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I'm a library science student who also runs a small library in a residence hall.
You can email me, or chat with me:
SpinsterLibrarian at Hotmail dot com
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003
In a newspaper article about one of our branches the other day, a patron complained that she wished that we had a separate mystery collection, instead of mixing them in with the other fiction. The branch head said that they keep them all together, so that all of an author's books are together, even if they write in more than one genre. While this is a perfectly reasonable and valid explaination, I don't think that it is the real reason. I believe that the real reason is that no one writes mysteries any more. Now, of course, this is an exaggeration, new mysteries come out every day, but the fact is that fewer and fewer call themselves mysteries. Nowadays, they say things like, "An FBI thriller," "A Novel of Suspense," "crime story" or "A Stephanie Plum novel." A rare few boldly proclaim themselves to be mysteries: "A Thomas Black Mystery," "A Needlecraft Mystery," "A Kensington Mystery," A Lupe Solano Mystery," "Being a Jane Austen Mystery," etc. Some of the "thrillers" and "novels" even say things like, "Edgar Award winning author..." Um, how do you win a award from the Mystery Writers of America if the books that you write aren't mysteries? The impression that I get is that to some authors the "mystery" label is an epithet. Saturday, July 26, 2003
buildings at Collins Edmondson Hall (the library is in a sort of penthouse at the very top) the entrance to Edmundson Hall one of the Collins dorms one of the entrances to Collins flowers in the garden at Collins James at Collins the entrance to the library (You walk up a long turning staircase to get there, almost like you are ascending a tower.) there is a fireplace (all the furniture is disarray because they had just cleaned the carpets) windows on three sides a reading area with cushy chairs a great magazine selection next to the circ desk a nice selection of videos owls Thursday, July 24, 2003
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
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Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
I've been hired to be the graduate assistant in charge of the Collins LLC Library at Indiana University. Collins sounds like a pretty cool place. My friend Angela lived there and worked in the library when she went to IU: Collins is the coolest! I loved working there! The vibe there is so cool and alternative. All the freaky hippy, punk, goth kids lived there (probably not too different now.) Also, all the very OUT gay kids lived there. So, it is a fun library to work in because the people there like reading and different kinds of stuff. They are not in the library just to check out videos and read Cosmo. They like Jim Jarmusch movies and foreign flicks. The CD's are more ecclectic than the other libraries. More Ani DiFranco than Mariah Carey. We also did a lot of special displays for political type holidays. Coming Out Day, AID's awareness, Human Rights Day, that kind of thing. The kids are political there. Also, that means the sky is the limit on what you can do. No one will be offended, they will probably cheer. Collins is the only place to escape the frat boy types that are there on a Budweiser scholarship and the sorority chicks who are there for their MRS. and find time to read Danielle Steel when they are supposed to be an English major.At first, I thought that it was just a coincidence that I was assigned to Collins, but thinking back on my interview and resume I realized that they had pegged me as the "pinko commie"* and assigned me appropriately. I'm not complaining, far from it, Collins sounds like heaven to me. * a Rush Limbaugh fan once called me that for listening to NPR Friday, July 11, 2003
Librarian action figure (link from Jonny) When you push a button on her back, her arm raises to make a shushing motion. The part that disturbs me most is that a librarian participated in the creation of this thing... Monday, July 07, 2003
My results: 1. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (95%) 2. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (85%) 3. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (80%) 4. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (77%) 5. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (77%) 6. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (75%) Wednesday, July 02, 2003
 
Movie tickets: $6.50 each Large Diet Coke to share: $3.75 Taking goofy pics in front of the Hulk display: Priceless Memorial Day We were supposed to go to my sister's house for a cookout, but before we left, James wanted to take a look at the fridge to see if he could figure out why it wasn't cooling properly. He took the cover off the back, and started poking around back there. When he reached in to move some wires aside, he inadvertently touched a fan blade that was hidden behind them. Ouch! It was bleeding pretty bad, so I had to drive him to the hospital for eight stitches. (He was really bummed about having bled all over one of his favorite t-shirts, but I was able to get the stains out with Oxy Clean -- that stuff rocks!) Anyway, apparently a blood sacrifice was exactly what the fridge needed, because over the next couple of days, the temperature dropped back down to where it should be, and it has worked just fine ever since. |
