Another Day in Paradise

Today is my Saturday to work at the library. (And wouldn't you know it,I got a call from LAPL asking if I'd be able to substitute at the Echo Park branch.)

My first assignment was to teach a class, "Introduction to the Internet." Five adults showed up. I'm thinking of asking people to take an introductory computer class before going on to this. Some of them didn't understand the concept of scrolling, of tabbing between fields in a form (I showed them Google maps and Mapquest), or even keyboarding.

I took them briefly through our Article Databases page, and then used Google as a search engine. I asked them to type in their names. Most of them found other people with their names! (I've found two other women named Sue Kamm. One of them is in Louisiana, and among other things she is part of a Mardi Gras krewe.)

When I finished the class, I was going to lunch. I took a moment to check my city email, and learned that my desk shift had been changed. What this did was give me 15 minutes to get some nourishment.

I would love for teachers to be required to instruct their charges on the principles of searching for information on linel I have a feeling that won't happen in my lifetime.

People who have come to the desk don't understant our catalog. Someone had found a book with an author's surname and first initial in the call number field. Hello? That's fiction.

Another person was looking for information on juvenile law. She couldn't seem to understand that "juvenile law" is an amorphous term. I had found some books under "Juvenile justice, Administration of," but that wasn't what she wanted.

I go home in an hour and a half. A colleague will give me a lift to Florence and Vermont, where I can catch a bus that connects with one that lets me off about a block from my apartment. I think I'll stop for dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby. I've been passing it most days in the year and a half I've lived at my apartment, but have never stopped in.