Refgunt, 6/25

Another busy Sunday. 2 Hours A, 4 Hours J. Here are some of the questions/requests:

The Confident Hope
The Custom of the Sea
Goldfinger
Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War
dictionary
videos in German
do I need a password for the computers?
someone actually called out time management a "brilliant system" for its ability to let you use your time in small increments -- I don't think I have EVER heard anyone say that
books about transportation
books featuring the letters T and W
On Liberty
do I have to go back to the reservation console each time? (no, just the first one unless all the computers are occupied, and then you go there to get on the waiting list)
Building Wealth
The Last Unicorn
What is brought on the picnic in the song?
found Polly, get a frog x7+
drugs and alcohol (362.29)
basket
Dear Dumb Diary
The Kid Who Ran for President/The Kid Who Became President
Biscuit (the dog)
teen reading club x4
High School Musical sound track
Foxtrot
damaged copy of Osmosis Jones, hold another copy (oops, can't -- too new a feature film for holds)
sign onto Internet x4
Vampire Mountain
sequel to Magyk
Beatrix Potter
age 13 daughter, ok to read these teen books? (umm... we suggested the 8th grade list instead since she was concerned about content)
4th grade boy picks (ended up with Stuart Little)
earthquakes and seismic waves
Anne McCaffery scifi
BoxCar Children
Harry Potter in paperback
how to get a library card x3
_easy_ easy readers (yellow dots)
Clique series
Around the World in 80 Days DVD
5th grade math and English
Sweet Honey In the Rock
dinosaurs
Tripping Over the Lunch Lady
old movie about the Brothers Grimm? think it was the 1962 The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, but we don't have that
rules for attendance for Wednesday's program? (school kids 5+, kids only)
STOP STANDING ON CURIOUS GEORGE'S HEAD! x2
card won't work (13 yr old, kids computers are for 12 and under)
instrumental music for gymnastic routines

Jean and I also tried to sum up the different types of reference questions we get (in prep for upcoming interviews) Here are the categories I came up with (how handy to have all these refgrunts handy!)

Technology Questions -- useing our system (since it isn't exactly self-explanatory, and using the Internet, Office, etc.)
Readers Advisory -- recommendations, requests for reviews, handing out book lists, etc.
Directional
Service (hours? wifi? do you... ? can you...? )
Local Resources/Referrals (I love these and get fewer than I expected)
Trivia/Facts -- song lyrics, spelling, content entry help, elevation, state flowers, etc.
Subject -- I'm looking for books on...?
Specific -- title, list of titles, author, etc... do you have....?

Refgunt, 6/24

A hot and quiet day on the J desk this afternoon (5 hrs) but it was fun to be there and catch up with some folks. Weeded most of the 'N' picture books since it was so quiet. Here are some of the (few) questions/requests today:

replacement summer reading sheet x2
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut
NYC and Washington DC travel guides
3rd grade math
Twighlight (Warriors New Prophecy Series -- doesn't come out until Sept)
Chinese DVDs
page job?
Summer Reading Signups x10
comic books
All American Girl (Meg Cabot)
11th grade reluctant reader sci fi, not too scary
Ready or Not (Meg Cabot)
how to use powerpoint (from a kid who couldn't have been more than 6yrs old!)
The Elvenbane
Double Fudge
restrooms
JE's
wireless? (no, sorry)
Shonen Jump Magazine
Jane Eyre
princess books (JE)
Anne of Green Gables
Full House Michelle series
Full House Season 3 DVD
Jigsaw Jones
phone?
do you have these in a bigger type size?

Refgunt, 6/18

4 hours J, 2 hours A today. Lots of kids signing up for the summer reading program and finding the picture of Polly the Parrot that is hidden each week in a different spot. Had a lot of fun catching up with the other Sunday afternoon regulars since it seems like its been ages since I've had hours at this library.

Here are some of today's questions/requests:

Pursuit of Happyness
CD Rom on trains
Memory stick issue
internet sign up help x3
log in problems
how do you log off
Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance
How to Teach Your Baby Math
How to Teach Your Baby to Read
How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Supurb
retaining walls
logic, critical thinking and semantics
endangered species encyclopedia
summer reading signups x8
I Spy Christmas book
delete a hold
Wiggles
Trickster's Choice
Tin Tin
lost lady bug toy (found it!)
An Ideal Husband
wifi? (not yet...)
books in Chinese
schedule of hours
sheet music
En Vogue
Sloppy Firsts
En Vogue Song My Lovin (You're Never Gonna Get It)
Bob the Builder DVD - Build it and they will come
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
Nate the Great
Pokemon

Refgunt, 5/27

3 hours J, 4 hours A today. Pretty quiet with the holiday weekend and the big downtown mushroom festival going on. Here are some of the questions/requests:

joke books
pictures of stomachs
famous buildings
tooth care
coloring sheets
trucks
police
princess books
snakes
siberian huskies
german shepherds
Garfield
books with Star Wars characters
Narnia
DMV info
other movies the girl from Runaway Jury is in
Johnny Cash CDs
what's going on downtown?
silk flowers
who played the flather tht was killed in Runaway Jury?
Congressional Rep's address
Kid Galahad

and a few more but I seem to have left the last page of notes at the library (along with the two books I had checked out, doh)

And Dad and Jane are here visiting and got to see my library and we ducked out for my lunch hour and checked out the mushroom festival.

Refgunt, 5/13

Busy day at the library because of the ground-breaking and what-not. I was on the adult side all day (8 hours) and found out that I only have one more Saturday booked with them which is very sad because I absolutely love working at this library. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find other things to do with my Saturdays. I did get the opportunity to draft a proposal arguing for a MySpace profile about the libary which was fun to work on.

Here are some of the questions/requests from today:
Child Abuse and Neglect video
use laptop to print? (no, but if you have a flash drive that might work-- it did!)
what is EDT?
help printing x3
use own paper in copy machine? (no)
how do you see the number in the catalog (you have to click on the title -- I was remembering a great quote someone blogged yesterday somewhere about if people had to be trained to use Amazon or NetFlix, they'd be out of business... so why does our catalog have to be so darn non-intuitive?)
disk full, lost changes
city job postings?
Driving Miss Daisy
Sleepless in Seattle
Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years on CD
Music of the Sun/Rihanna
Cookbook/Missy Elliott
Curtis Brown CD
Korean DVD dramas with English subtitles (turned out to be much harder that I though, most were in Korean with Chinese subtitles! Ended up sending them to CU for Christmas in August)
St. Petersburg
Raggae music (under INT)
town map
modern art
abstract art
art techniques
Stephen King books and DVDs based on his books
Elvis Presley CDs
"walk slower!" (I apparently go to fast when taking people to the stacks)
tissue x2
Runaway Jury
cost of pianos (but they hung up on me)
Maine
CA gold rush
1982 Mercedes transmission repair manual
local driving directions
Children's DVDs
The Sun Also Rises
Layer Cake (DVD)
Kafka
2 books off the Chinese book list
directions to address in downtown SJ
Hello! magazine current issue
paintball

Refgunt, 5/3

At the last minute I filled in for a 3 hour shift tonight on the J desk (someone had jury duty). It was a pretty quiet night, but a few fun queries. Here's some of the questions/requests:

WW2 google image from a site that was blocked (could still save it)
Newbury bookmark
reproduction
use phone x4
Da Vinci
Joan of Arc
Michelangelo
Renaissance
Bear's Day
computer problems
Dinosaurs A to Z
Halloweentown High
harbor seals
Shredderman
flour and salt maps
topo maps of California
Viking Easy to Read Level 1 books
Argentina maps
Colorado Rockies picture books, etc (we found fun stuff for that one)

I thought it was pretty funny that they asked me today, because I had a really strange dream about the library last night...

Refgrunt, 4/29

4 hours A, 4 hours J. Weeded mysteries in between questions. Busy for some stretches but quiet overall (it was a gorgeous day outside). Here are some of the questions/requests:

book sale today? (no, first Saturday of each month)
new card not in Time Mgmt system
catalog computer? x3
Association (the musical group, sang Along Comes Mary)
Lizzie McGuire
1950s
WWE (not WWF) wrestling movies
computer crashed x2
can I download an application? (turned out to be a pdf of an application that she wanted to print, not one to download and run)
forgot pin x2
True Crime books
Elvis documentaries
Elvis country music CDs
author of Kay Scarpetti books?
help printing x2
check hold status
Sweet Home Alabama
build a volcano for science project
scissors
maps of our town and help making sense out of them
Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark
Spy Kids
pandas
Castle in the Sky
foxes
plain paper
Narnia, book 1
Zack Files
confirm class visit -- its not next Friday, we're closed all day
do the printers print in color? no
AR list
coloring pages, more flower ones
Draw 50...
what instrument is on the coloring sheet? (i think it was a lute)
California Gold Rush
magickeys.com/books/color
Rosa Parks

mysteries I was tempted to take home while weeding but have too many books checked out already: Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia and Too Dead to Swing by Hal Glatzer.

