Tweet
...And, Boy Did We Get Them Today!
Part the First: We Get Hit by an Poorly-Prepared Uzi
Early this morning I was visited by a young lady with a staff ID badge. She was educator who had been with the Museum for a year but she had never visited the Library before because she worked only on weekends. She had a class of Middle School students that she was bringing in on Saturday and wanted to show them a selection of Artist's Books.
Yes, we have a wonderful collection of those but they're all in the Special Collections Area and NOBODY but Library staff get into that. She was also a student at a local college during the week and hyper-hyper. Our conversation went something like this:
Me :
Her: Uzi Lady
(Everything she said was delivered in machine-gun fashion.
While I was trying to answer one question, she was firing off four more in my general direction. The conversation was much more manic than I can present it. This poor young lady was at the end of her rope. Library people know this type all too well)
Me: Hello, may I help you?
Her: YEAH-I-NEED-STUFF-ON-ARTIST-BOOKS-I'VE-NEVER-BEEN-HERE-BEFORE-BUT-I'VE-GOT-A-CLASS-CLASS-COMIN'-IN-TOMORROW -AND -I-NEED-SOME NEAT-ARTIST'S-BOOKS-TO-TAKE -OUT(eleventy) WADDA-YA-GOT?
Me: We have plenty of Artist's Books but nothing in this Library, especially Artist's Books, leaves the building unless the books are out on Inter-Library loan or part of a traveling exhibition.
Her: I-GOTTA-GET- A-NEAT-BUNCH-OF-ARTIST'S-BOOKS. I'VE-BEEN-TEACHIN'-MY-CLASS-HOW-TO MAKE-BOOKS-AND-I-PROMISED-THEM THEY'D-SEE-REAL COOL- STUFF-AT-THEIR-LAST-CLASS-AND-THAT'S-TOMORROW-MORNING. WE'VE-GOT-WHITE-COTTON-GLOVES-AND-EVERYTHING-TO-KEEP-THE-BOOKS-SAFE-I-WORK-HERE-I'M-AN-EDUCATOR. (eleventy) I-REALLY-NEED THOSE BOOKS-AND-IV'E-GOTTA-TAKE THEM OVER TO X-COLLEGE.
We tried to explain that a lack of planning on her part didn't constitute an emergency on ours. She'd been working at the Museum for a full year. Every new staff member is offered a tour of the Library. Somewhere along the year she could have easily arranged one and known that what she wanted at the last minute wasn't possible.
Because she was also a student at a local art school, I had a sneaking suspicion that her final grade for the course depended on how she made this magnificent presentation to her class. I'm sorry we were harsh but we weren't going to trot out several thousand dollars of artist's books on a day we were closed for a teen-ager we'd never seen before and let her take them off the premises.
Part the Second: May I help you?
Me: wave:
Her: Not used to this kind of place
We had a drop-in visitor who really wasn't that bad. She just didn't understand what we are. She was used to a public Library set-up. While I was trying to work with the Uzi Lady, she came in, sat herself down at one of our public access computers and searched our on-line catalog. She wrote down some stuff and then started to rummage our ready-reference section. When I cleared Uzi Lady out I walked over to where she was hunkered down on the floor and asked:
Me: May I help you?
Her: Yes, I'm writing a paper on XXX (a recently installed and very popular permanent installation) You don't seem to have anything on this here.
Me: You're not going to find much there. That's the reference area. We have plenty of information on XXX in the Reading Room. If you need more we can always page books from the stacks for you.
Her: Oh, there's more to the Library than this?
(Why do people assume that the reference section is all there is to our Library when the reading room is twice the size of the reference section? Fer-cryin'-out-loud, we've got almost 150,000 entries in our catalog!)
She was happy with the material in the Reading Room. Most of them are.
Part the Third: Pulling teeth
She showed up after Lunch. She presented herself at the Reference Desk and pronounced, in a very low voice, "Middle Kingdom"
Me: Are you interested in China or in Egypt?
Her: Huh?
Me: China once called itself the Middle Kingdom and there's a period in Ancient Egyptian History we call the Middle Kingdom. Which do you want.?
Her: Egypt.
Me: Fine. Are you interested in history or art.
Her: Yes.
Me: (getting a bit frazzled at this point) Are you interested in the history or the Art of Middle Kingdom Egypt?
Her: I don't know what you mean. (Please note, this woman came to us from one of the best colleges in NYC.)
