Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Slice of Life: Librarians, Can You Answer my Pressing Question?

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.
Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie
                    for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

I wake up early, determined to create the Google Doc that will spring my book club students from class on Thursday for an informal chat with Irene Latham, visiting author to our middle school.

I make the mistake of opening my email.  

I read today's poem for The Writer's Almanac.

I head to the KCLS (King County Library System) page to see if they have the book this poem was selected from (there's that annoying preposition at the end of a sentence).

And this is what pops up when I search by title for Family Resemblances:  
  • Family Resemblance By Barrientos, Tanya Maria
  • Un air de famille
  • Mystical Tradition Judaism, Christianity, and Islam By Johnson, Luke Timothy
  • Lettercarving in Wood A Practical Course By Pye, Chris
  • Family Photo Detective Learn How to Find Genealogy Clues in Old Photos and Solve Family Photo Mysteries By Taylor, Maureen A.
  • Musical Instruments History, Technology, and Performance of Instruments of Western Music By Campbell, Murray
  • What Is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic By Ahmed, Shahab
  • Inherited Disorders Stories, Parables & Problems By Sachs, Adam Ehrlich
  • The Bite in the Apple A Memoir of My Life With Steve Jobs By Brennan, Chrisann
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to English Literature By Stevenson, Jay 
  • New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-2013 Ethics and Philosophy
  • Someday This Will Be Funny By Tillman, Lynne
  • Batman and Philosophy The Dark Knight of the Soul
  • Money, Myths, and Change The Economic Lives of Lesbians and Gay Men By Badgett, M. V. Lee
  • Morning Poems By Bly, Robert
  • Born Bad Stories By Vachss, Andrew H.
My library does not have the book.

But I have a pressing question for the librarians in my life:  Why on earth do all these titles pop up when my search was by title, and I entered Family Resemblances?

I can see the connections between some of these titles and Family Resemblances, but Lettercarving in Wood? Musical Instruments?  The Complete Idiot's Guide to English Literature?

This is not a healthy thing for someone as distractible as myself!

I should have just stepped away from the page.  My library does not have the book.

But no, I can't resist a quick scroll through the titles and I even request one of them.  

Look back, and see if you can guess which title I requested.*

I'm waiting for a librarian to answer my pressing question of the day.  

And now, my dear friends, it's time to create that google doc.

*Morning Poems by Robert Bly is the title I requested.  (And why, pray tell, does Morning Poems pop up when one searches for Family Resemblances?)

7 comments:

  1. It happens in my searches for a book from our library, too! Perhaps there's a keyword that matches? Glad you found the Robert Bly, though. I love his writing! Have fun with the group, too!

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  2. It's like Linda B (above) said, it's the keywords. My library's system has keywords and I do sometimes wonder how a book relates to that keyword.

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  3. It's like something shiny, we cannot simply do what we need, that "squirrel" reaction on finding something new is so hard not to pass up! That's what makes what we do so fun, that there are so many new things and neat connections that we can make. Thank you for making this slice relate back to me! :)

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  4. There are days when it's necessary to . . .

    take the fingers off the keyboard . . .

    close the browser . . .

    return to the list of tasks at hand!

    Just sayin'.

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  5. I had to laugh as one thought skipped and jumped to the next thought. I too, wonder about how some titles seem to appear and it has nothing to do with my search.

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  6. My mind works this way, too - one idea jumps to another...I'm taking it as a good sign at my age - my brain is still sending and receiving signals!

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  7. I'm your kindred spirit. Libraries and email are the greatest distractors!!

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