Found while weeding:
2 receipts
1 amazon.com bookmark with the Groucho Marx quote about it being too dark inside of a dog to read

Refgunt, 4/23

Here are some of the questions from 12-6 on the A desk (I finally found my notes and am adding these in a week late)

global warming
The Art of Loving
living wage
Escape from Freedom
Ranch-style interior design
Warren Buffett
the sequel to Terms of Endearment
Titan AE
scholarly articles arguing for Scott Peterson's innocence (???)
postings for bulletin board x2
Clinton's domestic policy
printing help
carport canopy reviews
interview strategies
Earth, Wind and Fire
Mortown DVD
gays in the military
readalives for A Breath of Snow and Ashes (tried Sarah Donati, recommended by a great article in Novelist, and a Revolutionary War mystery that looked like fun to him)
printer paper
World Journal
Lamaze DVD
Auditor-appraisal exam prep
cocaine
environment effects of titanium mining
CPR videos
Lions by Susan Schafer
Bill Nye
Zeus: Master of Olympus PC game
Tech Museum history
Jupiter

Refgrunt, 4/15

A nice mix today -- 4 hours J, 4 hours A. Quiet in the morning but a busy afternoon with some major computer stresses (first the time management, then the print management). In between I selected new Easter books for next year (a huge number of popular ones are out of print though) Here are some of the questions/requests:

Ice Age
Chronicles of Narnia DVD (154 people on waiting list!)
country books on France (944)
returned book but still on their account
movies about frogs
printing problems
is D in?
Mary Kate and Ashley movies
Parent Trap
The Case of the Blue-Ribbon Horse
tax forms for an extension
what does "transit request" mean in catalog?
Wiggles
farming in Mesopotamia (great stuff in our Daily Life db)
UCLA catalog
Willmaker CD
Mary Higgings Clark - No PLace Like Home
help printing
how long a wait for a computer?
Malcolm X
tape
Full Metal Alchemist DVDs
Christian Rap
Like Water for Chocolate (under DVD Spanish Como for Como Agua Para Chocolate)
Queen music or books about the group
Blaine Larsen CD
are the disk drives broken on both computers or just the one with the sign?
another word processing computer?
check book on hold
tax table and forms
get rid of decimals in excel cell?
word wrap problems in Word
microfiche of 1906 papers?
got library card stuck in copy machine (our copy machine doesn't actually take copy cards, and certainly not library cards, but she found a slot and tried)
major printing problems
patent books (had author's name spell wrong though)
why is word capitalizing things for me? (don't hit return, let it wrap itself)
Miracle Cure -- the one copy in the system is unavailable
Lamaze DVD
found memory card
help setting up microfilm machine, looking for 1906 earthquake coverage in local paper (but couldn't find any?!?!)

May 13th is the groundbreaking for the new building!

Refgrunt, 4/9

A lot of fun today on the desk -- got to work on a cute craft project for the upcoming volunteer thank you party (little hands holding a thank you message), met a new intern and got to chat with her about life on the desk (and came away with some great restaurant recommendations from her), had a couple of good reader's advisory queries, a long conversation with a fellow Connecticut-transplant, etc. Here are some of the questions/requests from the day (4 hours J, 2 hours A)

Caroline Cooney paperbacks
Earth Day picture books
self-check machine problem
Intuit taxonomy job -- where should she look for candidates (I suggested SLA)
Buzz Lightyear (the kid was so excited you could hear him saying Buzz, Buzz, Buzz for ages after finding the book)
Elmo books x2 (and we didn't have any)
Red Scarf Girl
poetry books like Silverstein
Magic Treehouse
SAT Prep
Powerpoint 2003 (they were all out, but there are two ebooks available so she was going to try them from home)
books on CD
confirm password on print mgmt question
Room Service (Marx brothers)
Teen biography section
Red Lexus with the door open
Beloved on CD
Snow Falling on Cedars on video
Age of Empires II
funny books for a 3rd grader
fantasy books, had read all the HPs, Redwalls, Pullmans, etc. Wouldn't try Charlie Bone (my new fav), Gave him some Nix and a Pendragon to try
Lassie Come Home
Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy
mysteries for a third grader (didn't want any of the fun suggestions I made though :( )
importance of movie sound effects
problem DVD return
how many computers do we have (about 21 on the adult side for people to access the internet from)

Refgrunt, 4/2

Happy National Library Week (4/2-/4/8)!
3 hours J, 3 hours A on today's rainy Sunday. Here are some of the questions/requests:

new library card
booklists
highlighter
books on chess
audio media section
info on the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
help printing
large type section
Twelfth Night
sunny days/year by city in California
sign on help
cancel computer reservation
hours for Streetlight Records in SJ
bluebook
stapler
scissors
Homelink Readers
Nell Brinkley
help with computer reservations
phonemic awareness
help logging in
Bill Moyers videos
1040 EZ form
photocopiers
catalog search x3 (there really need to be more dedicated catalog terminals)
Cuban missile crisis
end of the cold war
sputnik
help printing from online tutorial
where are the audio books
help printing
King Lear on CD
The Namesake on CD
Hawk Highway in the Sky
Weird Stories from the Lonesome Cafe
dragon books for 4th and 2nd grader
The Book of Dragons
Owl Moon
Harald and the Great Stag
Dragon Keeper
Magician's Apprentice
Sky High
books about animals
missing wallet
phonics
phone call for staff member
Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
forgot PIN
Night
Holocaust books
Among the Hidden
Golden Compass
Kidnapped
Redwall
earthquakes
Dale Carnegie books on CD
books on CD
staples
The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945
trouble logging in
when do we get wireless?
weird computer errors
directions to a place down the street
rubber band

Refgrunt, 4/1

After a long stretch away, I was back on the J-desk today (7 hours, plus 45 minutes on the A side) Worked on restocking the toddler board book collection from best-of lists, etc. Here are some of the questions/requests:

coloring pages
Wiggles video
dinosaurs
more copies of the knight coloring sheet
eraser x3
The Princess Test
scissors x3
how do you spell pimp
science experiments on motors and electricity
potty training books
Barney books
Thomas and Friends books
board books
picture books
paper x2
use the phone
tape
use the kids computer (sorry, out of order)
help logging on (why in the world does it make you click "finish" to start)
getting to games online
Jackson AR list
spell Wednesday
help getting disk out of drive (it was already out)
fairy tales for 6th grader
earth day jokes (harder than I thought!)
Final Destination
Fantastic 4
Feingold Diet
textbooks?
printer out of paper
max # of books you can check out?
forgot pin
Monterey Bay Asian art
help with catalog
more truck coloring sheets
help with printing x2
colonial hats
Nordstrom AR list, level 5 books on animals
Beetles, Lightly Toasted
black rhinos
Cesar Chavez

Refgrunt, 2/18

7 hours J plus an hour off-desk to make new signs for the children's music section... Here are some of the questions/requests:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Facts about Mexico
food in Ancient Rome
Guiness World Records
new book section?
Destiny's Child
call to be picked up by parents x3
Robin Hood video
Evil Knieval bio
other current bios
Foals in the Field
Calvin and Hobbes
MH history Golden Threads?
Artemis Fowl
Ready, Freddy!
Pee Wee Scouts
Digimon movies
Queen of Shaba (missing)
other leopard books
horses
Accelerated Reader list
dragons, unicorns or animal JEs
how to draw cars
dragon stories for a girl who liked Eragon and couldn't find anything new that she hadn't read already (I gave her Dealing with Dragons because I had enjoyed it so much)
photos of cars
Old Man and the Sea
how to make the browser window bigger
The Wringer
Danny Kaye movies
filters were selectively blocking myspace.com oon some of the computers but not others
Gold Rush
Missions x2
1st Nancy Drew (Secret of the Old Clock)
crayons x5

Found when weeding:
2 receipts and a sticky note (i know, not that interesting)

Refgrunt, 2/12

6 hours J today, lots of weeding of the parent's section -- here are some of the questions/requests:

books for 1st graders
weather
where is J fiction?
Black Ships Before Troy
biographies
science fair projects
spanish dictionary
anatomy for artists
Esperanza Rising
power ranger videos
King Arthur comic?
The Hobbit
crusaders
Inu-Yasha
Lincoln
Olivia books
Arthur books
I Spy games
Bluestars/ Pretty Ricky rap cd
paper x5
RA romance for a 9th grader (wanted Nicolas Sparks, I gave her Weezie and Hard Love to try as well)
Pink Panther movie times
Cinderella Story
Famous Five on tape
Edison
Samoa
3rd grade books
Thomas the Tank Engine videos and books
Rio de la Plat
Magic Treehouse books
Jawaharlal Nehru or other Indian leader bios
book about going to the doctor for the first time (which I had just seen while weeding JParent)
pregnancy
where are there nearby baby storytimes (Saratoga, San Jose branches)
CDs of books by Jean Craighead (George)
cloning
shelf check for a bio of John Adams for SA patrong
Katie's Angel (nope)
Clue Jr. series (don't have any)
President's Day x3
Valentine's Day x2
illustrated classic versions of Ivanhoe

Found while weeding:
3 receipts
1 hold notice
1 Reader's Digest subscription card
one letter to Santa: "Dear Santa/ I want pokenom COLOSSEUM for NINTONOO GAMECUECUBE. and Pokemon Box RUBY and SAFFHIRE for GAMECUECUBE. From Matthew,"
one full page drawing which we think is of a princess and a dragon with little mice running around... or something...

Refgrunt, 2/5

A pretty busy Sunday -- 5 1/4 hours A, 1/2 hour J. I thought it would clear out for the superbowl, but it didn't seem to make a dent. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Catholic Saints videos
Spanish literature
piano purchasing guide
1920s fashion
What Hearts
The Moves Make the Man
Outlander
Tien Phong magazine back issues
help reading from disk
tax form questions x4
new car so can't log in
paper x12
frozen computer
book of The Last Empress in Chinese? Mingchen Huang Hou
English grammar videos
Bargain Network phone #
look up pin#?
Conversations with an Executioner (closest copy was Santa Clara)
cancel print job
CA college guides from Prowler Series
Webster's 3rd Edition
idioms - but not the expression kind, the one on the new SATs
help signing on
find 'able' in the dictionary
can't log into catalog
Alicia Keys book?
which one is computer #2 (really, it needs a new sign!)
World Journal
comics
Gun, Germs and Steel
CDs to learn Hindi and Spanish
Freakonomics
Reinventing Your Nursing Career
biographies of scientists
A Thousand Days in Venice
talking books for toddlers
affordable housing research (there's some great stuff at huduser.org)
trick to get reservation on the 15 minute machine (press enter instead of clicking)
scratch paper
US Weekly from December
Uncle Tom's Cabin
are the career books reference only? (some are)

And I was looking for Tween program ideas and found out the following movies are coming out in 2006 (all based on books):

Alice (with Buffy as Alice -- is that cool or what??!?!?!?!!?!), Aquamarine, Charlotte's Web, Eragon, Hoot, and How to Eat Fried Worms.

