Finals Week Revisited

Library After Midnight Finals Week

I thought I would add a photo album to Illustrate my posts from finals week. The Posts include:

15. 4:45 AM the Last Night
14. Where will I be Working in Twenty Years?
13. Well its 4:00. Yup that’s what time it is. Don’t ...
12. Die Hard 2
11. Die Hard
10. Where Wise Men Fear to Tread
9. Day Three
8. At first the ALA (American Library Association) wa...
7. Anything, Anytime, Anywhere
6. 2:14 and still awake
5. I am way to tired for Midnight
4. Hi my name is Phil and I am a Biblioholic.
3. The Night Comes to an End
2. Don't get out of the boat!
1. 10:30 Sunday December 10, 2006, The first Night

Well its 4:00. Yup that’s what time it is. Don’t know what else to say. Some people are sleeping and some are studying and some are chatting away like it is the middle of the day. The woman’s bathroom sign is now gone off the third floor in the back. I think guys are stealing them for their dorms or apartments. I think physical plant ought to get a stencil and some spray paint and paint those suckers on their be (oh wait inside words outside words) on there and then just have a little plastic Braille tag underneath. I doubt the tag would be much of a prize for a dorm room, and it would not be a big deal to repaint it each semester if it was just a stencil. Of course if their were to many forms and the cost of the painter was to high I could just got to Wal-Mart get a can of Spray Paint and take care of it. Just give me the word. While I’m at it I could paint some additional signs. Let’s make this a group effort. Everyone think of a good sign to put up in the library and email it to me. Then we will just see where this goes. Ok, nobody tell Tiffany. We don’t want me to get in trouble or something.

Day Three

Or night three, at this point does it really matter. The natives are restless tonight I cold tell things were edgier when I walked in. It’s more crowded and louder on every floor. The worst being the lobby then the 4^th, 3^rd. and lastly the 2^nd . in front of the elevators especially. Maybe we could move the first row of chairs and tables from around the front bank of elevators? People are more belligerent. It is hard asking one table to be quite when there are 5 or 6 other noisy tables within site. I have to go to each one separately and they usually have a sullen attitude about the ones I haven’t talked to yet. I need a bull horn so I can tell entire sections to shut the xxx (no wait, inside words, outside words) to please keep their voices down. I still have not seen an unreasonable amount of trash considering that the building is completely full. I have pictures but I can’t find my USB cable to connect my memory card drive. No vandalism and no I am not going to check up on people in the bathrooms! The guys will get the wrong idea and the women nowadays are dangerous. They all have tattoos, piercings, pepper spray, or they can just kick my butt. Linda isn’t here to protect me. If someone knows an area to watch let me know. I chased a couple of guys out of a stairwell I saw them go into that I knew led nowhere, but no real trouble just a lot of chatting. I think the stress and the caffeine are building up and it may get worse tomorrow. I may have to look for some library camouflage or wear a ball cap and go under cover as a student. Things could start to get a bit dicey. I’ll have to watch my 6’s. Only a few more klicks to go tonight and I can hit the sack.

This is Ref Base One signing off.

Semper Scholaris Librorum

Anything, Anytime, Anywhere

I answered my first 4:45 AM reference question of my career today. When did Gutenberg invent movable type? Unfortunately there does not appear to be a good answer for that question. I checked a couple of sources and Britannica Online seemed to summarize it the best. Sometime in 1436 Gutenberg borrowed money for some type of project he was working on. He was farther along and borrowed more in 1448 then by 1450 his press was farther along and by 1455 he had printed his famous Forty-Two-Line Bible. So Gutenberg’s movable type printing press was invented sometime between 1436 and 1455. That is a stinky answer, but pretty darn good standing at a table with someone else’s laptop at 4:45 AM. If we had instant messaging and we each had a laptop and an alarm we could provide that kind of service year round.

Kinda makes yah go hmmmmmmmmmm.



Only a few diehards left. I had to quiet some people down. Trying to pick my subject databases but the text keeps moving on the screen. Or maybe the desk is moving? I am sick of those little red and green squiggley lines in my email. I think I’ll just start adding words to my dictionary. How come Chaucer got away with writing the way he wrote, and I got hassled for it all through school? I think that maybe the public school system deprived the world of a 21st century Chaucer. Or maybe I should have just done my homework? Who Knows?

2:14 and still awake

I had my second can of full throttle. The library would probably double its investment if they just had a stocked fridge of that stuff and some Freetos in my office all the time. Don’t let Tina or ME near it or it will be like Hammy the squirrel in Over the Hedge.

Mach 6 Drink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFUGMkpnJrU

The building has cleared out a lot. But I see no sleeping or signs of those that are left slowing down. I noticed that a lot more trash has been picked up and put in the garbage instead of being left out. I think I have begun to make some sort of bond with the natives. They appear more docile and cooperative. I brought my camera with me this time around the building. Some were shy and had to be coaxed out of their hiding places while other strutted and thumped their chests demanding that their primitive nobility be recorded for the ages. I quickly made new friends and passed the word about the vandals and damage, and recruited their help in watching for trouble. I don’t know if this will help but I suspect that it has. Word is spreading of the strange silent pale one who stalks the stacks at night.

经册府明皇

Jing Ce Fu Minghuang



Emperor of Clear Bright Understanding of the Classics, Sacred Books, and the Library

I am way to tired for Midnight

The building is packed. I have never seen it so full before. There were some noise and water gun fights on the second floor but apparently UPD was called and it was taken care of. Its times like these that try librarians’ souls. I wonder why I became a librarian. I figured that since I needed to start writing every day, that I would start a couple of Blogs. The serious professional one is not ready yet. The other one you can find at:

http://himynameisphil.blogspot.com/

10:30 Sunday December 10, 2006, The first Night

The time had finally come for me to go. I knew as I sat in my room that day they would be there waiting, drinking coffee, power drinks, and pep pills. Getting stronger and more restless by the hour as grew more and more weary. But for some reason I was drawn forward. Somehow not wanting to see what awaited but also knowing that it was there waiting for me.

I would learn things this week things about people, students, the night, and myself. Some of these things I knew I wasn’t going to like. I stopped at Wal-Mart the very heart of the city and learned that you can by chocolate cheese cake two pieces at a time instead of just one whole one. This was amazing. It meant could stop eating chocolate cheesecake a half a cake at a time. Maybe thing were going to be better than I thought maybe I could learn from these Nacogdochians. However, I knew my destination wasn’t the cookie cutter mercantile world of an old man now lying in his grave. My destination lay to the south. Despite my reluctance I could feel it pulling me, beckoning me, despite my better judgment. I had to know. I had to see with my own eyes the horrors, the tragedy, the scenes of mayhem and destruction that surely awaited me. I had stayed up through several nights sheltering refugees from the angry woman called Katrina. I had later moved the trees and wielded a chainsaw to fight back the onslaught of destruction brought on by Rita, but, was I ready, was I prepared, was I strong enough, ………………………….. for a night at Steen Library?

Only time would tell.

If you don’t hear from me tell my family I loved them.

R Philip Reynolds

Librarian!