A Bloy and his Blog

I had the “closing time dream” again last night.

I’m at work (in the library) and it’s closing time. So we lock all the doors, but somehow people are still able to come in. They keep walking through the locked doors in droves. We tell them that the library is closed and they have to leave but they don’t. Of course since all the library patrons keep coming in, that means I am unable to go home (and getting a bit irritated about the whole situation).

Around 14 years ago I had earned my masters degree and was searching for a job in the library field for several months. I was working in a retail store at the time and every so often I would have a dream similar to the one above. It was closing time. They doors of the store were locked. I wanted to leave, but customers kept coming in.

About a year ago I started having the same dream every couple of months or so. The only difference is, it takes place in the library. When I thought about the dream today an important question that I had not considered before, popped into my head. Why don’t I just leave?

Working with the public as I do at the library can be a little stressful at times. There are days when it’s hard not to let the people who are rude and impatient get to you. The other day I was experiencing a pretty hectic afternoon when a college student who was trying to find some articles on an obscure topic asked me for help. After spending a few minutes asking about her topic and refining her search, I was able to locate some relevant articles. Later, after she browsed through the articles and printed a few, she stopped by the desk and said “Thank you so much! Those were exactly what I was looking for. You know, I was at my college library and the librarian there couldn’t find anything at all. Thanks again!”

As she walked away I thought about the stressful afternoon I was having and decided that she was the reason I came to work that day.

Today I discovered the local Baskin Robbins ice cream shop (where I had my very first job, way back when I was 16) is no longer there. It made me a little sad to find out a place that I spent a few years at, no longer exists. It also made me wonder a little about my own mortality and what will be left on this planet to show I was here. I suppose I should go out and plant some trees or something. Until then, I guess there’s always the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Last week I unveiled a redesign of the web site for the Oak Creek Public Library.

It’s my first site design using XHTML and it also features a layout done completely with cascading style sheets. In this age of information, it’s especially important for public libraries to have web sites which are accessible to anyone, including those with disabilities. Using these two technologies allowed me to create such a site (plus it gave me a good excuse to really delve into XHTML).