I also learned that children's author Karen Beaumont lives here in MH! And the plog entries today when I log onto Amazon are by Donna Andrews and Sylvia Engdahl -- that's pretty darn cool.

Refgrunt, 1/31

My last Tuesday night at this library -- I've been doing regular Tuesday night shifts there for over a year and I'll definitely miss it -- but its just too hard to get there after work and then a long drive home. But I'll be there on Sunday so I'm not giving up this library entirely. Here are some of the questions/requests from tonight:

paper (x 11)
use the computer?
MLK
FAFSA form (I think you can only fill it out online now, but we do have hard copies of the prep worksheet)
The Day My Butt Went Psycho
Chicken Soup for the Child's Soul
Anne Frank's diary
articles on Sadaam Hussein and Scott Peterson's trials
Goosebumps videos
Grim Grotto
tetragonal crystals (that was hard!)
paper jam
Digimon books
Freaky Friday (new version)
Planet of the Apes
other Mark Wahlberg movies
Legally Blonde 2
Babysitter's Club
missions
Giver on CD (had to send them to Fremont since he had to have it tonight)
Tech Pass (yay! i love giving those out!)
potty training videos
a lot of info on asthma
medieval Japanese medicine (another hard one)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Arthur books (JE Brown)
toddler books
Chinese and Vietnamese New Years books
Red Train
Trouble is my Beeswax
Blues Clues and Leap Frog DVDs
Pokemon chapter books
Can I access the catalog from home (why yes!)
info on building a wind powered race card (turned out to be a hard one too)

Found when weeding:
2 notes: "Susanna's death", "married/new home" in Abbigail Adams bio

Refgrunt, 1/24

Pretty quiet night on the J side, lots of time to weed the biography 800s. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Alien in a Bottle
Ghost of Cutler Creek
The 7th Knot
Battle of Gettysburg
kangaroo rat
Chinese New Year video by Schlessinger
harp seals
video of I Have A Dream Speech
Historic Speeches of African Americans
Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom
lyrics to songs in "High School Musical"
crayons? (no)
graphic novels
2 adults who wanted to get online
transatlantic ocean liners
Magellan
I Spy books
Spanish language learning for kids
swift foxes
turned in a cell phone

found when weeding:
one 'Read' bookmark
4 receipts
2 notes: "continuing on w/ life" and "after the incident w/ rape" (in a Maya Angelou bio)

Refgrunt, 1/22

Another crazy Sunday - I haven't worked at this library on Sundays for months and haven't been on the adult side in ages (I switched back and forth each hour) and they'd moved a lot of things around when I wasn't looking (like the language learning tapes and cds...) Here are some of the questions/requests from today:

a book she had been reading about a princess with Orchid in it somewhere? Empress Orchid
What is FOML (on book sale bookmark) -- it's the friends of this library
Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
DVDs
science project, no idea on what
last week's Merc Guide Section
Japanese Internment books (I gave a plug for our Silicon Valley Reads choices while showing her the nonfiction area)
Always Running
medicine in colonial America
science quiz books
Dragon Heart (book?)
Korean DVD All About Eve (Ibu Ui Mod Un Kot JA-5)
Erin Hunter, Warriors The New Prophecy series
got interviewed about my job by a 1st grader
Blair Witch
The Promise (Black Stallion book)
is Godspell in yet (from last Tuesday's hold -- it was)
trouble reading disk
diagram of an eye
4th grade historical fiction
2nd and 3rd Sisterhood books
The World (chinese newspaper)
which computer is #2?
paper x5
Norton Anthology of Poetry
Adventures in Babysitting
persian videos
language tapes
video game
SAT and CAT prep for 3rd and 7th grade
brain teasers
math word problems, 2nd grade
Street Magic (Tamora Pierce)
8th grade sci fi (I gave them Ender's Game and the Golden Compass along with our sci fi list)
basketball
Drowned Wednesday (Nix)
can this be checked out?
Morning Star x2
AutoCad 2006
geometry textbooks
DMV handbook (showed him it online)
World Music documentaries
did this java programming book come with a CD?
business statistics text
The Fountainhead
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (still 10 on waiting list)
Ready to Write (no)
Even More True Stories (no)
Tokyo travel guides
Bhajan CDs
parenting videos
Rita newspaper coverage (had to be print source not from database)
1040 schedule C instructions
CA State Employment form
what is a pdf? why can't I read them at home (yes, I enjoyed explaining that one)
more science fair projects
killer paper jam
someone crossed their name of the computer sign-up list
The Santa Clause
Supreme Court
Yao Ming
Shakespeare biography
paper clip
Eyewitness Video: Amphibian (got to call Lisa at L.A. and say hi while asking her to look for it)
can you check out this encyclopedia (yes, has orange dot)
water, wood science materials books
Naruto
PhD Phantasy Degree (manga) (no)
Blade of Heaven (manga) (no)
Qua ngon dat que Nam Tap 1

and I restocked the science fair project books display

Refgrunt, 1/17

Crazy night on the j-desk. It took me an hour or two to realize that it was because the library was closed yesterday. Tuesdays have been relatively quiet since the library started having Monday hours, but this was like old times. For the first three hours I didn't have a second to weed (biographies of pilots and astronauts tonight) but luckily it quieted down a bit for the last hour and I got through one stretch of books. Here are some of the questions/requests:

WWII x5 (class projects)
historical fiction for a 5th grader
Battle of Midway
chemistry problem (luckily he found a friend who could solve it since I was too crazed to focus on it and it's been a long time since 10th grade chemistry class)
Lemony Snicket #4
bandaid
Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe x2 (still a waiting list)
Bluff Master
why flowers change colors
Sign of the Beaver x2
experiments with water and evaporation
Wind in the Willows video
Aladdin Jr.
Godspell
The Rumpelstiltskin Problem
info to study for GATE test? not really
bookmark
paper x2
Holocaust x2
storytime questions x2
Disaster Blasters: A Kids Guide to Being Home Alone
1960s
Atlas of the US
Mission San Miguel Arcangel
Stand Up For Your Rights
The New Way Things Work
ecotourism impact questions
Yosemite
"297 What" (What is Islam video)
eraser x2
Sabriel
Briar's Book (Tamora Pierce)
sign up for computer questions x2
food prep books
Pokemon videos
more Mission help
help printing
paper jam
Dictionary x2
diabetes
scissors
laminator?

Found while weeding:
Curious George fruit snacks wrapper
library receipt
cool school photo luggage tag
sticky notes

Refgrunt, 1/15

A long Sunday afternoon at the library. I miss the days when it was still light when we get done -- it feels like the middle of the night even though the shift ended at 6. Pretty quiet overall... helped to pick books for a Chinese New Year display on the J side and chatted with my favorite Sunday buddies. Here are some of the questions/requests from today:

Pixie Tricks series
"bibliographies for 8th graders" said the dad, but turned out to be biographies of anyone from Hitler to Pocahontas
XTC album Fossil Fuel (we didn't have it)
Robertson's statements about Sharon
Design in Nature NY Times editorial
Assisted living options in the county -- we found a good a good list of them at seniormag.com which details how many Independent Living Units, Assisted Living Units, Nursing Care Units, and Alzheimer Care Units are at each location.
paper x3
login help x3
guitar playing
toner (from a very demanding patron)
consumer table
Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazzette archives (we only keep the last 5 years, and apparently only 3 libraries in the state own them at all)
spell 'Sistine'
want computer 21 not 20
lost metal cane
Point and Figure Charting
mismatch type error on timeout software x2
out of paper, printing dozens of pages from patron before
biographies of presidents and entertainers
Joan of Arc
problems logging in
Taj Mahal
pay phone
Dr. Seuss, books and cds
celebrity fan club addresses
Gossip Girl Series
Second Summer of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Grapes of Wrath
learn cursive
what USB drive models actually do work with our system (one day we need to provide a list for patrons, this is getting silly)
romance reader's advisory -- good staff picks here (I don't really read romance, but recommended Jennifer Crusie off the list) and a list of good ra sources from Bartlesville, OK so I printed out the The Romance Writers of America's RITA award winners
Lance Armstrong bios
Nancy Drew Notebooks series
children's books in French
Inu Yasha videos
computer shut down while printing

and Lisa set up her very first blog (yay!) and Rick reported working with someone at another library last week who was reading my blog!! So hello to you if you're back reading it again.

