Category Archives: Librarical

When I close my eyes, various types of abstract organization and concepts spin counterclockwise. I’m not kidding. I realized it’s a problem when last night’s dream was a more normal dream, about a hurricane that had stopped right over my house (all dreams take place on the farm). It was dark and forboding, but absolutely frozen in time. It was a Midwest hurricane of organization.

And this “normal” dream came after watching the awful awful movie Party Monster. I woke up with a sore throat and an aching nose. Did I do massive amounts of drugs in my sleep?

The reading responses for my intro class are so dry, writing appropriate drivel involves a glass of wine and fuzzy sock*. Tactile and drunk, that’s how I’ll write it. Yes. Good.

*Abbie gave me these socks. They are as soft as they look, AND they were on sale. That’s why she’s neat.

My YA book club is going to take on graphic novels for an upcoming meeting. This + a trip to Chicago = going to Quimby’s. I didn’t find any actual graphic novels to purchase, but I did get my fill of bag o’ mag and Fillerbunny.

And Lenore, the Little Dead Girl

For the past few days, I’ve been walking around Champaign and thinking everyone looks like they’re in a comic. I don’t know if it’s the inundation of graphicality, or just residual three-day hangover, but it’s kind of neat.

So, does anyone have a graphic novel to suggest? Hm? You know me. What do I like?

I know you’ve always wanted to catalog all your books. I know it. I could tell you were thinking about it.

http://www.librarything.com/ is a hot, hot, hot site that is kind of like del.icio.us in that you can input titles and it will fill in information like ISBN and publisher.

I haven’t began using it yet, so I’ll post about this again. Like, tomorrow.

*Cat wiz is the name my mom uses, as she is a ‘cat’alonging ‘wiz’ard

I hate the bathroom in the basement of the library school building (the one by the Children’s Center for Books but Not Drug Paraphernalia) because on the disused, abandoned paper towel dispenser, someone used scare quotes to emphasize their desire to not have the dispenser refilled.

It’s not a famous quote, like if you were to make a sign that said

“We hold these truths to be self evident”
Do not refill

This is not the most egregious use of the scare quote – I think the worst was the back of a Mac truck I was behind on the highway – Jason pointed out that it said “coffee”, and there was a graphic of a cuppa. I wish I had a picture. This is the visual rival to my hatred of the word literally improperly used.

“I literally had to go to the bathroom.”

Right. As opposed to the figurative sense that you’re keeping me from interpreting. Grrrr. The point is … THE POINT IS … every time I go to that bathroom, I think about making a new sign. Do not refill, and do not use scare quotes. People don’t “like” it.

You know how there’s drunk dialing? And the more rare, but more fun drunk Amazoning?

I was handed a book today at work. I was surprised, and checked the loan slip. Apparently, I had requested Kim Stanley’s Red Mars. I blame Jason and Charles for talking it up when I had my library card and internet handy on last Saturday night.

Drunk interlibary loaning. Giddyup.

Mah is a news piece about a Dutch library that is lending out humans – you go to the library cafe and have a cuppa, and chat. Poor people, asylum seekers, gay people, etc. would be available to talk to. It sounds weird, and unorthodox, but I really like the idea. I’d like to sit down with someone who’s lifestyle is completely different than my own, and have some International Coffee. (Decaf, natch.)

In my community, I would want to talk to someone from the religious and political right; figure out where they were coming from, and what parts of their lives aligned with the beliefs they cultured.

Then again, that’s starting to sound suspiciously like The Last Supper, a Young Religous Unitarian Universalist fav. Not decaf? keel.

Tom Stoner pointed me to McSweeney’s list of library science jargon that sounds dirty.

I’m a fan of full entry. It’s so much better than a truncation, if you know what I’m saying.

Anyway, the list is actually lackluster. MARC record really isn’t dirty, unless I’m just not seeing it … but either way, two hips and a hooray for nods to the underly appreciated but overly sexy field of library science.