Well, hello. Welcome to Thursday in the Browsing Room. I’ll be your host: call me Ishmael. Kidding. I’ve just always wanted to say that. Actually, you can call me Bookjones.
Disclaimer: I’m very new to three things - library science (I’m a student), Mantor Library (I work here), and blogging. I realize that this makes me a rather unlikely guide to the Library World At Large, but I hope my enthusiasm for exploring this rapidly changing field will be infectious. My plan is to use Thursdays, at least in part, to share interesting things I come across as I scour The Internets . Mostly library-related stuff (because, hello, this is a library blog, and also because I have to at least maintain the pretext that my web surfing is work related. Shhhh.) but also items about publishing and authors and all things bookish. Now, some of you may be Library Veterans, and stuff that’s really new and exciting to me might be old hat for you. That’s okay. Feel free to snicker. I’ll just keep waving my freshly minted Library Geek membership card, and forge on. I hope you’ll come with me. It will be fun, and I make frequent stops for snacks.
So today, for your light entertainment, I offer as my inaugural Awesome Thing, this video of some pranksters invading the venerable New York Public Library. As far as I’m concerned the cool quotient is kicked up here not by the prank, or the library setting, but the New Yorkers themselves. In a situation where I would be all Ack! Masked individuals in NYC public setting = terrorists OMG we’re all going to die, not one of these unflappable patrons dives under a table to quiver in pants-peeing terror, as I would surely do. And that, my new friends, makes them awesome.
Enjoy:
BJ-I am sitting in my office trying not to laugh out loud because unlike you, I do not get paid to scour the internet even though my general incorrigibility has been accepted if not encouraged. This is the funniest thing I've seen all day. Here is my question: Are librarians (and by librarian I mean anyone with or without the associated degree as long as they are smart enough to get the degree if they wanted to which, in my experience, people who feel the calling to work in libraries generally are, phew, that was a long one, anyone, are they expert spellers, too? Like if I wanted to know how to spell a word like say incorrigible, could I just email you or stop by your desk and ask you and get a quick response? Because that would be so much quicker plus you would be exemplifying that human connection that we all complain is not apparent enough in many organizations today. Also, I don't think Webster gave this any thought, but how are you supposed to look up a word you can't spell? If I wanted to look up pneumonia, for instance, to find out how to spell it, I'd be pretty much out of luck. Great blog:-)
ReplyDeleteBeing a former New York Public Library patron (Donnell Library Branch mostly - which is sadly now closed)nothing would surprise me, least of all ghosts. All were/are welcome.
ReplyDeleteChicken--I'm not Bookjones, but maybe I can answer a question or two you had. I'm a decent speller, but there are still words I struggle with. Don't we all? When I'm in that boat--or when someone asks me to spell a word I don't know--I turn to Google. They've put a lot of effort into their "text interpretation tech," as I'll call it. What this means is that if you put in something that's vaguely spelled like how you think it should be, chances are they'll come back with a "did you mean _______" suggestion that has the correct spelling. This is something dictionaries, alas, were unable to do.
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