Refgrunt, 1/10

A relatively quiet Tuesday night on the J desk, lots of weeding of paperbacks. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Rave Master #1,2,3,5
Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Naruto
tape
pick up a hold
scissors
The Cat in the Hat movie
Croching Tiger, Hidden Dragon books
kids DVDs x2
Michelle (Full House) series
any Narnia book
Memoirs of a Geisha
Chicken Little movie
The Witches of Worm
The Pigman
Mules & Men
Anne of the Island
Ane Frank: Beyond the Diary
Soourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman
The Amusement Park Mystery
add back in a book returned 2 years late?
restroom
Thomas & Friends
Baby Einstein DVDs
Leapfrog DVDs
A to Z Mysteries (Roy)
personal hygiene in Shakespeare's time
4th grade math
science fair projects on plants
Spot books
The Forests of Silence (Emily Rodda)
The Wizard of Oz
peanut butter and jelly song
alphabet song
Can I print?
Can I type something?
Horrible Harry
Internet help
finding images
how to spell Power Rangers
inserting an image into Word
how to sell postopia
Mexico

found when weeding (fewer things than when weeding adult books, because kids generally just turn down the pages I guess)
1 pokemon card
stickers that say "test" and "assignment due"
2 library receipts

Refgrunt, 1/08

A lovely Sunday at the library. Here are some of the questions/requests:

out of town visitor for 3 weeks, can he get a card? (yes)
how to log out of time management session
Russian music history
Lady Hamilton
children's new books
Series of Unfortunate Events #12
Amazing Days of Abby Hayes
Guy Wire
mysteries
poems for 3rd grade
turned in wallet
biographies
New Jersey
pictures of Paul Revere
program room
3rd grade books
Thomas Edison
Lemony Snicket #1
codes
Puffin Classics
Oliver Twist
self-check machine issue
a book to write a report on today
Albert Schweitzer
adventure stories
MLK, JE
Sex and the City, Season 3 video
duplicate log in issue
AP Computer Science
To Kill a Mockingbird
How long can you take out a DVD?
Look up an ISBN#
Rich Dad's Advisory
The Eighth Continent
Antipode
Rainforest
traveling in Alaska with kids
post office exam prep
paper
Artemis Fowl
mysteries over 100 pages
Chinese mythology
Island of the Blue Dolphins
book they were making a movie about featuring a boy and a leopard (turned out to be Duma, about a cheetah, and the book was How it Was with Dooms: A Truel Story From Africa)
Kristi Yamaguchi
chemistry for 2nd graders
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (still a long wait for it)
weaving

Refgrunt, 12/20

Another quiet Tuesday night on the J desk. Here are some of the questions/requests:

The Upstairs Room
wireless? (not yet)
JE books from a list
Narnia book? (nope, all out)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
books from the stepfamilies list
any Harry Potters?
Mary Kate and Ashley Sweet 16, book 2
Gilberto and the Wind
Blues Clues books
Penguin Pete and Little Tim, 4 copies
other penguin books
song with lyric of babbling brook
anime

and lots of picture book weeding in the V's

Refgrunt, 12/17

1 hour J, 5 hours A. More mystery weeding. Here are some of the questions/requests:

videos about Nixon
help getting online
Word help x2
Out of the Ashes
local directions
history of football
how to build a catapault
documentary about a Russian keyboard inventor who disappeared (a call from NY), "Theremin"
Aaliyah
stapler
numlock issue
motorcycle repair manuals for Kawasaki
Cats (the movie of the musical, like yesterday)
PC games
where do I check these out?
low toner
trancendentalism
more disk problems
how to copy and paste (again)
print directions
CA maps
Stacy's Movie

found when weeding:
City of MH bookmark
angels bookmark
2 receipts

Refgrunt, 12/16

5 hours A today (with more mysteries to weed), here are some of the questions/requests:

borrowing historical photos of the town
consumer reports magazine falling apart (I restapled it)
where do you pick up holds?
fellow library school student came to chat and recommened The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature
how to get to Homail
Symptoms of Withdrawl: A Memoire of Snapshops and Redemption
paper jam
Star Wars Episode 4 (the kid had seen the others, how weird to not see the original)
Blood In, Blood Out
Sponge Bob Square Pants movie
Star Wars books
disk help
Celestine Prophecy
weird filter problems
I Love Lucy on DVD
stapler
help with holds
What Color is Your Parachute on CD
Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life
The Sims: Doule Deluxe
restroom
Introduction to Geology
Rookie of the Year
scissors
CATS (the movie of the musical)
stapler
Angels in the Outfield
The Sandlot
California Landlord Forms

and a new feature (if I remember to write them down), fun things I find in the books I'm weeding. Here's a sample from today's:

3 receipts
1 of those cards the hotel maids leave from Inn By The Sea
used airplane ticket from Des Moines to St. Paul
and the paper that sits under a packaged cookie

Refgrunt, 12/15

A quiet three hours on the A desk, mostly weeding mysteries. Here are the questions/requests:

Real Estate Investor's Pcoket Calculator
Suzie Orman CD
real estate
Eleanor Roosevelt
MLA Handbook
Kelly Bluebook RV Motor Homes
Chumash Indians
Oscar De La Hoya
paper jam x2
how to use the copy machine
mouse came unplugged
Paradie Kiss #5
copy machine ate quarter
stapler

Refgrunt, 12/13

Tonight's questions/requests:

help printing
princess stories
Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories of Adopted Strays
The New Way Things Work x4
Mking Sense: Animal Perception and Communication
The Little House Cookbook
Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary
Rosa Parks
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
a short myth
Bob the Builder
LeapFrog DVDs
Summer of the Swans
4th grade fiction
Cheaper by the Dozen (movie)
African American biographies
Ludacris
Usher
Meet the Parents
Printing problems
Inspector Gadget
Ricky Ricotta
Sailor Moon videos
Historic speeches of African Americans
Inch by Inch
number books

Refgrunt, 12/9

5 hours A, 1 hour J. Weeded mysteries which was great fun (if a bit dangerous since I want to take many of them home with me -- I decided what I really would like would be little stickers on the first book of series so you could show some one a new series to try and immediately know which book to hand over to them, instead of having to hope it says "the first so-and-so adventure" or have an easy to find list in order on the inside jacket, which not all kindly provide) Here are some of the questions/requests:

calendar
how to print just one page of a web site
artist info on La Fontaine and Dominic, from recent auction purchases (turned out to be an awful stumper)
skeletons
trucks
print in color? (no)
address for the American Broacasting College in Tulsa
Drumline
All About My Mother (spanish video)
12 Angry Men
Gandhi
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (if you haven't already, check out the cool Narnia pages on the library web site)
The Bell Curve
Inequality by Design
2002 Marc article on customer service (can I say how much I love our full text newspaper databases?)
Lemony Snicket movie
College Catalog section (its in the teen section, but I had drawn a complete blank since I don't think anyone had asked me for it at this library)
El Club de la Buena Estrella (The Joy Luck Club in Spanish)
Mere Christianity
Kant
The Midnight Club
Remember the Titans
Clockwork Orange
psychology journals (luckily we had the one they wanted in our database, since the only print copy was at a different library and they of course needed it today...)
The World is Flat
Anne of Avonlea on tape
Fun historical fiction (I really need to do some J historical fiction reading outside of the middle ages, which is what I read in bulk in class, since that's the only period I seem to be able to advise easily)
CA Mechanical Code
marines

Refgrunt, 12/6

Tuesday night questions from the J desk:

paper x4
Dogzilla
Cat Mummies
Jackie Robinson
scissors and glue
sign language
Cut
12 Angry Men
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
a sharpie
ruler x2
Bermuda Triangle
RL Stine Mostly Ghostly series
beginner readers x2
Columbus
Earth
jaguars
Santa
SAT 9, 7th grade
printing problems
how to double space
the earth's power (wind, water, etc.)
antonym of eloquent to describe Christian in Cyrano
New York

Refgrunt, 11/29

Another quiet Tuesday night on the J desk. Some class seems to be doing disease reports since there were a bunch of those requests coming in tonight. Here are some of the questions/requests:

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (all checked out with a waiting list... I can't wait to see the movie!)
The Pinballs
Marro of the Winter Caves
Naruto (on order)
phone
Rave Master
Ramona and Her Father
Cancer, genetic diseases
Inu Yasha
pro tennis lessons video
Polar Express
Miwok Indians
3rd grade Xmas books
Restless Legs Syndrome (there was one book on it in the system, and it was in right here!)
Sailor Moon
videos to learn to play piano
multiple sclerosis
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle on tape
thyroid disease
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Mulan II

Refgrunt, 11/22

A slow night on the J side. I showed Diana all my old refgrunts and poked around for information on camping in preparation of our trip tomorrow. Here are some of the questions/requests:

music for a kid's birthday party
anime
how to draw scenery
local maps
nonfiction
rubber band
Ella Enchanted
The Storyteller's Daughter
Midnight Pearls
Gossip Girl
Beauty Sleep
1st grade books
Artemis Fowl in paperback
children's DVD section x2
The Great ___ Search (a series of puzzle books)
Dora the Explorer DVD
Two of a Kind and Two of a Kind Diaries series
Harry Potter permission slip
Secret Seven books
"Count the Stars" (Number the Stars)

Refgrunt, 11/18

Mostly quiet today on the J side (5 hours) with a few bursts of busyness and a lot of weeding of Western States and California Misssions. Here are some of the questions/requests:

books for parents of kids with heaving or vision loss
pokemon chapter books
Harry Potter slumber party signups x4
The Complete Peanuts: 1957-1958
Google's E. Encyclopedia Science
math books
something like The Railway Children (Masterpiece Theater DVD) -- found Pollyanna
Star Wars Episode II DVD
Ohlone Indians
mysteries of space
green turtles
CA endangered species
Indian in the Cupboard
Deadly Decepton
Oregon Trail (video game -- we used to play that in school!)
holiday stories
2nd grade books
Nancy Drew
Roald Dahl books
George Washington
wormholes
Gandhi
Mother Teresa
Cirque Du Freak
Artemis Fowl
anime
India
Friends on DVD
chess pieces x2
St. Michael the Archangel

Refgrunt, 11/17

A pretty slow evening on the J desk (4 hours) but interesting conversations with Paul in between. Here are some of the questions/results:

science fair projects
Star Wars books
optical illusions
Maine
fruit concept books
glue stick
Native Americans
how to draw a turkey, how to draw a "herd of corn"
Rainbow Valley
The Littles series
scissors x2
dictionary
Oregon
Smithsonian
self-check machine problems

Refgrunt, 11/15

A quiet afternoon at the library (3 hours A, 1 hour J), got to see Paul in his new haunts and cut out more turkey feathers for the preschool craft time. Here are some of the questions/requests:

diabetes and carbhydrates
crocodiles
The Shadow of the Wind
The Five Stages of the Soul
New David Hawkins?
stickers on DVDs unbalance the disks and may hurt her DVD player...
SJSu college catalog
Cathering the Great: A Lust for Art
Miwok Indians
Amistad
paper x4
non-responding mouse
Mayflower
Catwoman
request for a 2 minute lesson on Dewey, though I couldn't figure out exactly what he wanted to do with it
Their Eyes Were Watching God
frigates and battleships
text book?
highlighter
history of Rock & Roll
Matilda
mathematica olympiad practice questions
Marie Antoinette (the same kid from last time who wanted royal diaries)

And since both Paul and I are working Thursday night, we went ahead and cancelled the librarian meetup that was scheduled, but if any of you want to visit us, we'll be on the desk...

