Feel-good Librarian

Crazy moon

It’s an old wheeze here by now, but the full moon – maybe in conjunction with May Day? – seemed to have an extra strong effect this month. People seemed to be unhinged – Teddy Bear Man was shaking and apologizing and groaning instead of speaking.

The craziness was coming thick and fast. First Mr. Hyperspeed came in. He was waving a pile of papers around, dropping them on the desk, on the floor, on the keyboard. He kept repeating himself, “The place closes at 6:30. I have 900 dollars in there, but can’t get to it – it’s embarrassing with people behind you in the ATM line. The woman said to call her with my email address and they’d send me a new PIN number. I gotta get an email address – the placesclosesat6:30Ihave900dollarsinthere....”

He was repeating this about three times a minute, flapping his hands and waving his papers and speeding up every time. I got him to an internet station. “Sir, this is where you sign up for email,” I said, trying to get him to sit down. “Can’t you do it for me? I don’t know nothing about computers.” “You need to give me the information, sir.” He flapped the whole pile of papers into my hand and said, “All my information is right there.”

We got him into Yahoo, got his name in there, figured out an account name. “Congratulations!” the screen said, “This ID is available.” He wrote it down at hyperspeed and jumped out of the chair. “That’s my email, right?” he asked. “I’m going to go call her and tell her that’s my email.”

“Wait, sir! We have to finish signing you up before it will register!” but he was already gone to the pay phones. One security question option is your father’s middle name. One of the papers he thrust at me was his birth certificate, which had his father’s first name, but not middle. I just used the first name – I didn’t know what school he went to or his favorite sports team.....

He came flapping back in. “That man won’t get off the phone,” he said. “I got to call them before 6:30...” He drifted off as I continued filling out the email form.

When I looked up, he was at the desk, using the phone there. I walked over with the pile of papers. “Here,” he said, thrusting the phone at me. “You talk to her.”

“Sir? Who is it?” I asked him. “It’s the credit card company,” he said. “Tell them I need a new PIN, they told me to call by 6:30 with my email address....”

I explained the situation to the woman and she said, “Can I speak to the card holder, please?”

Sure thing.

He finally finished with her and said, “I’ll be back in 15 minutes – she said they’d email me a pin. Thankyousomuchforyourhelp,” and he sped out the door.

In the 15 minutes that he was gone, Quiet and Classy Librarian was approached by a woman who was sort of glassy-eyed and shaking a little bit. “Where are your books for people who hear voices?” she asked.

I took a call from a woman who began with, “The library has never let me down.”

Uh oh.

“I have a new kitten. And I have a hole in my wall. The kitten went into the hole. How do I get her out?”

Wow. This is a library question? I guess so – someone is asking me....

“Have you tried putting down some fancy cat food? Maybe that would lure her out,” I said.

“Well, she likes cheese. But she just took the piece closest to her and ran back in the hole,” the lady said. “What about catnip?”

“Um, I don’t think I’d recommend that,” I said. “It sort of makes them go crazy.”

“Well, I’ll try the cat food, then,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Hithere,” Mr. Hyperspeed said.“Can you help me get into my email? Ican’trememberallthatstuffyousaid.”

He’s baaaaaack!

“Sure thing.” I sat down and got him into his email. “Here’s the message from the bank, sir.”

“Can you just read it to me? I forgot my glasses.”

Of course. I know his email password and mother’s maiden name. Why not his PIN, too?

He thrust the pile of papers back into my hand and asked me to write it down. I did, then asked if he wanted me to sign him out.

“Ohyesplease,” he said. “I really appreciate all your help. Can I buy you a soda or something for your trouble?”

Hm, tips at the Reference Desk? That’s just too crazy.

I’m glad it’s a month between full moons.

I'm guesting today

Hey,

I'm the guest poster over at Tame the Web today. Check it out!

Picking stone

Being raised on a farm has a few duties that no one is eager to do. One of them is picking stone. In the spring, when the dirt is turned over before planting, it seems that the first thing that sprouts is a new crop of stones. You cleared the fields the year before, but each year they return.

It’s important to get them out of the way. Young sprouts aren’t strong enough to move the heavy stones. It stunts their growth and sometimes kills them. So you bend over time after time, each stone getting heavier as you calculate the tonnage you must be moving and grumble about it under your breath.

One of the things I do is teach basic internet skills to seniors. The courage, commitment and perseverance of this group never stops impressing me. In the face of trifocals, small print, arthritic hands and lack of computer experience, they come in week after week, sometimes repeating the four week class three or four times, gaining a little more each time and somehow being encouraged by these small steps in what proves to be a stony field for them.

Add more stones for not knowing how to type and never having touched a computer in your life. One older African American woman in my last class wanted to make sure she was in the right class when she saw that others had had mouse experience. “Yes, you are in the right place,” I assured her. “We are going to start from the very beginning, with how to place your hand on the mouse and how to move it, don’t worry.”

This particular class was very animated. They went through the mouse exercises with precise concentration, not asking for it, but as we came around to help them, staying with the exercises and pressing on. One by one, as they finally made cut and paste work, they would yell out loud, “I got it! It’s in there! It worked!” - this woman included.

As the weeks progressed, she needed a lot of help, but continued to ask for it, to try, to stay with the class and do the exercises. On the day we were doing web searching, she seemed a little more hesitant, however. We had done Switchboard.com the week before, and she wanted to try some more with it during free search time.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m bipolar that I’m having such a hard time with this,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “I just can’t seem to remember all the steps.” I gave her a tissue. “No, it’s not,” I said to her. “Just think of all you are asking of yourself here. You are learning something new with your body by moving the mouse, something new with your eyes learning how to look at the screens, and you are asking your eyes and hands to work together in a new way, too. Plus all the new words you are learning that go with the internet and computers.” She smiled a little, and kept on.

I was sad for her. Being bipolar was just another stone for her sprouting skills to fight.

Near the end of class, I looked up to see Intelligent Librarian handing her more tissues. Others were beginning to leave, so I grabbed the box and went over. “We need some more suggestions here,” she said as the woman dabbed at her eyes. “She’s looking for her kids. We have the towns, but it’s been awhile since she’s heard from them and we’re not coming up with anything just yet.”

“Ok,” I said gently. “What’s up?”

“Well,” she said, “I haven’t heard from my kids in almost ten years,” she said. “I’m also schizophrenic, and I think they just got tired of me and my illness. My doctor is so proud of me. I’m in the day program at Psychiatric Center and most of us just sleep, but I’m getting out to come here. I just wanted to find my kids and let them know, but maybe they wouldn’t care.”

Her kids would be my age and a little younger by now. Marriages. Grandchildren.

“I’m proud of you, too,” I said. “You are doing such a good job with this class. You are working so hard, I’m sure they would want to know.” IntelliLib nodded her head. Of course all three of us were using tissues by this time, and that made us laugh. She left the room, encouraged to come back for the final week, to repeat the class, and keep trying.

It broke my heart. Of course IntelliLib had covered all the free net resources that are available, and this woman’s time and resources, as well as abilities, were limited. But her courage and desire were not. If I can clear a few stones for her, I am happy to bend over and get what I can out of her way. God knows it is a small enough thing to do in the face of all she is dealing with.

Finally, this spring, for the first time, I am privileged to pick stone.