Books that Move

Hi-ho, A Delgado the librarian here, reporting to you LIVE from a Thursday evening at the reference desk! Hotchachachacha, readers, it's been busy-ish tonight. I've had a steady amount of questions ranging from "Where can I find books on Democracy and media?" to "I need to email my teacher my paper as a folder, how do I do that?" AskAcademic has been steady too: "Where can I find articles on ethos, pathos, and logos in advertising, specifically in anti-abortion ads?" and "I need help finding a scholarly psychology article."

I'VE HAD FUN SO FAR AND THE FUN NEVER STOPS HERE AT THE REFERENCE DESK! Whoa! Somebody stop me!

Anyhoo, the Democracy & media book question turned dark and menacing when I found an awesome looking title in our library catalog. The student saw it and said, "That's exactly what I need!" We both go to the shelves and can't find the book. We look. We look some more. Now, I'll digress a wee bit and tell y'all a story.

Once upon a time, a campus community college library had a company come in and clean. After they "cleaned," they reshelved the books. But boys and girls, they didn't reshelve the books in order. Books were upside down. Books were right-side up. Books were here, books were there. Books were everywhere. But many of them were misshelved. Chaotic, I tell you. Okay, back to the posting.... 

Student and I can't find the book. I tell Student the story and Student's heard about it already. I get nods of recognition and headshakes of disgust. I go look for the book behind the checkout desk - no luck. Harumph. Student's cool and says, "This book is good, I can use this for my report," and holds up a book Student had found as backup. I was so bitter about not being able to find the book the first time that after Student left the library I went back to the shelf. Well, what do you know? There was the book sitting on the shelf. Curses and flittersticks, I dislike it intensely when that happens to me! When you find exactly what the patron was looking for AFTER the chat is over/patron's left the library/call is disconnected. Grrrrr.... And that reminded me, dear readers, about this lovely scene from Young Frankenstein where Frankenstein tells Igor, "Damn your eyes!"