Refgrunt, 11/13

A pretty uneventful Sunday (4 hours J, 2 hours A) except for the last ten minutes when some poor kid threw up all over the children's area of the library. Joy. Here are some of the questions/requests:

books on fire science/conflaguration
Come Back to Afghanistan x2 (apparently it was on the front of the Chronicle's book reviews today)
music in the catalog? yes
expired hold
395's
book sale? just yesterday
printing problems
Spanish language learning tapes
Vikings
Polonesians
1906 SF Earthquake
easy easy readers (yellow dots)
picture books with Native American life (not legends)
science experiments on yawning -- cross-species contageon?
tapes to learn French
net access on the laptop (not yet, but coming soon!)
digital art
why is there a finish button when you log in but not a start (have a mentioned that I hate our user interface?)
John Le Carre movies (same guy as before)
Clint Eastwood movies
Dave Pilkey books
Ovre the River and Through the Woods
Pokemon Advanced DVDs
Lemony Snicket #12
biographies of Clinton over 350 pages
Waters of Sorrow
new books
biography of Rue McClanahan?
Rendex-Vous (1985 Juliet Binoche movie)?
Black Sunday
check on holds
A Great $ Terrible Beauty on tape (just had CD)
new Nicolas Sparks, At First Site (which turns out to be a hard title for me to say for some reason)
copy of To Kill a Mockingbird (all out!)
That is Mine, PB Keller
biographies

Refgrunt, 11/12

A lively day on the A desk working with the brand new teen librarian there who is great fun (and one lucky duck to have landed a nifty job). Here are some of the questions/requests:

topographical map of California
picking up an ILL hold
putting books on hold at another library
stuff on hanging clothes without getting hanger marks, etc.
crashed computer
printing problem x2
Angels and Demons in pb
login problems
printer jam x2
Horizon Storms on CD
construction of doors
stapler
found keys
awesome mystery reader's advisory where she wanted ones without too much violence, sex or gore -- turns out that's pretty much the criteria for winning an Agatha Award ("The genre is generally characterized by mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence; usually featuring an amateur detective, they have a confined setting and characters who know one another.") so I got to talk about Carolyn Hart , Donna Andrews, Diane Mott Davidson, etc. (plus Dorothy Gilman and Alexander McCall Smith thrown in) It was tons of fun and makes me want to go read more mysteries!
The Wizard (1989 movie with Fred Savage that we don't seem to have)
did someone call his cell phone? guess not
I am not sick...
When someone you love has a mental illness
journal article and ILL book for a fellow library student
court forms
videos for adults (he corrected himself after asking for adult videos...)
help formatting a craigslist posting
Reader's advisory for an 8th grader who liked Treasure Island and wanted something "grateful dead weird" -- the new teen librarian gave him Feed
Breakfast at Tiffany's DVD
Metallica, Slayer
directions
lost mom

Refgrunt, 11/10

A long day, 5 hours A, 1 hour J, not helped by the fact that I was definitely under the weather (and it was pouring rain, so the actual weather wasn't helping any). Here are some of the questions/requests:

address in Berlin for Konigliche Porzellan Manufacktur
typewriter
how to log out
9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions
where to pay a SJ parking ticket if you've lost the ticket
Shogun in a version bigger than a paperback
whiteout (for the typewriter guy)
filmn by Victo Villa Senior?
Illicit: How smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy
Hoop Dreams
Who's Pushing Your Buttons
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
baby names
help using Internet
Fried Green Tomatoes
rabbits (as pets)
Blue Highway (Diane Tullson)
headphones
printing problem
copy machine
Ferrari: The Man and his Machines
And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (found in the complete works of Tomas Rivera)
mouse stopped responding
obesity and children guidelines
help with email address error
Magic School Bus
Scary Stories
citizenship interview videos
Always Runing: la vida loca, gang days in LA
magazine and news articles on jevenile delinguency

and we had a long discussion with a guy about filters in the library. It's interesting, the question of filters or porn or whatever often comes up in interview questions and things, so I was all ready to talk about respecting people's right to access materials as long as they're not showing them to other people (and this library has very effective privacy screens which help), etc. I was not prepared to answer questions about what exactly is filtered (I didn't even know the name of the vendor we get our filtering software from -- I learned later it is Sonicwall) and to deal with the questions from the perspective of someone who wanted more filtering and basically was bemoaning the decline of civilization in general. He wanted to know what we were filtering and why we weren't going around telling people they shouldn't be looking at those bad things (or something like that, it was hard to figure out his point at times, there was a whole thread about letting underage kids into R rated movies...)

Refgrunt, 11/8

Pretty quiet night on the J side. Storytime was cancelled because the room was being used as a polling place, so there were fewer people around than usual. Here are some of the questions/requests:

books for a fourth grade boy, ended up with How to Eat Fried Worms, The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Charlotte's Web off our 4th grade list
a book where people fool monsters for a 3rd grader... tried Monster of the Month Club by Dian Curtis Regan
Tom Sawyer
lost cell phone
animals
Rumblefish (Hinton)
Martin the Warrior, Mossflower (Jacques)
Alien vs. Predator DVD (seems to be missing)
Friday (DVD with Ice Cube)
cricket video games, cricket books
chess pieces
sign up for the Harry Potter Sleepover (how cool is that?!?!)
Lemony Snicket 4&5
Harry Potter ##4
Pakistan
books from the stepfamilies list
harvest books x2
nonfiction readlike for Rascal
skunks
Dragonsong (McCaffrey)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Archie Comics? (no)
Corrector Yui #1 & #3
how to spell Runescape
J parent section
books in Spanish about friendship

Refgrunt, 11/6

A busy Sunday, 3 hours A, 3 hours J. Here are some of the questions/requests:

picture books on trucks (JA remembered there was a list!)
How to Train Your Dragon
order of the Wizard of Oz book (Reading in Series reference book)
CDs of Diane Ferlatte and Jim Weiss, storytellers
model rocket science experiments
doll and plate collecting
Chester Cricker's New Home
computer crash
local transportation schedules
gift crafts to make
where are today's Sunday's circulars? (in a box on the table)
My FBI by Louis Freeh
Regg's Recommendations on the Colleges
scissors
ILL for The Spirit of the Mountains
Can I check out here? x3 (no, front desk)
JE nonfiction
KQED film on Chinatown
John Le Carre movies
Len Dayton movies?
printer paper x3
The Journey (Michener)
The Deep (Benchley, no copies anywhere in system)
potty training (another good booklist)
how to subscribe to National Geographic kids
industrial revolution
Dino Defender video game
Mexican cooking
picture books about getting rid of pacifiers (Little Bunny's Pacifier Plan by Maribeth Boelts)
can her dauther read to little kids? (try Mt. View's big reading day coming up)
In the Ice Caves of Krog
stapler
Roald Dalh books
printing problems
sample ballot
Holocaust/eugenics
do kids need their mother in order to get a library card?
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
scooby doo
Dora the Explorer
JE beginners (have yellow dots)
Maya Indians
copy machine issues
Island of the Aunts
book by guest on today's Bob Brinker show?
Captivating @ other local libraries
royal diaries: Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor; Clopatra VII, Daughter of the Nile; Mary, Queen of Scots; Isabel: Jewel of Castilla; Marie Antoinette; Anacaona: Golden Shower

Refgrunt, 11/4

5 hours A, nothing too crazy. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Jennifer Crusie books, Tell Me Lies, Charlie All Night
Whaere are there plugs in the library? (something we'll get more of when we go wireless!)
info on Prince Charles visiting the Bay Area
check on the status of a hold
ambulance came (I seem to attract disasters to this particular library, last time I was there, someone set fire to the garbage can outside)
how long until a hotmail account expires (I think its 30 days according to old articles online, but couldn't find anything new about it)
WWII/US home front
Spanish Bible, movies about Jesus in Spanish (had some cartoons)
Is Ed working today?
SAT Prep book by Nova (but she's taking the test tomorrow, so we couldn't put it on hold for her)
Geronimo video
USB drive questions
Playstation Games: Tekken 3, Street Fighter, Driver:Reflection, Dragon Ball Z, Digimon
Pokemon 4Ever
MLS formatting questions
how to blockquote in word
post office jobs
plant cells
waiting list questions
CDs by Shelly Fairchild in Spanish
collecting glass baskets
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkal

Refgrunt, 11/3

First time back at the first library I ever worked at after almost a year and a half. It was fun to be back, though things didn't seem at all familiar. It was a pretty quiet afternoon/evening (5 hours A, 1 hour J) and except for some really annoying firewall problems, things went pretty well. Here are some of the questions/requests.

help with microfilm (turned out the whole tray thing had been removed for repair, which seemed like what was wrong but I wasn't sure)
violence in the workplace
call from an organization publishing a document wondering if we'd take it
paper jam
help logging into hotmail
the work of Julia Mogan, architect
learning disorders
death penalty
auto repair
horse farrier (we had a ton! videos even!)
English-Spanish dictionary
stumper: information about a WWII memorial in Palermo, Sicily with two tall columns. Couldn't find anything about it anywhere :(
how high can a jumping spider jump (40x its length)
Goosebumps movies
how to breakdance DVD
phone number for Arnold Schwartzenegger's office
auto repair books in Spanish
Inu Yasha #28 replacement cost
firewall problems
copy machine alignment
playstation games?
Playtime Maisy DVD
Count with Maisy DVD
draw on the computer
Miss America by day
Napoleon Dynomite
online games to play
Leaving My Father's House

+ weeded a lot of diet books

Refgrunt, 11/2

A slow Wednesday evening on the A desk. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Smart Women Finish Rich
books by Victoria Holt
IRS Form 706 and instructions for it
printer/computer problems
teen classic area
sticky keys (everytime the patron tried to write an @ sign, all sorts of windows popped up. turned out he had turned on the sticky keys feature accidentally (that happens if you click shift 5 times))
Singapore (for an amazing woman -- and former library school prof -- writing her memoires)
Growing A Girl
The Thorn Birds
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Rules of Engagement (Anita Brookner)
ancient Egypt
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Refgrunt, 11/1

A slow night on the J desk, here are some of the questions/requests:

Good Luck and Other Poems (had to call two other libraries to track it down)
A Wind in the Door
Teach Me -- Spanish
4th of July books
A Wrinkle in Time video
pop-up books
gypsies/Holocaust/Auschwitz
Looney Tunes
halloween books
Lizzie McGuire
Junie B. Jones x2
2nd grade chapter books
kindergarden books
stumper: Mesopotamia "Iron Girl", some sort of defense to keep invaders out? I'm hoping her teacher clarifies it a bit more
huge 1st grade list
Thomas the Tank Engine
nonfiction Thanksgiving books
fall books x2
magic schoolbus videos
Corrector Yui (anime)
Brian Jacque's Salamandastron

... and lots of good wishes for Kelly, who is getting married Saturday! Yay!

