Monday, September 9, 2024

Orangutan

 









Sometimes when I am upstairs shelving at my library, or maybe I've run upstairs on an errand, it will suddenly occur to me to take in the library from a fresh perspective. After three decades of work in my library my familiarity with it makes my knowledge of it exhaustive and detailed, but it also can make it all mysteriously invisible. I see too much of the context behind everything, and that can make it hard, oddly, to see the frankness of its direct presence.

What does my library look like to the wandering person?

And because it can be such an excellent focus for this kind of perspective shift, I like to look down at our front desk, so clearly visible from so many vantage points.


I know all the people working at that front desk. Some are vivacious, some cranky, some chatty, some quiet, some industrious, some distracted, some focused, some helpful, some funny, and some friendly. Usually a little bit of all of that, somewhere. But weirdly, when I stand away from the desk, or view it down from the stairs, when I take a fresh look of the collective "Us" at the front desk of my library, from the outside, this, this, is what I see nearly every time!


















(as ever, please click through the picture for it to come magically to life. There is also a song that plays!)




2 comments:

  1. My first thought is - The Librarian from the Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's Disc World Series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Omg, that's right isn't it. An unconscious inspiration? Although I would like to note for the record this is circulation staff.

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