Tuesday, October 10, 2006

temple of wisdom

The State Library was a drag yesterday with the following things happening:

A precocious young girl telling a librarian all about the school project she did on Burke and Wills while librarian is trying to thread microfilm onto a reel. The mother chips in with what the other kids did for their school project etc. The girl kept saying 'I know all about it, because I already did it'. The librarian's response was the weirdest thing though as she would only say 'that's OK...' to everything, like they were telling her they'd spilt milk in the kitchen.

Two private schoolboys at the microfilm reader next to me reading the New York Times for September 11 2001. One of them said to the other 'Did you know that Croatia's just invaded some country?' I won't say what school they went to but it has a purple uniform. (Clue to readers in the future: he was almost certainly talking about North Korea doing a nuclear test).

The photocopy recharge machine was not issuing receipts. No-one seems to know how to get it to do so 'because' as one staff member explained to me, 'it's private' (as in: it's a privately run operation).

Man chucks a berko at librarian in the Heritage Collections Reading Room because she says the extension cord for his laptop can't stretch across a walkway. 'It's just a farce, and you're a farce' he says. She adopts the pose of a patient monk, hands in prayer in front of her neck, and says 'Well I'm sorry you think safety is a farce but... I don't.'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Few experiences can make me feel as if there's a chance I could turn into a child killer like trying to sit quietly and read in the state library.

Also: no fecking tour groups in the reading room. It's a reading room for god's sake. If they're going to let them in they should be forced to sit down and read for half an hour, no talking.

the early 70s was all juxtaposition

October 1970, everyone had their arms out in the air, from Barbra to, um, whoever that is on the left, to Thumbelina. This is from the Sprin...