What's that??

I love learning new words. I had a chance to help someone on the phone learn a new word today. She said she had been listening to the local classical music station and the DJ ( does Classical Radio have DJ's?) played a piece by Delius (who?) and that the piece was transcribed by an amenuences. She didn't know the word, and she wasn't sure how to spell it, nor how to pronounce it really. So, the two of us tried to spell it the best we could based on what she heard on the radio. Turns out the word was Amanuensis: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript (\ə-ˌman-yə-ˈwen(t)-səs\).  But that brings up something in my mind. I'm glad the radio DJ used an unfamiliar word in this instance. So many times TV and Newspaper talk down to us. How many times have I heard that the newspaper is written on a fifth grade level. In this case, the radio DJ challenged the listener to explore and look into what was being said. Both of us, the caller and me, learned something new today. This is why I love my job!

Awwww....out of the mouths of babes.....

The sweetest thing happened today! OMG I was so touched. One of the ladies who brings a young child to my storytime came up to me at the reference desk today. She said she wanted to introduce me to the child's Mama. All this time I didn't know that the lady was the grandma! She's such a young looking grandma that I thought *she* was the Mama! Anyway, the Mama said she wanted to meet me. She had to find out who I was because every night her child says a prayer for Mama and for Daddy (about 4 times for Daddy), for Grandma, etc etc and for Miss *Storyteller*<----insert my name here. Awwwwwww....

Also, another grandma came up to me after storytime this week to tell me that her granddaughter always reads books to her dolls like this, "The book title is blah blah blah and the illustrator is blah blah blah..." Just like Miss *Storyteller <---insert my name here, does.
Awwwwww....

And just what did you mean by that???

I got so defensive today, this customer really managed to get my hackles got up. The customer had been looking through the catalog and then he said: I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS LIBERRY HAS NO BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC (viewing the fall colors in the mountains)! I say: NONE?? He says: NOT A ONE. He says: BARNES AND NOBLE HAS HUNDREDS OF BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC. I say: ARE YOU SURE? He says: YES, OF COURSE, THEY HAVE TONS AND TONS OF BOOKS ON THIS TOPIC. So I don't go look in Barnes & Noble website to see if what he says is true, I go to Amazon website to see...There is only ONE book listed on his topic. ONE!!! If Amazon has ONE book on a topic, how in the world can Barnes & Noble have HUNDREDS??? I took him over to the section where we have hiking books and day trips around our state and he browsed there for a bit. After all that, he did check out a nice little stack of liberry books. I guess we aren't so bad after all.

Later on I did look on Barnes & Noble's website to see what they had on this topic and I didn't see any at all!