Me: Do you want to know about sculpture or do you want to know about kings?
Her: Not kings. I need to write a paper about a royal woman. 12th dynasty.
Me: That's not going to be easy. We don't know all that much about royal women in the Middle Kingdom. Do you have a specific object you're researching.
Her: Yeah. It's a sculpture called a 'Royal Woman'
(She showed me a two-page paper someone else had written about a sculpture with the title "A Royal Woman". The paper didn't help much. It just described a partial statuette of a woman. There were no pictures but there was an acquisition number. I searched that with no hits.
Me: Are you sure this sculpture is in this Museum?
Her: (Huffily with eye-rolls) I never SAID it was in this Museum. I came here to find something like it.
Me: Have you gone to the galleries to look for something like it?
Her: You have Egyptian art here?
Me: (getting ready to put out the Thunderstorm Smiley) Yes, we do. It's on the X floor and there's a lot of it. Go up there, find me something to work with and we'll go from there.
She did. and we did but it was still thorny. We're a research Library so readers who page material from the stacks must sign a form agreeing to our regulations.
1) No food or drink is allowed in the Reading Room. That includes water bottles.
2) No cell phones are allowed in the Reading Room.
3) Only pencils are allowed in the Reading Room. No pens or Hi-Lighters.
4) All bags, including lap-top cases, must be left with the Librarian at the desk.
5) Readers must leave a photo ID with the Librarian at the desk. It will be returned when all Library material is returned.
Begrudgingly, our reader pulled out her College ID.
Her: And why is all this necessary? (Great sighing and rolling of eyes) I don't have to go through this at my College. You're so strict.
Me: We're not your College. We have had things stolen or vandalized in the past. We have to be careful.
I told her about other research Libraries where readers are required to leave their shoes as a surety that the research material would be returned.
She stayed for a while, she read, she made photocopies and was out of our hair.
Then there was the Full-Moon kicker.
We close at 4:30 in the afternoon. At 4:20 a staff member came in.
"Hey, I need everything you've got on cat mummies."
Oh, Lordy (eleventy) we've got about 20 shelf-feet of stuff on animal mummies!
After today, I want a good drink. A few cookies and some soothing pasta would also be nice.
Part the First: We Get Hit by an Poorly-Prepared Uzi
Early this morning I was visited by a young lady with a staff ID badge. She was educator who had been with the Museum for a year but she had never visited the Library before because she worked only on weekends. She had a class of Middle School students that she was bringing in on Saturday and wanted to show them a selection of Artist's Books.
Yes, we have a wonderful collection of those but they're all in the Special Collections Area and NOBODY but Library staff get into that. She was also a student at a local college during the week and hyper-hyper. Our conversation went something like this:
Me :
Her: Uzi Lady
(Everything she said was delivered in machine-gun fashion. While I was trying to answer one question, she was firing off four more in my general direction. The conversation was much more manic than I can present it. This poor young lady was at the end of her rope. Library people know this type all too well)
Me: Hello, may I help you?
Her: YEAH-I-NEED-STUFF-ON-ARTIST-BOOKS-I'VE-NEVER-BEEN-HERE-BEFORE-BUT-I'VE-GOT-A-CLASS-CLASS-COMIN'-IN-TOMORROW -AND -I-NEED-SOME NEAT-ARTIST'S-BOOKS-TO-TAKE -OUT(eleventy) WADDA-YA-GOT?
Me: We have plenty of Artist's Books but nothing in this Library, especially Artist's Books, leaves the building unless the books are out on Inter-Library loan or part of a traveling exhibition.
Her: I-GOTTA-GET- A-NEAT-BUNCH-OF-ARTIST'S-BOOKS. I'VE-BEEN-TEACHIN'-MY-CLASS-HOW-TO MAKE-BOOKS-AND-I-PROMISED-THEM THEY'D-SEE-REAL COOL- STUFF-AT-THEIR-LAST-CLASS-AND-THAT'S-TOMORROW-MORNING. WE'VE-GOT-WHITE-COTTON-GLOVES-AND-EVERYTHING-TO-KEEP-THE-BOOKS-SAFE-I-WORK-HERE-I'M-AN-EDUCATOR. (eleventy) I-REALLY-NEED THOSE BOOKS-AND-IV'E-GOTTA-TAKE THEM OVER TO X-COLLEGE.
