Happy National Library Week and National Library Workers Day to all the administrators at this fine institution who have not mentioned either recognition time even in a bland form email.

I had to end my lunch break and go on desk just as my book was getting spicy. Harrumph.

I confess I’m relieved to realize that for once I am not the most frustrated, angry one in a committee.

What are we supposed to do?

I already feel like what I do is relatively pointless, given The Horrors. I’d prefer it if administration didn’t reinforce that mindset.

Bill Nye. Or National Geographic specials.

Channeling my stress about Current Events into rage about higher ed fundraising campaigns acting like engineering and athletics are the only things that matter on campus. Productive? No. Healthy? No. But it’s making me feel less like throwing up.

"hey, remember that project i emailed you about in December 2024, I'm circling back now"
dude, you think I remember that?
I hit "send" on reference responses and you immediately leave my brain unless you're high on the bonkers scale. You don't *want* me remembering you.

Naturally.

Today’s theme is “I’m running out of ways to explain this to you.” And the letter Y, as in “Y U NO LISTEN”

a man is sitting at a table with his mouth open and says i wanna goooooo ! Alt: Joey from Friends is sitting at a table yelling “I wanna goooooo!”

Ok so I like my job and my work very much but I have absolutely no desire to do any of it or be in the office at all today.

What is happening with the beard situation??

*shrieks into the void*

Two separate people asked me for marriage and death records today and seemed astonished to hear those are probably with the city or county, rather than the university archives. This bodes poorly for the week.

So apparently yesterday was Employee Appreciation Day at my workplace. Information I only happened across by chance today. Because nobody told us, the employees, that it was Employee Appreciation Day. I feel like a pretty important point got missed somewhere along the way.

What is it about being super stressed and on a tight schedule that makes my coworkers want to hang out and chat?

Overheard during an upper level university class visit to the archives.
Student: do you want me to put my name on my assignment?
Instructor, more patiently than I would be: yes, your name should be on it somewhere.

The lights are on, the door is unlocked, there’s stuff on the tables, there’s a sign next to the door. Why are students so daunted by the door being closed so as not to bother people studying nearby? Your class starts in five minutes, quit staring through the window like Victorian street urchins.

Finding myself cooing delightedly over new, entirely unscratched acrylic display supports. Hopefully this is charming.

If everyone could just try using some basic common sense first that’d be awesome.

Or go earlier. The Restoration period is full of possibilities.

I can’t believe I have to say this, but when you return folders to an archives box, they should face the same way as the other folders. And that direction should be LABELS FACING FRONT. This instruction archivist needs a large adult beverage.

*sigh* time to invest in gold spray paint futures

I am so not emotionally prepared for the coming month.

“My scrolling finger is getting a cramp” is a real complaint I said aloud at work today.

Border Patrol is pulling out of Minneapolis. Bovino is ending his punitive tour of blue cities. Calls for Noem's resignation are mounting, even in conservative media. Senate Democrats are dug in now on refusing to fund DHS and ICE. "Abolish ICE" is now a mainstream position.

They are losing.

screenshot of a reddit post in r/nursing Photo of a hospital hallway where staff in scrubs stand with their hands clasped and heads bowed

As seen on r/nursing

Alex Pretti's coworkers taking a moment of silence to honor him

That’s two professors in the past month who’ve felt the need to tell me how to search in the library catalog. Like I don’t know how and could definitely teach them a thing or five.

Feels like a metaphor, honestly.

I know maintaining cultural heritage and teaching critical research methods are important in the long term, but day to day everything I do feels so frivolous right now.