James, 3rd Grade Boy Genius

So yesterday I was shelving in children's. There were two younger boys who decided it would be a good idea to start running around and playing tag, so I asked them to stop running. One of the boy's mothers promptly appeared and chastised her son for running ("Were you running? We don't run in the library!"), and made him stay with her for the rest of their visit. The other boy had no parent in sight.

I continued shelving, and every once in a while I'd hear rapid footsteps. At one point I peeked around a shelf, just in time to see him halt to a walk, and he said "I'm not running..." in that sing-songy mocking voice that just drives you crazy.

Then, I was at the dvds, and he came over to me. This is the conversation that ensued:

Boy: "So, what? Are you just doing some work?"

Me: "Yes, that's what I'm doing."

Boy: *Pauses* "Do you know who I am?" (in that tone of voice and hand gestures that insinuate that I should indeed know who he is because is all-mighty and important)

Me: "No, who are you?"

Boy: "I'm James, 3rd grade boy genius."

Me: *trying not to laugh* "3rd grade, huh? That's a good grade."

Boy: *nods and walks off*

I just about died. When this kid grows up... he's going to be terrible.

Sweet-tastic Children's Books

I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but one of my favorite things about working over in the Children's Section so often is getting to find and read through some pretty awesome books. The artwork, the stories themselves, and the characters are just so interesting to me. So today, I wanted to share some of the more sweet-tastic ones I've found recently with you all.

The Crows of Pearblossom by Aldous Huxley - What first caught my eye about this book was the artwork on the cover. I love the style it's done in. Then I saw that it was written by Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World), which I thought was pretty awesome. I read through it, and in true older children's story fashion, it's very... blunt, and somewhat violent. Huxley wrote it in 1944 (it was the first of two children's stories he wrote) for his niece. You can read more about it here.

Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman - Another book that I was drawn to by the artwork on the cover. It's so unique, and very unlike any illustration style I had seen in a children's book before. The story itself is very out there, revolving around a man who has crazy hair (surprise!) and a young girl who wants to tame it, but is warned not to because of all of the things that live inside of it. It's wild, and I love it. (You might recognize Neil Gaiman... he wrote Coraline several other science-fiction novels.)

Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen by Nancy Wood - Alright, I'll admit it, when I first saw the title of this book, I was a little skeptical. But then, when I read through it, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the artwork beautiful, the message in the story is pretty great as well. Obviously, it leans more toward the creationist side of explaining how the universe/world came into existence, but it does so in a more progressive manner (taking into account geological estimates of the age of the earth and how long it would have taken for everything to come about). I thought it was very well done, and appreciated it's novelty.

Not much has been happening at work lately. Lots of bomb room work and shelving in children's because of the SRP. I have encountered some really adorable, and some really bratty, children lately though, which has made things fun. My favorite was this little girl from the other day who was probably about 9 or so. I was shelving, and I had a book that she wanted to see in my arms, so she said, "Excuse me, if you don't mind may I please see what that Great Illustrated Classic is?" So polite, I was pretty much blown away.

Another entertaining conversation I overheard was:

2 children asking for something and acting kind of hyper.

Adult says no.

2 children ask again.

Adult says "N. O. What does that spell?"

"No!" chorus the two children excitedly and they pretty much start behaving.

I just had to laugh... I can only wish that someday my children will be that excited about being told "no."

Also, another shout-out to everyone that's been participating in my Summer Reading Program! You are all awesome, keep reading! :)

Holy Shelving Batman! or, The Day the Library Exploded

So on Tuesday when I pulled into work, I noticed that our parking lot was rather full. Comparatively. I didn't really think anything of it, though. But when I walked into the back room, and looked up the hallway leading to the floor, there were about 3 full carts (2 of which were children's) that needed to be shelved, and when I glanced into the bomb room, one of my coworkers was tackling a huge pile of books and media.

So I went out onto the floor, pushing one of the childrens' carts over to the childrens' section, and lo and behold, there's already a half-full cart sitting there (composed of mostly Easy Non-fiction... woo!). So I push my full cart back across the library and park it back in the hallway and start heading back over, when I ran into Mr. B (a friend from high school who I hadn't seen in forever). Yay!

After we chatted for a bit, I went back over to children's to tackle the cart. The area was packed with kids and their parents, and it was a mess from kids just picking something off the shelf and leaving it elsewhere, be it on the floor, on top of the shelves, under the computers, etc.

