Folders

I'm thinking this morning about the many different folders we tend to tuck people we meet into.   Over on Empire Avenue for instance,  most everyone has some set of criteria for whom they put into their "Newbie Folder".   And I doubt there are many human beings on earth who don't, at least to some degree keep an "Assholes Folder".     Categorization is useful certainly, and just as certainly necessary--  the thousands of books in your local library would be of very little use to you, if not for the librarians who carefully classify and categorize Everything and the scores of library pages who spend their days putting books back on the shelf and making sure everything is in order.

But most of us do not have master's degrees in library science and are at times ill-equipped to quickly categorize and classify the dozens or hundreds we meet over the course of a day, a month, a lifetime.    A book that deals extensively with seven different subjects, dozens of sub-topics, multiple authors and such can easily take a professional librarian hours of work to accurately classify and create a good bibliographic record.   Most people, in my experience are at least as complicated as the most complex book I have ever handled.   Yet more often than not,  we usually just stick people into one particular folder.   And the folder that we decide to stick someone in,  usually fairly soon after first meeting them,  will to a fairly large extent color and even direct all of our subsequent interactions with them.  

People who fit into a folder that is easily labeled (deaf, blind, gay, blue-eyed, big-breasted, well endowed, tall, short, fat, skinny, shy, assertive, crippled, amputated, injured, ill, smart, funny, etc. etc) often find it Very difficult to get folks to see them as anything But the folder they got filed in.   It doesn't really matter than in many cases the file highlights something the filer considers quite good.   It is not much easier to move beyond being listed in everyone's braniac file than in everyone's crippled file.    Somehow I doubt I will persuade the bulk of the people out there to rush out and sign up for Library school.   But I do ask that today you make a special effort to file anyone you meet into at least three different folders.  

That's my thought for the day.  Here's wishing you a fantastic Friday!

another Friday

means back to work for me. We had a staff meeting from ten to eleven. They seem to be Really concerned that materials get put out on the shelves within 24 hours from check in. I am Not altogether sure how realistic that goal is or what Exactly they intend to do about it.
Ah well.

Thursday was a great day. I took Ron and Sam down to Mount Rainer and it was a lovely drive. I had intended we would eat at the restaurant at Paradise lodge well up the mountain, but the service was so abysmal we finally gave up waiting for a table. I didn't mean to, but when we left Paradise I set off in the opposite direction than the way we came in and we ended up exiting the park down at the southern entrance and so had a bit farther to make our way back home. I am thinking of going back there next week with Staci if she is up for it. I did go by Kathi's after work and visited with Staci for an hour or so. Tomorrow night I am supposed to make shrimp etouffee and she is going to come over for dinner.

Meanwhile I just need to get to bed and get to sleep so I can get up at 6:30 am tomorrow and be back at work 8a--2p. feh

OGIF

oh gawd it's friday and work was hellacious. I was Hot and VERY sweaty all darned day, which seemed to go on forever and ever. Thrilled to be home and just surfing the web and catching up on this, that and the other. Ron is cooking beef stew for supper. It smells good and I am Hungry. I finally got around to going to the American Library Association site to confirm that this year Banned Books Week is September 27th-- October 4th. I found that I have never read six of the top ten most frequently banned books in 2007, so I have placed holds for all of them and will plan to write up the ALA list again this year.

The reason I got to thinking about this is because at work today I happened upon a copy of Something of Value by Robert Ruark, which I think is the book my friend Ron (as opposed to my partner Ron) recommended for Banned Books Week last year. I will have to go back to the old blog post to confirm that. I did bring home the book and will try to read and write about it. Back to work tomorrow and Sunday for two more no doubt equally stupefying days. For those of you who are off, hope it's a great weekend.

TGIF

Thank God It's Friday and I am off tomorrow and have survived the first half of my work week. The three hours of meetings that started the day seemed to go on forever. (I was So tired when Ron woke me up this morning, I was just barely moving when I left for work at quarter to eight.) Blessedly, the remaining four hours of the work day went pretty quickly and I managed to perk up and get the books moving. In other news, after almost a year my Adsense earnings have reached ten bucks and Gooooogle has sent me a PIN number that I need to go to the website and enter. Whoop dee dee. Maybe if I publish for another ten years I'll actually reach the 100 dollar payout level. Feh.

Planning to take it easy tonight and hopefully do a book post tomorrow. I am Still tired.