How Did You Find That Book?!!?!...

I had to deal with the nastiest patron five minutes before closing the other day. This woman walks in literately five seconds after the five minute warning on the intercom asking where our easy readers are. I point her to the section and ask her what she is looking for. She barks at me that she is looking for a book with the call number ER OCO. I ask her what title she is looking for and she barks back The Teeny Tiny Woman (The one she saw was by Jane O'Connor). I go check the catalog to see if the book is really there and head over to the shelf she is at. I start looking and she gets pissy with me saying she already looked. I tell her the same thing I tell everyone else, sometimes you need another set of eyes because you don't always find it the first time. I continue to look and I don't find what she is looking for, I tell her that I don't see it either and she storms to our holiday section telling me it's probably there and tells me to go check for her. I look at her and told her I had already checked the computer and that the book should be where we were looking not in the holiday section. She doesn't want to hear what I have to say and she heads over there anyways.

Instead of letting her leave with nothing I go back to the catalog, find a copy of the book by another author from nonfiction and hand it to her. You think she'd be happy at this point, but no... She starts questioning where I got that book from and how I found it. I was so pissed I just looked at her and said "I'm a librarian. That is how I found it..." She just walked away.

I cannot tell you how much she pissed me off. I was in the office yelling about how I paid an arm and a leg to go to library school and that is how I found her book (There was a lot of expletives strung in with that). The response I get from "Mama Page" on what happened what that I shouldn't have given her the book and let her walk out empty handed. I should have but I'm too nice sometimes. Why do I have to deal with this crap?!

Ice Cream Tasting Party...

Seeing as July is National Ice Cream Month and July 15th is National Ice Cream Day, we decided to have an ice cream tasting program. We bought four different brands of various (Edy's, Breyer's, Krasdale and Häagen-Dazs) and two different brands of root beer (A&W and Doctor Brown's), so that we could do an ice cream taste test and then a root beer float taste test.

I labeled four cups with the letters A, B, C & D and another two with 1 & 2. My Pages and volunteers gave everyone scoops of each brand of ice cream and I asked each child to try each of the flavors in order and take a sip of water in between each tasting. At the end I asked each what was there favorite and tallied it on the dry erase board. To my surprise, Krasdale won.

After the ice cream tasting I gave each kid a scoop of their favorite flavor in the cups labeled 1 & 2 and filled them with the two types of root beer. They tried them and by a landslide Dr. Brown's  won.

When all of the "testing" was done I told the kids they could have more ice cream and they all jumped at the chance to eat what was left of the cartons. It was a lot of fun and way more successful than my last ice cream day party two years ago where I had them make their own ice cream in plastic baggies. When I did that one they made a totally mess and I got in so much trouble with the custodians, they still talk about it to this day and give me dirty looks.

Information on National Ice Cream Month*
July 1-31. First designated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, this month celebrates ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation's population. Kick-odd celebration for the month is an ice cream party at Capitol Hill, Washington, DO, on June 21.

National Ice Cream Day*
July 15. To promote America's favorite dessert, ice cream , on "Sundae Sunday."  Annually, the third Sunday in July.

* = Information is from Chase's Calendar of Events 2012

The One That Runs The Reading Club...

I just got a phone call from a mother of a teen reading club volunteer asking for "Julia" whom she referred to as "The one that runs the reading club." Um... No lady. "Julia" does not run the reading club what-so-ever. If anyone ran the reading club it would be me because I am the one that has put the reading club together for the past four years. Ugh!

"Mama Page" heard me on the phone and when I got off she was saying that she wouldn't put it past "Julia" to be telling patrons that she is in charge. She is probably right! I am so annoyed right now.