Santa Claus the Research Helper
The other day I am sitting at the reference desk and a student of the local college comes up and interrupts my game of Minecraft. The kid in question asks for help finding sources for a reference paper.
Read MoreLibrary Guide: Apocalypse
The end of the world has to come at some point, right? Fire and death or just a general slow spin to the stop, the big ball of dirt has to go barren at some point. For the last few centuries, that is The Apocalypse.
Read MoreAnnual Conference and Anniversary
The annual American Library Association conference has come and gone. New Orleans took the brunt this year, the warm wild city welcoming librarians from all over as well as Michelle Obama and Emilio Estevez. I for one am excited with how Young Guns 3 seems to be shaping up.
Read MoreMovie Time with Jurassic World, Incredibles 2, and Won't You Be My Neighbor?
It's that time of year where all the important or lucky librarians get sent off to the American Library Association's Annual Conference. The rest of us get left behind. Gotta do something, so why not go to the movies?
Read More7 Reasons Why Your Library Doesn't Need a Copy Machine
Remember back in the day when the office party would be raging and Brenda would drop her pants and hop up on the copy machine? Me neither, library holiday parties have never been ragers. But that butt copy has always been a temptation, huh? Maybe not for long. Old tech dies with each generation, speeding up. Here are thirteen reasons why your library no longer needs a copy machine.
Read MoreWhen I Think of New Orleans...
Thoughts of New Orleans are coming to mind this week as the annual ALA conference comes up. I will admit, I am a lot homesick and wishing I could be there.
Read MoreSummer Reading, Had Me A Blast
When I was little, I loved summer reading. I would go down to the library and other kids would actually be there. I got to fill out a form and tell all about the books I had been reading.
Read MoreCooking Eggs for the Universe
Mike Myers the comedian once said in the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer that most Scottish meals are based on a dare. Cooking in the South is based often on hope.
My mother taught me to cook the traditional way. She'd say, "ST, use the microwave if you don't want cereal. We're late for school."
Read MoreI almost had a great time with Hereditary
The end of a movie is like desert to a dinner. Some of them make you shit the bed.
Read MoreShared Dream is the most cliche thing I've written
Jason wakes up in a world without a sky. Check out this cliche story that by the end will have you wondering.... Wait, are we still in a dream? SHARED DREAM: It'll make you SLEEPY.
Read MoreKitchen Condolences: Anthony Bourdain Gave His Life
From the year 2000 to 2003, I worked in a lot of varied jobs to pay my rent while I went to college. A lot of those jobs were in kitchens, those hot and sweaty and crowded dens of iniquity. Years after, I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and was transported to those times and those people with a strange sense of nostalgia and love. This past week Mr. Bourdain took his own life, casting my mind back to other memories of that time.
Read MoreThe Man Stacks Books by ST Harker
The man stacked books. They started small. A few little book stacks on tables here and there left at the end of the day. People do that. Shelver Becca called me in one day to look at them.
Read MoreSuggestion Box
Earlier today, I checked the library suggestion box.
Don't ever check the library suggestion box. Just let the damn thing sit there and get full. When it's full, take it to the back, further back past the circulation librarian's office, past the technical services desk, past the table with tape all over it because that's how you fix books. Take it to the back dark corner of the workroom and set it down.
Next you need a metal trash can. If you do not have a metal trash can, can you even call yourself a library?
Take the metal trash can and drag it over to the dark corner in the back of the library. If there is anything in the metal trash can not worth burning, take it out.
Start a fire with your library-issued chrome lighter. Use what you can, but make it hot and make it burn. Broken pallets work best or pine wood for scent.
When the yellow and orange cleansing bath has been drawn, pick up the suggestion box. Hold it tight and close to the flames. Lid out, at an angle, open the box.
There may be a force from the escaping suggestions. Allow the box to cradle in your arm, much like a baby attempting to get down but a baby that needs to eat. Eat baby, eat, you say as you tip the open suggestion box forward to the fire.
When you are done, feel free to return the box to the circulation desk. It's presence makes people feel better. As if they are being listened to.
If you have a question or comment for the library, reach out to us on our contact page, twitter, or email. Never Facebook or its hell spawn Instagram. Or maybe.
Battle of Big Bug and other books available on Banned Library Books
I know you know that the library has a podcast about books that have been banned or challenged or holy shit I'm not doing that. What you might not know is that we write fiction!
Read MoreNick Cutter might be my new favorite horror writer
For the last few days, I've been on an audio book binge on Nick Cutter. If you don't know the name but like horror novels, boy howdy you're about to get excited.
Read MoreGame of Thrones, Season 2, Episode 4 Review "Garden of Bones"
Three episodes down in this season and we might, might get a fight soon. Mostly everyone is postering and blowing smoke up each other's asses. For the most part, though, this episode is all about leadership and the eternal question of who has the power and who deserves it.
Tip the Carrier
The news paper thunked against the front steps of the library and bounced into the bushes. Evan sighed, put the car in park, and got out. He crossed the library lawn to get the paper where it needed to go.
Read MoreGuardians of the Galaxy and Thanos Were the Heart of Avengers: Infinity War
Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America all got an entry when talking about the two and a half hour Avengers: Infinity War in past blogs. Now I'm gonna zone in on the two areas that, for me, formed what is wrong and right about the movie: Guardians of the Galaxy and Thanos.
Read MoreCaptain America and the Rest had Little To Do in Avengers: Infinity War
More Avengers talk as we dive into Captain America and why he’ll totally die next time. Plus some other thoughts on people that didn’t really matter that much.
Read MoreHulk Proves Avengers: Infinity War is Half an Idea
Avengers: Infinity War reviews are fun to write because there's just so much. Over the last few days, I covered that I don't like spoilers, that Iron Man learned that fighting back was useless, and that Thor unlearned everything he had learned from his movies. Now we're gonna get into Bruce Banner and his alter ego Hulk and really learn that this movie is kinda unreviewable.
Read More