A couple of things I like, by Mris, Age 33

[mrissa]

1. We got a big container of dates from the Persian grocery last time we had lunch with porphyrin at the attached restaurant (Caspian Deli, for the locally curious). I also had a tub of pecan halves from Byerly's. I have been sticking the pecan halves in the hole in the middle where the date's pit used to be and then eating them.

If that's not nice, I don't know what is.

2. I really like the library's hold shelves. I walk through one set to get from the door to the book return and then the next set down to get from the book return to my place in the hold shelves. I like that I have my place in the hold shelves that I know because it's mine, but more than that I like seeing all the things that my neighbors have decided that they want to read enough to ask for them to be held specially. There are brand-new books and old books and every category you could think of. There are things I have read myself and things I've never heard of. And all of it is stuff that has been requested recently, more or less--they only hold stuff for a week--and next week there will be just as many books that people want to read.

This makes me happy.

Comments

[jenett]

I love that about public hold shelves. (I was thinking that last weekend, when I was meeting my mother and brother in the Boston Public Library central branch. Rows and rows and rows of hold shelves.)

My new local public doesn't have public ones (they're behind the desk) and work doesn't either (that one makes more sense, because most of the stuff on hold is interlibrary loan of one kind or another, and it needs staff to handle the checkout.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Our librarians have been very clear that having the hold shelves out in public and having the self-check machines and various other settings you can do on your library card are a civil rights issue. They don't want to have to comply with Patriot Act nonsense, so they do everything they can to not have that data.

[jenett]

Yes, as is sensible.

(But my new local public library, it is, um, not as much with the times as it could be. They try really hard, but they're working with an old building and not much space, and not much budget. If they were going to fix something, I'd rather they fixed the accessibility issues first.)

One of the points at which I knew I Really Really Really wanted the job I now have was spotting the "If you can read this sign, the FBI has not been here [in smaller type: watch for removal of this sign]" signs in both my library director's office and the head of Access Service's.

It does complicate my life, though, because there's a whole category of reading I do not want to have cause potential gossip in small-town-life.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I've had dates stuffed with almonds, but pecans sound even nicer.

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

...Greeeat, now I'm going to be all paranoid about what my Muse is requesting from my library for her various "researches"... Well, even more than I already was, considering, but I'm used to worrying that librarians think I'm a weirdo.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

Some of my literal neighbors are big users of the library and have a name beginning with S, so I always check out what they are reading when I pick my stuff up. Some other names have become familiar, although I don't recognize the people attached to them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ours don't work like that. We have the last four digits of our library card number and the first three letters of our legal name, so I look under 3423GRI for my materials. I know something about 3327PET's reading, but I would have no idea who they were.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

That's the Petersons. Duh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, true, we only have one set of Petersons in our library jurisdiction.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[kitgordon.livejournal.com]

I love the hold shelves as well; the Hennepin Country system is a little different--we have an entirely different number for our holds, but since I volunteer at Washburn Library, one of my tasks is to put the requests on the hold shelf. It is absolutely fascinating to see the range of things people have requests--and it makes me happy too!

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Our library has similarly wonderful hold shelves.

I have pecan halves too, but instead of sticking them in dates, I have baked them in banana muffins. Muffins are a very nice pecan-delivery system.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I discovered last night that I am ravenously hungry for banana bread as my grandma used to bake it. She still bakes banana bread, but my mother has developed a walnut allergy, so now Grandma makes it with pecans. And I love pecans, and I absolutely agree with the virtue of making banana bread that will not kill my mother. But...Mom doesn't have to eat all the banana bread, and I want it to taste like it used to, and I'm not allergic to walnuts. So I have a Cunning Plan that will be Very Hard To Deduce from this comment.