Two hours later, I had finished that cart, helped a couple of kids find the books they were looking for, and finished half of another cart. Then I took my break, and when I finished I figured I'd check on the bomb room. At that moment, it was definitely very appropriately named, as it looked like a bomb had actually gone off. There were books piled on the counter. The crate holding the returns from the library lobby was completely full (actually more than full, I'm pretty sure there was a mountain of items bulging over the top of the crate) and about every 5 minutes, people would drop off more. I spent the last hour and a half trying to catch up, and when there were about 20 minutes until closing, this is what I had left to check in:

That huge tower is made up of cd books, and the one that's about half its size is dvds. Both of which have to be checked and made sure that every disk is accounted for. So at that point I finished checking in all the books, and went out to the helpline and asked if someone could please help me with the media? As the announcement was made that the library was closed, I had just finished with everything.

This was the result:

These are all carts lined up in the hallway of books that need to be shelved. There are about 5 and half completely full carts there (2.5 of which are more children's carts). Good thing we don't open until 1 on Wednesdays!

I'm not sure what caused the influx... and I haven't been back to work yet, so I'm not sure if it was just Tuesday or if this is how we're going to be over the summer. If it is, it's going to be crazy!

Also, yay for the people participating in the Summer Reading Program! You guys rock! :D

The Top 10 Songs to Check In Books To

I got to work today... one of my 5-hour shifts that happen on Fridays/Saturdays. I had to be in at 10... after getting home at 4:30 this morning (Yay for OPA and Rose Night and graduating Seniors!). So since I got about four hours of sleep, I made sure that went to McDonald's before work and got a large coffee. It didn't last very long, unfortunately, and I was definitely dragging.

But luckily, I spent the first hour checking in crates and the RPL, and the other four hours were essentially spent in the bomb room. Which worked for me, since, you know, I love working in the bomb room. One of the reasons I enjoy it is since I'm in there by myself, I can put on music. I'll just log into Grooveshark (if you haven't used Grooveshark, you should definitely check it out, it's pretty awesome), pull up a playlist, and rock out. And yes, I will sing along and/or dance around while putting the books on their carts because I'm awesome like that. My top ten songs of choice (at least for today)?

1. "Rolling in the Deep" - Adele
2. "Universe and U" - KT Tunstall
3. "Down by the Water" - The Decemberists
4. "My Moon My Man" - Feist
5. "Heartbreak Warfare" - John Mayer
6. "Dog Days are Over" - Florence and the Machine
7. "If I Die Young" - The Band Perry
8. "The Cave" - Mumford and Sons
9. "Smile" - Lily Allen
10. "Feeling Good" - Michael Buble

A few other random things:

• I had a shelving timing quiz the other day... I had a children's cart that I was supposed to be able to shelve in 45 minutes. (I would have done an hour one, like my eventual test will be, but there wasn't enough material that had come in to make an hour cart, so instead we went with 45 minutes. And these tests are so... not realistic. I mean that because I am supposed to be able to shelve said cart in 45 minutes/an hour without any interruptions. So... no customers asking for help, no shelf-shifting (moving books around to make room), shelf-reading (making sure books are in order), or picking up stragglers that are in the wrong place. All of which I always do when I am shelving because it makes me crazy to have things looking/being disorganized. But I did it in 35 minutes anyway, and got a high-five from B (my supervisor whom I adore, he's fantastic) :)
• About a week ago, I was shelving in the Juvenile section, and heard this man who was standing at the kids' check-out station start yelling, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" and snapping his fingers. I looked over at him (I was standing basically behind him) and saw that his kids had run off, so I figured he was calling for them. He continues yelling a couple more times, and then I hear one of my co-workers approach him and ask, "Excuse me, Sir, do you need help?" And he proceeded to reply that yes, yes he did, and that the check-out system wasn't working. I couldn't believe that he was yelling (1) in the library and (2) in order to get assistance from a staff member! Really?
• GCPL is participating in a contest to win 16oo For Dummies books. Today's the last day to help us out, and all you have to do is go here on Facebook and like the page to help us win! We're in the lead, and want to stay that way, so please help us out!
• A shout out to all of the lovely ladies who told me that they enjoy reading my blog yesterday! It made me feel so happy! (I.e. If you read this regularly, I'd love it if you left comments just to say hi or ask questions or share your thoughts!)