer eyesight.
8) I’m not sure anymore which will come first - the new library completing, or my five year service award.
9) Human voices carry through the walls of our meeting room decently, but muffled. A basketball being dribbled, however, comes through loud and clear.
10) I have sufficient authority on grade school math to be used as a bludgeon against a child’s currently-incorrect answer.
11) Calvin talked about dinosaurs in rocketships, and I had thought that was just a fantastic thought. And then, there was Captain Raptor.
12) Trig tables are apparently an essential reference thing to have around. Fortunately, we have Google Calculator. (And a hat tip to the older gentleman who recognized the fact that enterprising students can, indeed, check out all our books and leave us without valuable resources to other students. It was, to say the least, a most interesting conversation.)
13) Camo comes in pink. This is awesome. And thus keeps the kidlets looking like kidlets, rather than miniature copies of the military men.
1) Our patrons are of all types of people. We serve all types of people. Thus, as a professional, I will not go whomping on the person who insists that America is a Christian nation, that we’ve been on a downslide since the adoption of separation of Church and State, on Masonic conspiracies, that we’re trying to displace God from the country and bring back everything that the Greeks were doing, including professional sport, homosexuality, and watching football over going to church. The really interesting part was the skillful weaving of that which is fact and that which is opinion. As a professional, I will continue with my work as I listen to what is being said. This part of the discipline that we have. I reserve the right to be quietly amused by the matter, however.
1b) I have the requisite professionalism to take someone seriously when they ask about information on a One World Government or a North American Union, cite Ron Paul as the person who is talking about it, but nobody is paying attention to, and to advise them that they will likely find a dearth of scholarly information on the matter, while still finding them a book about the currently-applying Constitution so they can study it, because they are trying to inform themselves about the shadowy cabal, whomever they are, planning on writing a new one for the OWG/NAU. I am That. Damn. Good. I still reserve the right to go, “Huh. Met a Ron Paul supporter today.”
1c) Similarly, I do not miss more than a beat processing and reconfiguring my approach when someone tells me that they do not go on the Internet at all, because they are afraid of it and are certain it is full of violence just waiting to spring upon them as soon as they log on. And can manage to guide them to a successful interaction despite the most likely avenue of getting the information they want is through said ciolent Internet.
2) Teenagers can be ladies and gentlemen when they want to. They can also be little snots when they want to.
3) I apparently have a bit of a black thumb on maintenance calls. The one I made, that was supposedly fixed? Broke again the same day. And continued to break even after having been fixed twice.
4) There’s nothing better than seeing someone’s face light up when they ask you a question like “I might be grasping at straws here, but do you have any books about parents going to work?” and a catalog search later, the response is, “Actually, yes we do.” As it turns out, two or three in the system, in fact. These are the moments librarians live for, where all the mofoery that the profession puts up with melts away through the joy of finding exactly what someone needs.
5) There are few things more cool, professionally, that listening to a parent do awesome parenting and encouragement. I hope that all parents can be like that.
6) Gamers are the wave of the future. Libraries need to be able to talk to them on their own terms and to provide places for them to hang out and to create. More generally, libraries ened to keep up with technology and move siwftly to adopt the new ways of communication that the young are using. If we don’t, we lose them and they may or may not come back when they have kids.
7) There’s no large print version of out library card application. But they are working on making it more accessible for those with poorer eyesight.
8) I’m not sure anymore which will come first - the new library completing, or my five year service award.
9) Human voices carry through the walls of our meeting room decently, but muffled. A basketball being dribbled, however, comes through loud and clear.
10) I have sufficient authority on grade school math to be used as a bludgeon against a child’s currently-incorrect answer.
11) Calvin talked about dinosaurs in rocketships, and I had thought that was just a fantastic thought. And then, there was Captain Raptor.
12) Trig tables are apparently an essential reference thing to have around. Fortunately, we have Google Calculator. (And a hat tip to the older gentleman who recognized the fact that enterprising students can, indeed, check out all our books and leave us without valuable resources to other students. It was, to say the least, a most interesting conversation.)
13) Camo comes in pink. This is awesome. And thus keeps the kidlets looking like kidlets, rather than miniature copies of the military men.
Re: word
Date: 2009-01-11 02:34 am (UTC)