Refgrunt, 10/29

A slow Saturday afternoon on the A desk. Plenty of time to weed fiction and try to scrounge up titles for a thanksgiving display. Here are some of the questions/requests:

news coverage of Hurricane Katrina (showed her our cool full text newspaper databases)
books about computers for a woman with a new computer (PCs for dummies, etc.)
new books
paper x3
MLA citation with no author
A Lycanthropy Reader" Werewolves in Western Culture
Magician's Nephew
college directory
Sisterhood of the Traveling Parts
Day of the Dead
easy readers
1970 Mustang parts source locally
how to double space in Word
South Park soundtrack
computer froze up? (the mouse had come unplugged)
Day of the Locust
Edgar Allan Poe short stories
adult music CDs
Brave New World on tape
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on tape
Captain Underpants
Wicked on CD
Vanity Fair
time limit on the word processing computers?

Refgrunt, 10/27

A pretty slow 3 hours on J today. Lots of teenage boys hanging around trying to adjust the computer monitors so I couldn't see what they were looking at... Here are some of the questions/requests:

are the computers filtered (a mom looking for photos of women with her son for a school project who wanted to make sure they weren't going to get scary things in a google image search)
check place on computer waiting list x2
Piggie Pie movie (no)
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Wayside School books (Sacher)
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
A Quiet Place
Cat and the Hat video
Halloweentown High
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
info on town history
Proud family video (no)
You Got Served
Once Upon a Potty:Girl
lined paper
White Chicks
AR list for local school
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on tape
Shredderman (by Wendelin Van Draanen of Sammy Keyes fame)
Makah indians
dog, ghost, and pumpkin coloring sheets
Cinderella with Whitney Houston

Refgrunt, 10/26

5 hours A and one hour J in the middle. Some busy stretches, but they were mostly getting people set up to use the computers so they don't count as questions. Here are some of the questions/requests:

where are the audio books? (back wall)
can I get my library card # if I forgot my card? (front desk)
help putting book on hold
Trifle recipes
request that the library carry more *new* Chinese DVDs (noting that our list on the web site has July-August videos listed)
latest version of the Writer's Market
R is for Ricochet
colored photos of Mexico (sent them to J972, which I knew from weeding yesterday!)
Mexican American culture
adolecent pychology and immigrant children
sticker
corn snakes
4 year old with behavior problems, books for mom to figure out what to do
bathroom
guitar instruction videos
National Electrical Code
info about 1984's Measure B (a hard one! the full text newspaper databases go back to 1985, I found state measures online but not county-wide ones, I called the registrar of voters and they didn't have it on hand... so I set him up with the local paper on microfilm from Nov '84 and after a while he did find it)
Time Out software troubles...
stand-up comedy CDs (we really don't have much)
parent's corner
The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (called GI to expediate the hold)
meridians of the body
anatomy books
Sandra Day O'Conner biography
scissors
a teen classic over 250 pages
highlighter
look up obituary in SJ Merc
The Warriors (about fighting cats)
2003 MH Times microfilm
learn Spanish
Sudan genocide
look up a phone number
The Dog Who Cared Too Much

and back again tomorrow for more.

I should be at ALASC's Jessamyn West lecture tonight, but I was too tired and we had to take down the Sukkah and I really should work a bit more on these darn papers...

Refgrunt, 10/25

Pretty quiet on the J desk tonight (except for one crush in the middle). Here are some of the questions/requests:

what are vertices (yay! math questions!)
clerical exam practice test
Fraction Action
The Donner Party
Dolphins!
Fourth Grade Rats
drawing x3 (we really really need some good JE drawing books, most of the J ones are pretty advanced)
Chinook
Cherokee
puzzles (sorry, we don't have toys and puzzles like her last library)
Ohlone
origami
Cheaper by the Dozen (poor girl ended up in the text version of the catalog, which is pretty hard to deal with, and then kept ending up with the large type entry for the book, which I think is only available on the bookmobile, but the book was easy to find once we sorted all that out)
Haloween (book on tape)
orchids
help opening one of the plastic shopping bags
JE fiction
Jigsaw Jones (Preller)
JP Carle

and I weeded the books on Mexico

Refgrunt, 10/18

4 Hours J, here are some of the questions/requests from tonight:

Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) x2
dinosaurs
2nd grade books
Atlas
The Cay
Tom Clancy books
A Chirstmas Carol
Princess and the Valley (? couldn't find anything that seemed to be what she was talking about)
bunch of books from a book list, with score of 3 or 4 including Amber Brown, Bunnicula, Aldo Applesauce, Adaline Falling Star, 26 Fairmont Ave, etc.
Anasazi (Pueblos)
ABC videos
Penobscot (Maine tribe)
June B. Jones x2
biographies of courageous people
videos and DVDs
Monsters Don't Scuba Dive (Bailey's School Kids)
word formatting help
"I need a computer"
The Dark is Rising
Alice in Wonderland
Summer of the Monkeys
Frog and Toad (Lobel)
Wind and the Willows
Snow White DVD
Sleeping Beauty
Cats, 636.8
Artemis Fowl 3 & 4
Carry On, mr. Bowditch
Roald Dahl
Grammar CDRoms
Lemony Snicket

Refgrunt, 10/16

Ugh. That was a long day. 4 hours A and 2 hours J, but for most of it the time-out software was down and the catalog was doing crazy things like not giving any results for keyword searches. My favorite error message on the timeout software was "It is illegal to call out from inside the message filter." Somehow that seemed just right at the time. We were all totally ready to go home by the end. Here are some of the questions/requests that didn't have to do with the system not working at all...

Katherine Blackwell (? - couldn't figure out who it was -- thought she might have meant Elizabeth Blackwell but she was going to check with her teacher and come back another day)
special election advertising analysis (found some good stuff at the Sac Bee and Jean reminded me that bugmenot.com is a quick way to get passwords for sites like that)
MacBeth cliff notes
US Government textbook
American History quiz questions
consumer reports x2
hold status check x2
Christopher Columbus
math
Flush (no copies! crazy, that should be a popular one since it's by the author of Hoot)
Frigg (Norse goddess)
Shoshone Indians
Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
witchcraft
Left Behind Kids series
Rich Dad Poor Dad
copy machine stuff x2
Cradle of Filth
email problems due to pop-up blocker
Japanese DVD .HACK//
Yo Yo Ma 50th birthday performance CD (?)
Everyday Italian
To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking
Under the Banner of Heaven
Umar Ibn Al-Khattab
South Beach Diet
long phone question about hold expiration dates and portable audio players
The Barbary Plague
Chinese cooking videos
Valueline
readers advisory on mysteries like Laurie King and Dorothy Gilman (my favorite question of the day since I LOVE Emily Polifax)
find the source of a quote about exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing truth for a history quiz -- turns out to be from John Peter Zenger's 1st amendment trial (actually by his lawyer Andrew Hamilton, but that wasn't one of the multiple choice answers, so we're feeling pretty confident that the answer was Zenger even though the quote wasn't absolutely exact) - and for that the other librarians gave me a gold star -- or actually a yellow dot sticker, but the point was the same :)
Oliver Twist
prehistoric animals
picture books on pirates
1 teen survey got turned in (teens who complete it get a $10 certificate toward paying off fines and card replacement fees, a very cool promotion for Teen Read week)

Refgrunt, 10/14

4 Hours A this afternoon. Pretty quiet, but here are some of the questions/requests:

growing mandarin oranges
check hold status
Blink
help using copy machine
Monster Inc.
Debate over daycare
Troy
videotapes of city council dropped off
Napoleon Dynamite
$0.10?
biographies
Bad Boys II
Shiloh II
For Whom the Bell Tolls (we have no copies!)
1984
a short-ish classic from the reading list (ended up with Jane Eyre)
learning Italian
freshwater biome
phone number for a local business
scary DVDs
help finding a hold
Donde las Aguilas ce Atrevan (or something, which we didn't have)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants DVD
growing strawberries

Refgrunt, 10/11

4 Hours J, here are some of the questions/requests:

Lemony Snicket
Bill Clinton
Season of the Sandstorms (Magic Tree House)
Pride & Prejudice
Egypt
Diega Rivera
I Can Hear the Sun
Charlotte's Web
Polar Express (x2)
James & the Giant Peach
Molly's Pilgrim
Velveteen Rabbit
Train to Somewhere
Princess and the Baker
John Henry
Spider Brings the Sun
Birdie's Lighthouse
Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair
Oprah Winfrey
dragons, 4th grade, stories
Around the World in 80 Days
The Great City Search
other puzzle books
Castle in the Sky
five different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk
Hoot
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Christmas Carol
Music Man
Magic School Bus Videos
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Amazing Grace for Couples (no)
Amelia Bedelia and the Baby
A Mother's Rule of Life (no)
E. Nesbit books on tape and the book together
June B. Jones
Benjamin Franklin
Homer Price

and I helped collect books about fall for a "Fall into Great Books" display.

