The Clerk Manifesto

It's a quiet night back on the automated check in machine at my library. After an industrious 45 minutes all of my needing to d...

I have written a few times about co-workers leaving the library I work at. And over and over I have likened it to a battlefield death...

Among the many small surprises of Paris was one in which it turned out that I loved the Eiffel Tower. Before the trip I was vaguely ...

"Well, actually, you know, I'm a Republican!" "Are you? You monster. You hypocritical vile monster! You have ...

We recently received three new circulation staff to train in at my library. It's been a week or two and I think they might have g...

I was shelving up in Science Fiction when I came upon it. Three copies, one hardcover, two paperback, but all looking a bit weathered...

Yesterday in this space I told you my theory of elasticity. It is, even more briefly put than in my brief yesterday, a political too...

Among the more effective strategies employed by the right in my lifetime is intransigence. Or it could also be described as moving t...

Though I normally worked on the night of this past Halloween Eve I elected to take a few hours vacation time to go home and hand out ...

I have a co-worker named Tao. He's a student worker, and he's very polite. He asks me polite questions about my day or somet...

My wife and I were recently at our local cheesemonger. We were picking up some cheeses that we had acquired affection for in Paris. I...

A regular library goer was chatting with my co-worker and I at the front desk. The subject was an upcoming snowstorm. He said he wa...

I did pretty good with coming to work sick. I was miserable and tired. I went through eighteen boxes of kleenex. My coughing was overw...

As I sit down to write this it is my birthday tomorrow. As you read this my birthday will have been yesterday. What this means f...

Today is my birthday. But I say this not to make a fuss, or to elicit... Oh. Well, thank you. That's very kind. No, you don'...

A patron came up to front desk and she was singing the praises of one of our children’s librarians. She wanted to know where sh...

I suppose over the years I've run you through this a few times, but we better do it once more as this story relies upon it. At my ...

In a particularly unfortunate hour at the front desk of my library I was repeatedly unable to track down books and m...