Sunday, July 14, 2013

Miss Information spends some time on the dark side

It's Friday and a beautiful summer night. Not too hot. Gentle breeze. No sign of rain. There's actually some kind of culture fair in the square near the library. It has food, music and little shops. Miss Information imagines that people are dancing in the dusk but doesn't know for sure because she's trapped in the library until 8:30. Still she is fully aware that there are other places to go and other things to do in the world--things to do that don't involve being in the library.

Of course there are patrons in the library. There are other people who are not patrons exactly. One man is sitting in the lounge area making phone calls. A couple of women are chatting. It's all perfectly acceptable before the library's power goes out for no apparent reason.

It's about an hour before closing and people do not leave. This baffles Miss Information. She would leave if she weren't being paid to stay in a place that is getting darker and warmer because air conditioning runs on electricity, y'all. Come on, people. It's like a sign that you should be out doing non-library-related things. And ok maybe an awesome cultural event isn't for everyone. Maybe people would rather be reading. There is enough light coming in the window to see. Miss Information would like to point out, however, that it's also light enough to read at one of the many local coffee shops--places that still have electricity, lights, air conditioning. Sigh.
  
Miss Information's favourite black out patron was a woman who wanted to know how to look up Chinese movies in the library catalogue. Miss Information could demonstrate if only the library catalogue wasn't electricity based. The woman lurked around and when the power came back up, she ran to Miss Information's side and asked if she could look up her movie now. Too bad for the woman that the power was on for only about 30 seconds before it cut out again. Really. In the time it took for the lights to flicker on and off, the woman had bounded over to Miss Information. 

She must really want that movie.

1 Comments:

At 9:09 AM, Anonymous Siobhan L. said...

My favorite thing that happens when the electricity goes out is when every patron in the library runs to the desk immediately and asks "What happened? How long will it be out?" Because librarians know everything.

 

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