Refgrunt, 10/8

7 hours A (with a break for lunch). I'm so used to working 12-6 on Sundays that I almost slept through the beginning of today's 10-6 shift -- luckily I was working at the library 5 minutes from here instead of one of the ones 40 minutes away so I got there with time to spare. Here are some of the questions/requests:

help putting something on hold
how to change your password in hotmail
reverse directory (the Haines directory was sitting out, but I completely missed it)
car information
write out credit card number for someone who didn't bring her glasses and was trying to buy something online
GRE prep
checking out magazines
directions to Easy Street (really a real street)
scrapbooking
current newspapers
info on computer processors
geography of SF
tax info
long telephone call (50 minutes! good thing it was slow) on findhing information on a college paper about seniors and AIDS
Men in Black 2
The Negotiator
lyrics to Eternal father, Strong to Save
USB drive?
Best of Mike Myers
use the magnifier
history of TV news
consumer reports year report
help printing in frames

Refgrunt, 10/6

No refgrunt tonight because I'm completely traumatized by one of the questions I got and how hard it was to answer. A patron needed emergency shelter tonight to escape a really terrible home situation. I called every number in our community resources book and on the county's web sites and every shelter I tried was completely filled. I spent time on the domestic violence hotline and the shelter-bed hotline, got numbers from shelters of other shelters to try, and still had no luck. We're talking shelters that house women who are victims of domestic violence in the San Jose area, home to almost a million people, and every bed was full. So either our area is woefully unprepared to help people in these situations or the numbers of people who need this type of help right now has outpaced all the available resources. Either way, it is really a bad situation. First, I can't believe how hard it was to get through to people and try to find a place -- I can't imagine being scared and alone and trying to deal with the runaround. I was completely traumatized by it and I was just trying to help a patron.

When I get home, I'm making a donation to the Support Network for Battered Women. They weren't able to help her, but they were nice about it and gave it a good try.

There was a relatively happy ending. The other librarian who came in when my shift changed called the non-emergency number for the local police who apparently, at their discretion, sometimes give people vouchers for a local motel. No guarantees that it will work out, but at least it was a place for her to go next when all the tries we made had failed. I hope that she finds the help she needs and can safely get out of danger.

This shouldn't have been so hard -- there are so many local resources who are there to help... I was completely confident that I would be able to find something and get her help. I never expected to have to try so many places and end up not being able to connect her with someone who could swoop in and handle the crisis. I'm proud that the library is the place someone can turn to when they need to be referred to the right community resources to help, but wish the result had been more encouraging.

Refgrunt, 10/4

Another Tuesday night on the J desk (4 hours). Here are some of the questions/requests tonight:

5 books from a lexile print out
Columbus
Harry Potter #4
The Twits
short stories
tissues
The Black Stallion's Courage
House on Mango Street x4
book on hold
illustrated classics series
Picasso
stapler
800+ page book
Zebulon Pike (American South West explorer)
Captain Underpants
books from a responsibility book list
CD with songs about teeth brushing
where is storytime?
The Borrowers Afield, Afloat, Avenged, etc.
Incredible Crosssections
Bums in the Attic (a chapter from House on Mango Street)
printing problems
Mia Hamm
Henry Hudson
Pirates Don't Wear Sunglasses
nutrition for kids (wanted USDA's Go, Glow, Grow Food for You)
info on encouraging her kid to keep a journal (there was a book for girls, but this was for a boy)
Sailor Moon videos
A Stolen Life
how do you spell picture, color, explore, wild, mother, father, alone, crying, dead (kids were writing their own books)
Junie B Jones

Refgrunt, 10/2

Busy day, 4 hours A, 2 J. Fun catching up with Jean and Lisa who I had missed after being away the last 2 Sundays. Here are some of the questions/requests:

A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier (which I need to call on Tuesday and have GI expedite the fulfilling of the hold for the patron)
other information on William Dampier
Woodside phone book (I love Which Phone Book, listed on our telephone books and directories page) which makes the process of figuring out which book that would have been in a snap
banned book list
The Gates of Heaven
Schism
are we wireless (sadly, no)
new book section
Start Late, Finish Rich
Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life
new travel books
Chernyi Voron, Vol 3-4
Gerfield
seasonal poetry x5 (school assignment -- love the full text searching in Granger's online)
Shall I Compare Thee to A Summer's Day sonnet
Animorphs #3
Jounral: Nature Biotechnology
5 ILL requests
help using craigslist
Investors Business Daily
Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know
Real Moments
Your Sacred Self
If Life is a game, these are the rules
Are You the One for Me
Wayne Dyer
spam?
web site construction
cost of living in CA
whiteout
paper
magazine backissues
staples
The Choice
All Quiet on the Western Front cliff notes
Charlie Chaplin movies
USB drive pricing comparison
how to use electronic resources (a bad name for our downloadable audio books since the patron thought he'd get an e-book)
home theaters
Harry Potter DVDs
USB drive issues
lost checkbook
Galileo
Tale of Despereaux Read Alike (found three recommended by the author on bookbrowse.com)
Calvin and Hobbes
Get Fuzzy
Narnia Books
Moonrise

Refgrunt, 9/27

A fairly busy night on the J side, here are some of the questions/requests. A couple of parents coming in with long lextile ranked lists of books they wanted to get for their kids and three very ambitious 4th graders working on the DAR essay contest who wanted anything and everything we had on Ben Franklin (though we had been cleaned out already)

Ricky Ricotta
Declaration of Independence
The Umbrella
Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing
Rat Teeth
Star of Fear, Star of Hope
sequel to Little House on the Prairie (Farmer Boy)
3rd and 7th grade books
BFG
The Witches
Wrinkle in Time
Wizard of Oz
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Spirited Away
More Spaghetti Please
Green Eggs and Ham
reading comprehension questions to go with JE books?
Space Jam
Where the Red Fern Grows
chemistry, biology and physics
golden retrivers
Mia Hamm
Sailor Moon
1421: THe Year the Chinese Discovered America
Shoshone Indians
a date?
The Power of Oil article from Time Kids

Refgrunt, 9/15

2 hours J, 3 hours A, but I lost the first little page of notes, so this is just some of the questions/requests:

historical fiction
Number the Stars
the future
migrant labor
mental retardation
movies with The Rock
independent contractors
real estate law
mortgages
magazine exchange
Holland travel videos
metalworking
how many copies of Regis Philbin's CD where he sings Frank Sinatra songs have sold (stumped me)
Catcher in the Rye
The Bluest Eye

Refgrunt, 9/13

A busy 4 hours J. Here are some of the questions/requests. School assignments are definitely back in force.

Junie B Jones
Chinese language learning tapes
books from 1st day of school book list
Capital Mysteries series
pop-up books
JE's and JE's with tapes x2
Reading Counts lists
dictionary
Initial D
sci fi
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm
Walt Disney
You Be the Jury (no)
other books by Marvin Miller (no)
100+ page animal books (ended up with Stuart Little and Babe)
Word Bird
teen pregnancy
France
Akiko
handwriting
Disney princess books
Ricky Ricotta's new book
quilting
Arthur's Family Treasury
Geronimo Stilton (question was the book with the rat and the mouse in glasses or something but it took a lot of trying)
Lemony Snicket movie
The Pacifier
Meet the Fockers
Monet
Charlotte's Web DVD x2
Mohabbatein
Maine Pyor Kyon Kiya
Dus
Olympic Games DVDs
Braveheart
The Secret Life of Dust
Spain
Queen Isabella
Patrick Henry
Christopher Columbus
volley ball
printer problems
Harry Potter

Refgrunt, 9/10

5 hours A today, lots of computer time-out software signups and more heavy fiction weeding in the T's. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Jeeves & Wooster, 1st and 3rd seasons
Sept 2005 calendar
The Women Who Broke All the Rules
scary stories
political rant
Renaissance Europe
ruler
books on tape
Should We Burn Babar?
Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Catholicism
Rastafari: Roots and Ideology
Thirteen
DVDs of TV shows
pencil sharpener
Gone with the Wind on DVD
Gandhi on DVD
Gunga Din
guest card x2
WWII
info on Samoa, CA
poetry books
dance instruction videos
Where Banda el Recodo is playing in Richmond, CA tonight and directions to there

Refgrunt, 9/9

Ooops, no refgrunt today since I can't seem to find the little piece of paper I wrote my notes on today. Maybe it'll turn up later. But it was 4 hours A and some fiction weeding but nothing too exciting.

