so on wednesday they made me go in the bookmobile. yes, we actually have a bookmobile. when i worked at albany public we once had a presentation on a "cyber mobile" that we were going to purchase. the cybermobile would be a bookmobile but it would have wifi access and it could be taken into low income areas where they didn't have a library nearby and we could set up shop and it seemed very progressive. you know, giving people necessary resources to improve their lots in life. good stuff. very good stuff. so i was a little surprised when the bookmobile lady announced proudly, "oh no, we don't have computers here. if we did i wouldn't want to work on it. we'd be swamped with people just wanting to use the computers." yeah, that would really suck. imagine having a bookmobile and being the librarian on it and actually having patrons wanting to use said bookmobile. that would be a real drag. i think its way better to keep it the way it is and only have about 5-10 customers in an 8 hour time span. that's helpful.
which brings me to my point: ATTENTION LIBRARIANS! DO NOT FEAR COMPUTERS! THEY ARE HERE TO STAY! GET OVER IT! IF YOU CAN'T ACCEPT IT YOU SHOULD RETIRE! ALSO, MYSPACE IS NOT THE DEVIL. IT'S FUN. AND THERE ARE PROBABLY PEDOPHILES SITTING RIGHT HERE IN THE LIBRARY ANYWAY SO BANNING MYSPACE PROTECTS NO ONE!
we are public librarians ... the public wants to use computers, you know because this is the 21st century and everything. now, i get annoyed signing people up for the computers and teaching them stuff like how to double click. but that doesn't mean we should just get rid of computers. and even though most people are just checking their email and looking at porn, a lot of people are doing job searches and writing resumes and downloading citizenship applications and buying stuff on ebay. and that is a fine thing.
the bookmobile lady is very nice but she seems a little out of touch. so we're talking about harry potter and she exclaims how odd it was that she saw a grown woman reading harry potter. and that she didn't realize that adults read harry potter as well. does she live in a cave? or worse yet, a bookmobile? how can you not know adults are in on this craze? it's all over tv and newspapers and magazines and the internets. i was kind of taken aback. i mean, this has been going on for several years now. but then i tried to take pity on her and started rationalizing that i, being a librarian, have an unfair advantage since keeping abreast of book trends is my job (and my passion). and then, i remembered that she IS a librarian. so how can she not know that grownups are reading harry potter?! that's her job! do you see the irony here?
so on wednesday they made me go in the bookmobile. yes, we actually have a bookmobile. when i worked at albany public we once had a presentation on a "cyber mobile" that we were going to purchase. the cybermobile would be a bookmobile but it would have wifi access and it could be taken into low income areas where they didn't have a library nearby and we could set up shop and it seemed very progressive. you know, giving people necessary resources to improve their lots in life. good stuff. very good stuff. so i was a little surprised when the bookmobile lady announced proudly, "oh no, we don't have computers here. if we did i wouldn't want to work on it. we'd be swamped with people just wanting to use the computers." yeah, that would really suck. imagine having a bookmobile and being the librarian on it and actually having patrons wanting to use said bookmobile. that would be a real drag. i think its way better to keep it the way it is and only have about 5-10 customers in an 8 hour time span. that's helpful.
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