One of my favorite stage production is "The Music Man." I love the music. I love the Marian the Librarian character & the song Harold sings to her, "Madame Librarian."
So, where am I going with this? There are good librarians & not so good librarians. Dare I say, "bad" librarians?
Because Mother has macular degeneration & is legally blind, she receives books & magazines from Talking Books. She can have 6 books at a time from Talking Books, 2 cassettes (green boxes) & 4 digital (blue boxes). Well, the books come in fits & starts. She gets books she has absolutely no interest in. I started keeping track of her books on a separate account on Goodreads. So, I know when things are in series & by reading the synopsis I have a pretty good idea as to whether she'll like the book or not. The reader can make or break a book though & I can't predict that.
She got 6 books before the holiday weekend. I sent 2 books back before even taking them over to her. Then, I didn't take one book over because it was #4 in a series & she hadn't read #3, so I held on to it so I could call the state library today, since yesterday was a holiday. I took 3 books over to her house. One was a book I was pretty sure she wouldn't like, but it was iffy & I thought I'd let her decide. One was book 8 in a series & she hadn't read the other 7 books. It looked like it could probably be read out of order. And one was a book she wanted & I had ordered it. One out of 6 ain't bad.
Today, I called the state library. I got a librarian named Loretta. I mention her name so I have it documented. I told her I was calling for my mother, & gave her Mother's name. She wanted me to spell it. So I spelled Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N. Monson. What's so hard about Monson? Maybe she thought I said Johnson. Or maybe she wanted me to spell Odetta, but then again, how many Odettas are there? Much less Odetta Monson? I figured if she got Monson, she could figure out Odetta. Then she snippily said, "She's not my patron." I didn't say, but thought, "Well, then transfer me." She asked if she could help me. I started telling her my problem & she interrupted me & told me Mother could only have 6 books out at a time & she was at her limit. I said I knew that, but I was calling about books in series. She had 2 books from 2 different series that were out of order. I wanted to order the series. I do this all the time & have never had a rude librarian yet. She kept interrupting me. I told her I had sent 2 books back before the weekend, they had probably sat in the mailbox all weekend but were on their way.
I finally got my questions out, but at last I lost it & said, "Look, Sweetheart, you are not listening. I sent 2 books back before the weekend. Once I get off the phone, I will drop these 3 books in the mailbox. But she is out of books." I thanked her for her help & snapped the phone shut. Ok, 2 books plus 3 books makes 6 books, right?
My husband had been listening to me & he said, "She wasn't listening at all was she?" I still don't know if Mother is going to get Opal, book 3 from the Dakotah Treasures series by Lauraine Snelling or not. But I sent Amethyst, book 4, back. Nor do I know if she's going to start getting Sisterchicks in order. I guess we'll just have to wait & see, but if I ever get Loretta again, I will either hang up or ask for another librarian.
Don & I dropped the books off at the post office, did a few errands & came home. I needed to take some meds over to Mother's, so I went over to her house. When I got there, she was obsessing over BOOKS!! Grrr. She had book 5 of The Work & The Glory series on cassettes. I had told her it was book 5 on Sunday & she needed the other books first. I also told her the Larsen-Sant Library has that series on cassette. But did she listen to me? No. Her sister told her she couldn't listen to that set of tapes because it was book 5 & she needed the first ones. Then Mother told me she had the other books. I said, yes, she did have the other books, but they weren't on tape. How was she going to see to read them? I spied a blue box & groaned. Oh, crud, I thought all the Talking Books were back. I had been so frustrated over the librarian at Talking Books I hadn't been doing the math right.
So, I snatched up the book & asked Mother about it. Had she read it, was she reading it? Oh, that, where did you just get that, she wanted to know. I said I had picked it up off the digital player. "Oh, I didn't like it, there was killing." Well, ya, that's the book I didn't think she'd like.
So, I told her if I hurried I could run to the library & get The Work & The Glory, Book 1 on cassette. "Oh," she says, "do they have that series?" I told her yes, I was pretty sure they did. At least, I didn't say, "Mother! I told you on Sunday they have this series on cassette."
So, I came running home, got my library card, the 2 books that were due back & ran to the library. Hallelujah, 3 of my favorite librarians all working at once!! How did I luck out? I put my books on the Check In cart & happily went off to the audio book section. I found Book 1 on cassette of The Work & the Glory, then thought I'd look to see if there were some books in paperback of Emilie Richards' Shenandoah Valley series. One of the librarians was shelving books on the aisle I thought the paperbacks were on, so we talked & visited for a few minutes. I couldn't see the paperbacks so I went an aisle over. There she was again, so I told her I was looking for the paperbacks. She said she'd been hiding them while we were talking. I found a book & went to check out. I was told I still had a book out. I said no I'd returned it. I told her where I had set the books. Then all 3 librarians started talking. I had returned The Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino. They thought it was another book with angel in the title. Then Peggy said, "I think I shelved The Twelfth Angel." Laura said, "No, it's right here." & held up whatever angel book she thought it was. Peggy took off to the stacks & came back with the book I had just returned. Theresa had taken off for the audio stacks & came back with The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans and said, "Did you return this?" I said, "Yes. I put the books right there on the shelf. Shouldn't I have done that?" Peggy laughed & said, "Yes. You can put the books there, just bonk us over the head & let us know when you do." So, my books were checked in & a hold was slapped on The Twelfth Angel.
The fiasco at the local library was funny. We laughed over it & there were no hard feelings. We got it straightened out. But … there are some librarians that work there that remind me of Loretta & it could have been a bad scene.
I took the set of cassettes to Mother & she's overwhelmed. There are 12 cassettes. How is she going to see "what is what?" I had thought of that. There are no Braille bumps on them either. But she NEEDS to have books to listen to. I got a permanent marker out, numbered each tape & put A & B on the ones that didn't have A & B. Then she asked me to mark her set of books. She was worried because there were tapes missing, what was she going to do? I told her she wouldn't be reading Book 5 for a while. I looked to see how many tapes were supposed to be in the box, 16. There were 20 slots. I explained there were 20 slots, but only 16 tapes. She wasn't missing any. The same thing for book 1. There are 20 slots, but only 12 tapes. I marked her books.
I can't wait to see what challenges she will face trying to "read" this series. Or, maybe I can.
To be continued …
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