You may be a reference librarian if...

...if you burst you favorite conspiracy theorist's latest corruption theory by proving that one of your Senators received less than $10,000 in campaign contributions from a weapons manufacturer. Which is a bummer, cause she really wanted to prove the Senator was in the manufacturer's pocket.

...if you can point to that *exact* moment when the genealogy "researcher" got on your nerves, insisting that materials were missing because they had the call number and location for something that wasn't on the shelf--and the researcher started getting pissy about it. And then you find out they got the call number from the card catalog that hasn't been updated since the 1980s. And the location they kept citing wasn't even the same as on the card. And that there's nothing by that title in the OPAC. And then they just keep telling you they want all of the vital records for the town. And they don't like the answer that the county kept the records, not the town. And you recommend that they narrow down their search to one person or one type of record. And they keep repeating that they want ALL of the town's vital records, which they know used to be in the Reference collection when they were a kid growing up here, decades ago.............

You may be a reference librarian if...

...if you're not sure if the public internet computer user is humming tonelessly and continuously, or if they have a wheezing breathing condition.

Either way, I'm pretty sure it's off-pitch.

Mixed messages?

One of my colleagues at Circulation just completed check-in for all the books dropped in the book drop overnight.

Included in the mix was a copy of the Bible with an unusual bookmark. It was a CD, just resting between the pages. It was only visible to me as I watched her check-in the book because I was facing her, asking a question. I could just barely see it in the book with less than a quarter of an inch sticking out.

It was AC/DC's Back in Black.

Rock on, dudes.

Snow parking ban

Just had a gentleman at the Ref Desk who refused to believe me that the parking ban is city-wide tonight.

"No, it goes by zones. I need to know what zones are involved. I need to know if I have to get my car off the street for the night."

So, I searched the city hall website, but, of course, all I could find was a parking ban announcement from last April.

"See! It says Zone 7! Told you there were zones!"

Please know that I never doubted him. I kept searching, and went to the city's police department for more information. Thankfully, the very first thing on the site (after their massive header image) is "PARKING BAN IN EFFECT 2/2/2011 FOR THE ENTIRE CITY" as the headline. We read more about it, and he finally accepted that the parking ban is, in fact, city-wide.

I'd worry about being smug that I was right and the man was wrong and I got to prove it to him, nee-ner, nee-ner. Except for one thing:

We've had 12" of snow in the last 24 hours, with another 6-10" scheduled for tonight. It doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to suspect that there might be no parking on city streets so the plows and salt trucks can try and keep up.

And, for the record, he lives in Zone 5.