Just before closing the Reference Room last night, there was a woman sitting at a table close to the desk who had been ensconsed in looking at books on WWI. When the "library is now closing" announcement came over the loudspeaker, she got up to come over to the desk.

That was all fine until...when she stood up, she passed gas! Pffffffffft!

Then the biggest challenge of the day came...she came over to the desk and said she was looking for information on GAS WARFARE.

My agreement with MLC on Nanette’s blog!

Nanette, of trompe le monde says, “Uh, you should have known you'd be a weirdo magnet when you signed up to be a reference librarian. “ Well, no we didn’t. Someone please tell me if library schools have changed across the country, but when I was in library school (not THAT long ago), no one mentioned these things in Reference class.

No on mentioned that we would be verbally and sometimes physically abused by insane people.
That we’d have to deal with drunks sleeping on the floor of the magazine room.
That we’d have a guy who looked like he might be a serial killer vomiting bright red gunk onto the floor then calmly walking out and leaving it there.
That we’d have people tracking feces onto the carpet coming out of the bathroom. That we’d have a man with a severe skin disease losing a big chunk of his toe onto the floor, then screaming at our Director when he suggested that home delivery of materials might be more appropriate.
That we would have a mentally challenged young man pick up a computer monitor and throw it at his companion, missing him and it crashing it to the floor instead. That we would have a crazy patron throw a book at the head of another reference librarian.

Need I go on? All of the above incidents are absolutely true, and believe me, I could go on. Reference classes in library schools are generally taught by academics who are so far removed from the public and public service they probably have no idea that these things happen in real life. Clearly, Nanette must be one of these people. If she’s blogging about an old lady belching in the library like that’s something shocking, then please tell me how I can move into Nanette’s fantasy land where belching is the worst thing that happens.

Excuse us for wanting to blow off a little stress in our library blogs. If you don’t like them there’s plenty of other stuff for you to read on the Internet, we’re entitled to our blogs just as much at you are Nanette. She says, “It would be great if they threw all that energy into something productive and meaningful.” Guess what Nanette, people in glass houses….