It's almost that time of year again...

SUMMER READING TIME!

Our childrens librarian already received our scratch and sniff bookmarks which we hand out to those who complete their reading logs.  Apparently she felt the need to limit me to just one bookmark at a time, I guess I've been branded a fiend or something.  I am pretty curious to find out what other smells she got, even though I should know because she asked me what we should get.  Oh the anticipation is killing me...

The Smell is Strong with This One...

Caramel Popcorn, Jolly Rancher Watermelon, & Bubble Gum

The scratch 'n sniff bookmarks we ordered finally came in!  The first 10 minutes I spent in the branch was sniffing them back and forth.  My coworkers probably think I have some problem now, whatever, can't be as big as any of my other issues.  I probably didn't need to hold my nose so close to them, every time I would rub the tip of my nose I could smell them all over again, this was like an hour afterwards too.

I guess I'm the "Bookmark Guy"...

Like any work environment, people like to talk about other coworkers, myself included.  I can only assume it's much more pervasive in the library because we're dealing with people who work with "information."

Recently, my cool young female supervisor was replaced with an equally cool young male from another branch.  He already knew a lot about me before he started because I used to work with one of his coworkers.  She was one of the YS librarians at our old branch and I always called her "Friend."  She was one of the first Info people I befriended at that branch.  I also get along really well with my current branch's YS librarian and she's older than my parents and we really don't have much in common.  Now that I think about it, I really get along well with YS librarians in general, even the YS Librarian that doesn't play nicely with other librarians.  I think I have a thing for YS librarians, holy crap, this is some Freudian type ish right here...  Is this why I got my MLIS??

The People's Cubicle

Anyways, he mentioned one time, "So-so said you used to have a 'Bookmark Shrine' at your old branch."  Yeah, you could call it that.  I really don't know how it started, but working circ, you come across a lot of ... crap that patrons return in their books.  I guess one day I decided to hang a few on my drag cubicle walls.  My cubicle was off of Main Street so EVERYONE would see it and ask if I was collecting bookmarks, to which I just shrugged and said, "Sure."  Soon, every time I would come into work there would be a couple of bookmarks left by my coworkers.  It really did not take long to fill all of the walls but unfortunately I never took picture of it, this is all I have left, a crappy pic taken with my old Blackberry ::tear::

Okay, to be honest, I really kept it up because I knew it bugged the oppressive management there.  They love to micromanage every single aspect of the branch, even the way your cubicle is.  They hate when your desk has "clutter" aka anything that isn't: a keyboard, monitor, mouse, barcode scanner, stapler, tape, writing utensils, pad of paper, and Post-It notes.  I think all of my coworkers contributed to my bookmark collection as their way of "sticking it to the man."  A few have told me, "I can't believe they didn't tell you to take it down."  They couldn't because I had the people behind me and it would have just made everyone hate them just a little bit more.

I Don't Always Get My Way in the Library...

I don't always get my way in the library but when I do, it's for something trivial like 'Scratch and Sniff' bookmarks.

One day I was IMing my friend at another branch, when she asks me if I sniffed the new SRP scratch and sniff bookmarks.  Scratch and sniff bookmarks!?!?  And no one has told me we had them because???  I told her to hold on and jumped up from my cube to talk to the YS librarian who was working the info desk.  I asked her if the SRP bookmarks came in and if she has smelled them.  She gives me this weird look, "Why would I smell them?"  Because they're scratch and sniff duh-doy.  So I opened up a box and took a big whiff.... nothing.

Some kid's going to be getting one scratched up bookmark...

I took it back to my desk and tried scratching at it, nothing.  So I sent a message to my friend asking if this is some cruel librarian SRP virgin hazing prank or something and she goes, "Wait, what do your bookmarks look like?"  So I sent her a pic of the scratched up one and she replied that theirs has bees on it.  Well, la-dee-da fancy ass branch with their smelly bookmarks to give away.

I guess the YS librarian must have felt some pity after seeing my utterly dejected expression, because after my shift on the info desk, I walked back to my cubicle to find the bookmark catalog opened up to this page:

Hells yea, we're getting some smell-goods!

We ended up ordering the popcorn, cotton candy, and watermelon ones.  We will be saving them for the kids that complete the summer reading program and me of course.

The Money Bookmark...

Apparently kids these days are ballin' enough that they can use cash-money as bookmarks.

This is the second time I have found cash in the past two weeks.  The first one was $129 which still hasn't been claimed.  My supervisor says that he called the patron who checked out the book the wallet was found in, but they said that they didn't return anything...  I'm calling dibs on it if it isn't claimed in a month.

This time it was $80.  One of my coworker/friends was working the desk and tracked down the teenager who thought the money was stolen.  Have you ever folded 4 - $20 bills and placed them in the middle of a graphic novel, you can obviously feel it.  Kids these days...

The $129 Bookmark...

I finally found that $100 bookmark today, actually, it was exactly $129.  There wasn't any form of identification in the wallet, just the cash.  Luckily I was able to pull up the patron ID from the book the wallet was wedged in.  Pretty ironic that a patron used a wallet stuffed with $129 in cash as a bookmark for a book titled Money, Money Money.

The Million Dollar Bookmark... Heee-Heeee...

I finally found the big money bookmark I've been looking for!
It states "In the King of Pop We Trust."  Now I can finally punch that patron (or two) in the face and walk out of work without any worries.  Unfortunately, it is only tenderable at Neverland Ranch.

When You Don't Read a Book, the Ghost of the Librarian...

I fit the librarian stereotype as much as my older coworkers belong on my Facebook friend list.  Does that make sense?  Well it does to me, so whatever.

I am a dog person.  I do not like cats, there I said it. (I think all cats should be named Tigger.)

But I will admit that when this bookmark found it's way to my desk, I found it really cool.  Probably because I will never visit Yemen in my life to buy any souvenirs, nor do I have a stamp collection, but now I have a little of both.  Definitely in my Top 5 for its uniqueness.

 
Now for my number one favorite bookmark of all time:

I've had this for some time actually but I lost it in my bookmark collection.  Yes, I said "bookmark collection."  By default my cubicle has become the depository of any stray bookmark that enters the library.

 Calvin writes: "When You Don't Read a Book, the Gho - Ghost of the Librain..."

Unfortunately we will never know the rest of this important message because the ghost already got to Calvin before he could read the correct spelling of 'Librarian' in the dictionary.  The touch of blood on the knife is also a nice touch.

Bookdrop Find of the Week

Found a postcard sent from Kaufbeuren, Germany postmarked 7-23-1974... pretty cool.

Worst Bookmark Ever