Monday, March 13, 2017

Due to







We're a library, so we have no love of mistakes here. They cause too many problems. A misshelved book can cost a quarter hour of fruitless searching. An improperly registered card or misinformed patron can tie us in useless knots of correction. But today we encountered a mistake that amused all of us library workers. And I think it only amused us because we are a library.

Last night ferocious winds tore apart the twin cities. They also tore apart our heavy metal glass doors which caught in the howling winds like sails. The mighty gusts, sluicing south across the face of our building, so tore into the driven open doors that they hewed at their own hinges until they were bent and broken. They were left capable only of being jammed awkwardly back in their frames and locked up. In the night we put "out of order" signs on the them and blocked them as best we could. But in the morning, before I got here, a more complete job was done. Warning cones and caution tape were strung across both broken doors, inside and out, and prominent signs were posted.


The signs, in bold, red block letters read:


"Door out of order do to wind"


We all thought that was hilarious. 


One wouldn't think we would be that starved for entertainment around here. 






2 comments:

  1. I wonder if that sign was perhaps made by the same over-worked librarian who told me that "We're far too understaffed around here to put stickers on books!" I was simply asking if there way a way to identify new picture books (green circle stickers are used in SV). Also, she directed me to a different area than another librarian had pointed out a few days before. The overworked one was right, btw.

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    1. While I respect your regard for librarians, I can only say that our sign was not by one of our librarians. Not because they couldn't have made the mistake, maybe yes maybe no, but because it was far too proletarian a venture for any of them to have involved themselves in.

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