We tried to explain that a lack of planning on her part didn't constitute an emergency on ours. She'd been working at the Museum for a full year. Every new staff member is offered a tour of the Library. Somewhere along the year she could have easily arranged one and known that what she wanted at the last minute wasn't possible.
Because she was also a student at a local art school, I had a sneaking suspicion that her final grade for the course depended on how she made this magnificent presentation to her class. I'm sorry we were harsh but we weren't going to trot out several thousand dollars of artist's books on a day we were closed for a teen-ager we'd never seen before and let her take them off the premises.
Part the Second: May I help you?
Me: wave:
Her: Not used to this kind of place
We had a drop-in visitor who really wasn't that bad. She just didn't understand what we are. She was used to a public Library set-up. While I was trying to work with the Uzi Lady, she came in, sat herself down at one of our public access computers and searched our on-line catalog. She wrote down some stuff and then started to rummage our ready-reference section. When I cleared Uzi Lady out I walked over to where she was hunkered down on the floor and asked:
Me: May I help you?
Her: Yes, I'm writing a paper on XXX (a recently installed and very popular permanent installation) You don't seem to have anything on this here.
Me: You're not going to find much there. That's the reference area. We have plenty of information on XXX in the Reading Room. If you need more we can always page books from the stacks for you.
Her: Oh, there's more to the Library than this?
(Why do people assume that the reference section is all there is to our Library when the reading room is twice the size of the reference section? Fer-cryin'-out-loud, we've got almost 150,000 entries in our catalog!)
She was happy with the material in the Reading Room. Most of them are.
Part the Third: Pulling teeth
She showed up after Lunch. She presented herself at the Reference Desk and pronounced, in a very low voice, "Middle Kingdom"
Me: Are you interested in China or in Egypt?
Her: Huh?
Me: China once called itself the Middle Kingdom and there's a period in Ancient Egyptian History we call the Middle Kingdom. Which do you want.?
Her: Egypt.
Me: Fine. Are you interested in history or art.
Her: Yes.
Me: (getting a bit frazzled at this point) Are you interested in the history or the Art of Middle Kingdom Egypt?
Her: I don't know what you mean. (Please note, this woman came to us from one of the best colleges in NYC.)
Me: Do you want to know about sculpture or do you want to know about kings?
Her: Not kings. I need to write a paper about a royal woman. 12th dynasty.
Me: That's not going to be easy. We don't know all that much about royal women in the Middle Kingdom. Do you have a specific object you're researching.
Her: Yeah. It's a sculpture called a 'Royal Woman'
(She showed me a two-page paper someone else had written about a sculpture with the title "A Royal Woman". The paper didn't help much. It just described a partial statuette of a woman. There were no pictures but there was an acquisition number. I searched that with no hits.
Me: Are you sure this sculpture is in this Museum?
Her: (Huffily with eye-rolls) I never SAID it was in this Museum. I came here to find something like it.
Me: Have you gone to the galleries to look for something like it?
Her: You have Egyptian art here?
Me: (getting ready to put out the Thunderstorm Smiley) Yes, we do. It's on the X floor and there's a lot of it. Go up there, find me something to work with and we'll go from there.
She did. and we did but it was still thorny. We're a research Library so readers who page material from the stacks must sign a form agreeing to our regulations.
1) No food or drink is allowed in the Reading Room. That includes water bottles.
2) No cell phones are allowed in the Reading Room.
3) Only pencils are allowed in the Reading Room. No pens or Hi-Lighters.
4) All bags, including lap-top cases, must be left with the Librarian at the desk.
5) Readers must leave a photo ID with the Librarian at the desk. It will be returned when all Library material is returned.
Begrudgingly, our reader pulled out her College ID.
Her: And why is all this necessary? (Great sighing and rolling of eyes) I don't have to go through this at my College. You're so strict.
Me: We're not your College. We have had things stolen or vandalized in the past. We have to be careful.
I told her about other research Libraries where readers are required to leave their shoes as a surety that the research material would be returned.
She stayed for a while, she read, she made photocopies and was out of our hair.
Then there was the Full-Moon kicker.
We close at 4:30 in the afternoon. At 4:20 a staff member came in.
"Hey, I need everything you've got on cat mummies."
Oh, Lordy (eleventy) we've got about 20 shelf-feet of stuff on animal mummies!
After today, I want a good drink. A few cookies and some soothing pasta would also be nice.
Comment