Happy Valentine's Day!

There's something about me you should know: I love candy. Shocking, isn't it? I'm always the one cracking down on the lollipops, the gum, the chocolate bars. You'd think I was hatin' on candy in general. Nope! I love candy, and I know I'm not alone - bugs love it too, so when you share it with them it causes icky problems for the books I also love . . . you see the problem. I'm torn between my two great loves, candy and literature.

And that brings me to my next point: whatever information your little heart desires, I can fix you up. Just this morning Miss Barlow asked about the origins of Valentine's Day and I said I though I had some research on that. I believe she may have thought I was kidding, but in three minutes I was back with the February 14 entry from Butler's Lives of the Saints, right here in our own reference section. See? She had a desire for information and I fulfilled it.

So eat some candy (far away from here!) and celebrate love, in all its glorious forms! Have a wonderful week off, and I'll see you all fresh and eager on the 23rd.

Alexander the Great, right here in the library

Today I had the pleasure of meeting most of the ninth grade. I had met many of you before in different circumstances, but today I got to be a professional about it: I came to Mr. Dougherty's World History classes to show students what the library can do for them. Specifically what it can do for them while they're working on presentations about Alexander the Great for later this semester. We talked about the library catalog and how to look for books we own, how to use Questia to find electronic books and articles, and the superstar favorite: how Questia will format its sources into an MLA-style bibliography, all ready for you to download and insert your other sources for attaching to a paper. I bet I have some new fans now!

Get smarter!

We're all humming along here, trying to stay warm - the library has big beautiful windows that let in lots of natural light, but it's fair to say it's a little on the brisk side in here with all the glass. It does foster a kind of measured, scholastic-type environment: glasses-wearing lasses with hair braided against the inevitable static, lips tucked in against the cold as they peck their calculator keys; bent-headed boys in sweaters rubbing their hands along their insulated coffee mugs while they pore over books for their research papers.

There's no chance of a beach visit, pool swim, or even a Frisbee game tonight, so let me suggest this: how about the school play? Get Smart is on at the Lower School campus, totally free for faculty and students, $5 for lucky guests. It opened last night and early reviews are glowing. Catch it tonight at 7, and Saturday at a 2 p.m. matinee and again at 7 in the evening. Shoe phone's ringing - it's for you!

I have cooties!

There, I said it. Now you know my awful secret. Except it's not a secret, and I'm not alone. EVERYONE HAS COOTIES THIS WEEK. Every single substitute on the list has been pressed into service and teachers are begging each other to cover one another's study halls. I personally had to do a half-day yesterday because my son had the throwing-up cooties, and I dragged myself here today using sheer willpower alone because I have the coughing cooties.

I taught college for eight years before coming to Out-of-Door and I don't ever remember being sick this frequently, even when I lived in Ohio. I'm trying to view this as a chance to become immune to a wider array of bacteria, but it is growing difficult to remain cheerfully optimistic about it while I'm actually doing it. I suspect the vector of the disease at hand is my mega-stapler, Dewey. Dewey will easily slam through 25 pages or more at a time, so everyone wants to feel its awesome power. Evidently they're doing so with germy hands, see: You sneeze, then pick up stapler. You tell me stapler is out of staples. I go to refill stapler, touching sneeze-germs. AND THEN I GET THE COOTIES. And so does your girlfriend, because she touches it next, and then you hold her hand and you get them again. It's a vicious cycle, people! See than bottle of hand sanitizer? Use it. That can of disinfecting wipes? Help yourself.

Help keep American cootie-free!

Term paper season has begun!

Business is big - circulation numbers are way up, at the end of the day I can't remember if I ate lunch, mail goes unopened. It's term paper season! Every day I'm getting exciting requests for research help on a wide array of topics. And I love the chase: part of what drove me to librarianship is the thrill of the chase, the smug sensation of having found the perfect source no one else thought of, in a place no on thought to look. So bring it on! I love a challenge. Just try to come see me during your free period instead of expecting me to sort through every one of the 10,850 items we have in here off the top of my head in the three minutes you have before your C block class.

See you at the desk.

Yes, we have DVDs!

And yes, you can check them out! I guess I'm the only one who knows: we now have a collection of more than 100 DVDs, all of them ready and waiting to be checked out by students, faculty and staff. So that means you! And better than Blockbuster or Netflix: these are free. You do have to return them, but they're free. Totally free. Does it get any better than that? Nope.

So here's a random sampling (sort of) of what we've got: O Brother, Where Art Thou; the Leonardo diCaprio version of Romeo & Juliet; Billy Elliot; the whole Engineering an Empire series; L'Auberge Espagnol; 8 Women; Mayans & Aztecs, and so much more. And I'm not done buying yet, so come see me at the circ desk and tell me what you want. I'll see if I can get it.

Olympics season has begun!

Wow, what a start to 2009! Welcome back, everyone. The wrapping paper has been recycled, the New Year's resolutions have been made, and it's on to spring semester. We had hardly scuffed our spring term sneakers when it was time for our Academic Olympics team to face off against Booker High on Tuesday. In our very first match ever, the Thunder pulled ahead in Round 2 and then Round 3 was a nail-biter the whole time, right down to the final point that separated the two teams. In the end, we lost by only that single point. I don't call that a loss, actually. It was our first year playing, our first match ever, and we weren't even in school the day before. So hats off to Tim, Lauren, Trey and Anika - great job! We even had spectators. A few people were milling around the library or checking email on the iMacs and they too were gripped by the spectacle and couldn't bear to leave in the middle of the drama.

Join us for our next home games on Jan. 20 and Feb. 24th. If you want to, you know, bring pompoms or paint yourself blue and white or whatever, we would think that is cool. No, really.