Friday, January 4, 2008

Friday, Friday

Another good week of training, though it seems that these Tuesday holidays are throwing folks off a bit ("It's Friday? Really? I thought it was Wednesday..."). No complaints about the paid holidays, of course!

After reading so many public library horror stories of scary, rude, weird, what-have-you customers, I feel I must report that most everyone I have dealt with -- by phone or in-person -- has been at least polite, if not downright nice and very appreciative of our help. As with any customer service job, I know there will be difficulties down the road, but sometimes it seems that all the library patron stories out there are about the dregs of society. I'd like to reassure any new public librarians to take the hype with a massive grain of salt and to reserve judgment until they're sitting at the desk.

And now, for our Friday Feature!

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

* 2007 Federal tax forms are currently available online, but hard copies are still being printed and distributed due to the last minute changes in Federal tax code and the Alternative Minimum Tax. If you're looking for them, you'll have better luck in a few weeks.

* The U.S. Attorney General is (currently!) Michael B. Mukasey.

* The American Dental Association (ADA) hasn't published a hard copy version of the American Dental Directory since 1998.

* Literary translator Eliot Weinberger, best known for translating the works of Octavio Paz into English (as well as other Hispanic works) also translates Chinese poetry.

* Remember those poems you wrote in elementary school where the first letter of each line spelled out a word that was the theme of the poem? Those are called acrostics.

* If you mistype the word "thinking," it conveniently spells out to "think gin."

And with that, it's cocktail time. Happy weekend!

2 comments:

hood_and_hat said...

I am enjoying the weekly "what I learned." I hope you keep it up.

Stacey said...

Thanks! I plan to -- it's a really fun part of my week.