Cafe Hitch-hike

2004-12-20

The Midnight Librarian

For the week of finals, the univ.library is open all night for students. On staff, it has 2 people in the computer lab, 2 people at the circulation/check-out desk, and yours truly as the grown-up/librarian in charge! I came in at about 11:00 p.m. and I'm due to leave at 5:00 a.m., when Big Boss comes in to relieve me.

I've done this 3 times now, one for almost each year I've been here, and this is my bittersweet finale. This is my last time working in this very peculiar library...

...I never gave specifics, but this library has very few formal library rules in place. Do you think of college as ivy lining brick building? Bwah-hah-hah!!! Not this place. When it was designed 8 years ago, the head honchos didn't want to scare away first and second-year students, so rules like "no food", "no drinks" and "no talking" were relaxed. As a result, students routinely bring boxes and boxes of Little Sleazers's Pizza from the student union. 2 liters of Faygo pop bottles are stewn here & there, and the students can get obnoxious as hell from time-to-time; it's typical for people to shout back and forth to each other, like from the third floor overlook down to the echoey atrium: 'Maya! Vikram! We're up here! Here! Come on up!'

This is probably the dirtiest library one has ever seen in their life. It resembles a student commons rather than a library. I once told my friend we should get pool tables and a dart board to augment the atmosphere.

Commons... Yes, this is the place to pick up people. However, I have yet to see anyone having sex or making out in this library or any other I've worked in. I've never done it in a library either, though I've done it with a librarian (a classmate, an elementary school teacher/librarian). Unless you've experienced your own library tryst, my eyes have never seen any.

So, here I am...

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