Refgrunt, 9/8

Steady but not overly busy tonight, 3-9 on A (with an hour for dinner) Here are some of the questions/requests today:

Athens
Wolves (100+ pages)
800# for Australian tourist board
Schindler's List (book)
outboard motor repair books
management/leadership
Perricone Weight Loss
book by someone who was on the Daily Show earlier this week (False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear) (there's a great list on wikipedia)
cds x2
chapter books
Predator
African American authors
disk
Beach Girls
Of Plymouth Plantation and Sinners... from an Interactive Reader text book
lyrics to LeAnn Rimes's version of Amazing Grace (for an American Idol audition in Chicago on 9/16!! so cool!)
The Book of Three
Napoleon Dynamite
Pride & Prejudice (video)
photos of Senators and district map of CA11

Refgrunt, 9/6

Busy night on the J desk with Ann. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54
9 + 18 / 6 (order of operations algebra homework)
dictionaries
planets
Veggietales
The Ohlone Way
war/weapons
law/civil rights/human rights
mysteries
chess pieces x3
help using the dictionary
scary stories x3
science experiments about light and rainbows
Bill Nye movies
video games
paper
princesses (looking for a series like Meg Cabot but for younger kids - gave her one of the Jewel Kingdom series to try)
"a novel" (gave him the 'guys read' YA list)
Dragon Ball Z and Hello Kitty coloring sheets (they had their own crayons)
Goosebumps
Night of the Living Dummy 2
Hanted Mask
Pokemon 2000 DVD
Mexico info (books and finally a good printout from the CIA World Factbook)
Peng Ren 26 Fa vol 1, 2, 4
book lists
Swiftly Tilting PLanet
Case of the Twin Teddy Bears
biographies of doctors
June B, 1st Grader, Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (not out until 9/27)
Invisible Island
earth
A Toad for Tuesday
CAT6 for 2nd graders
fairies
Homer Price
Space Jam
How many Friday the 13ths are there in 2006 (2: 1/13/06 and 10/13/06)
Miserable Mill
Wizard of Oz on CD
Guiness Book of Records
printing trouble
Island of the Blue Dolphins
building garden ponds (there was the perfect one about building garden ponds in 10 easy steps)
Karl Marx

lots of trying to explain to people why they really shouldn't run in the library and one fantastic picture-perfect moment when I was talking to a kid about working in the library and we started talking about the new SJ library and how it was partly a university library. She asked what a university library was and I explained to her about college/university and how you go after high school to study more and then become anything you want to be... and she asked, "Can I go?" and I just about teared up and told her that of course she can if she studies hard and keeps reading all these books, etc. Sigh. I hope she comes back (she also told her friends that I was cool -- but I think that was more to do with the coloring sheets than the science experiment books, but still.) I want to be one of those librarians that ends up making a big difference in kids lives and they end up going to college because we were there giving them the tools they needed and the encouragement they weren't getting anywhere else...

Refgrunt, 9/1

5 hours tonight on the A side and they just zipped by. Here are some of the questions/requests (though i missed a lot of them and had some long rambling book conversations with various people that I didn't write down titles for)

Nutrition textbook
max # of books you can check out?
Laura Crum mysteries
The Moon is Down
Haunted Mansion
The Afterlife
Franchise Bible
The Lady or the Tiger
books in Spanish
helicopters

and I put more books out on the banned book week display and checked a pile of new /Fiction books to see if they should go with the teen books or the adult books (and found a bunch that needed changes to their catalog entries so I have to write them all up and send them to HQ). I played around with the microfilm some more for the woman who had requested things last week and will fax her a few more articles tomorrow.

Refgrunt, 8/30

Quite busy tonight on the J desk. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Spy Kids
science experiments
parakeets (esp. eggs)
dinosaurs
dragons
American Sisters series
anime
Berenstein Bears
Arnold Lobel books (Frog and Toad)
rabbits
Emily Lindsay Dreams Come True? (never did find that one)
book with tape
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
mermaids
Princess Diaries
Freddy in Peril
Don't Date Naked
lost password help
Egypt
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3rd grade books
Ultra Maniac
A Boat to Nowhere
Vince Carter, Slam Dunk Artist
The Invisible Island (and other A to Z mysteries)
Icy Igloo Inn
scissors
Zombie Zone
Alexander and the terrible...
Star Wars CD Rom game
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54
Seed of Chucky books?
picture books about everday things

and I got to mark 'void' on a huge pile of weeded paperbacks which made me wish I could think of some creative way to reuse them (like this woman did) since they were too beat up to give to the Friends' Book Sale. Speaking of booksales, I'm so sad I'll miss the upcoming MH one, Saturday, September 3 (10 am - 5 pm) - but of course I really don't have room for more books right now... and I'm working at the wrong library the weekend of the big Los A. one (September 9, 10, 11, 2005 ), and then the MI 3 day one is coming up on the first weekend in October...

Refgrunt, 8/28

It was hopping there today (partly because of the picnic) and I don't think I managed to write down all the questions, but here are some of them:

help with finding the downloadable audiobooks in the catalog
Rashomon video
airplans
resizing graphics to print
historical US fiction 9th grade (x3, must be a school assignment)
Chinese DVD list
The Greatest Generation
monologues for young actors
directions to the Cupertino library
presidents, white house
W4 forms
senior computer classes
pdf questions
Dewey numbers for Italy and Switzerland
pokemon
The Great Smith House Hustle
The House with the Clock in its Walls
Spy (Eye Witness)
Magic School Bus videos
human body
Harry Potters
Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus (which I know well, thanks to Julia)
Austria and Switzerland travel videos
unlock the display case
The Kill Angels
SAT writing test prep
directions to Tower Records (teens get a gift card there for completing the summer reading club)
Into the Forest

Refgrunt, 8/27

A quiet Saturday, 2 hours J, 2 hours A. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Megan's Law database
exercise videos
help with Word formatting
book on really basic how to use the Internet
Directions to the Gilroy DMV from Walmart
Consumer Reports Buying Guide
Alexandra Nicole Smith Bone Series? (i really think she meant Alexander McCall Smith, but it took some negotiating)
historical photographs of the town
Washington Crossing the Delaware (picture of the painting in a book)
Nickelodeon web site
Destiny Deoxys (Pokemon video)
concept (ABC, 123) books

Plus I got to work on a display for upcoming Banned Books Week (Sept 24-Oct 1) -- if you read one of the "banned" books (they have big red signs on them), you can be entered in a drawing for a prize.

I also volunteered to make a web site for the Friends' of the Libary and their big upcoming fundraising campaign -- though not until after Nov 1 of course.

Refgrunt, 8/26

A lovely Friday afternoon at the library. Not too busy but a couple of interesting questions to work on...

Here are some of the requests/questions from today (2 hours J, 2 hours A):

The Hobbitt
Teen section
USB drive
Muzzy Spanish Level 1
new baby brother books
Princess Diaries
Reader Rabbit phonics
Apples
Hunter's Best Friend at School
Duck on a Bike
Old Turtle and the Broken Truth
TV shows on video
find and mail an obituary from the local paper from 1971 (the joys of microfiche)
civil war newspaper templates
summer reading club pickups
John Muir texts
Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy
The Circuit

plus I got to make a display of Dummies books

Refgrunt, 8/23

A relatively quiet night on the J side -- with a nice musical accompaniment outside in the park of Hawaiian music. Here are some of the questions/requests:

Dr. Seuss
Around the World in 80 Days
Helen of Troy (we didn't own the 1956 movie she was looking for)
Peter Pan
Stuart Little
The Borrowers
The Zombie Zone
Nguoi Mau (which we didn't own)
Hades' Daughter
Cyclops Doesn't Roller-Skate
Magic School Bus butterflies
postal exams (all the books were out, but you can take practice exams online now)
9th grade Eragon read-alikes
magazines to use for collages
Secrets of Droon
Magic School Bus
Very Hungry Caterpillar
beginner reader books
YA Historical fiction, Us pre-1865
Harry Potter #3 movie
Robinson Crusoe

Refgrunt, 8/16

A pretty quiet Tuesday night on the J desk. Paul S. came by and visited though, which was great fun and a nice distraction. Here are some of the questions/responses:

Barney CDs
poetry books
Vietnamese video "Nang"
The Count of Monte Christo
Alici: My Story
Fairy Realm series
Rainbow Magic series
Sundiata
National Geographic videos
Blues Clues, Teletubbies, Barney and Dora the Explorer videos
toddler books
Henry and the Paper Route on tape
The Tattletale Mysteries
Arthur books
childrens' books in other languages
all sorts of statistics about the city

Refgrunt, 8/14

Quiet Sunday for the most part, 4 hours J, 2 hours A. Here are some of the questions/requests:

adult new books
how to pronounce Flaubert
Letters from Ripka
Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier
The Junkyard Dog
scissors
disk or disc?
Fodor French guide book on Charming Inns
John Connolly books
articles about the EU
The Fig Eater
Becoming Justice Blackmun
SF phone books
Optimist's Daughter
North America
Yu-Gi-Oh! cards
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
The Known World
Photoshop
My Jim
Under the Blood-Red Sun
Jackie & Me
Shilo
Half Magic
Hoot
The Lima Bean Monster
science books on rocks
New York
London/Paris travel for kids
benefits of hiking
series like Dragons of Blueland

Refgrunt, 8/9

Some of the questions/requests from 4 hours on the J desk. The highlight was a kid who needed the lyrics to Putting on the Ritz. After I handed them to him, he sang the entire song for me right at the reference desk (including a bit of tap dancing).

unicorns
Bionicles
Star Wars comics
Baby Einstein videos
alphabet DVDs
JE's (x 4)
Aladdin
Number the Stars
Super Fudge
My Side of the Mountain
Microsoft Word instruction
Blue's Clues video games
Power Ranger videos and video games
A Boat to Nowhere
manga
Hardball
Sweet Valley Twins
original Freaky Friday movie
Marvin Redpost series
Junie B Jones
Feng Shui
Tarzan DVD
books that "teach me how to fold" (aka origami)
plus a handful of summer reading club prize pickups

Refgrunt, 8/7

Another Sunday afternoon at the library, 4 hours A, 2 hours J. Lots of time-out software signups and summer reading club prize pickups. Here's some of the other questions/requests:

Lord of the Flies
learning English from Farsi (ESL videos)
print off a USB drive
Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays
Fodors France and Switzerland
collection of biographies of famous people
Zoombini's Mountain Rescue
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
Pippi Longstocking video (not the animated version)
Myth-to-Mania series, #4 (which we don't seem to own)
The Million Dollar Strike (which we also don't seem to own)
Into the Forest
musical performances on DVD
bookmark?
skateboarding
Alien
Mona Lisa Smile
law school rankings
zip disk? (no)
help with holds
Vegas
where locally is there free wireless
Elvis Story
Glenn Miller Story
Garfield
Makeovers by Marcia
trash can?
teen book recommendations
cars
poems for weddings
Prophecy of the Stones
Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket
Paris travel videos

and I managed to get my cataloging assignment done (though I did manage to misclassify the 1939 New England travel guide... grrr)

Refgrunt, 8/2

4 hour J shift -- not too crazy except right after storytime (and the regu