Friday, November 21, 2008

25 - Librarians who aren't quiet

There's a new librarian that came here in September at our school and I think she's loud, talkative and out-of-this-world annoying (and I think my classmates will agree upon this. Comment if you read this, guys!). You'd expect a librarian to whisper quietly all the friggin' time, but this one talks with a loud nasally Australian voice that travels to all corners of the library, enabling everybody to listen to all the bullshit she has to say.

She insists on being helpful or conversational but she always goes about the wrong way in doing so. She's nosy and she'll peer at your computer screen or at the book in front of you just to see if it's something she's at least mildly interested in. My friends were all holding Shakespeare's Othello in the library one time, minding our own business as we should be, reading the play in preparation for English class later on. The librarian asked one of my friends in a fucking patronizing tone, "It's a good one, isn't it?" and went on to share her own understanding of Othello in a loud, booming voice, "Some say it's one of his easier ones... in terms of trying to understand it. It's a good one, especially when it comes to the theme about racial discrimination against blacks"

Thanks to the volume of her voice, by the time the word 'blacks' was uttered, everybody was looking at us. My friends sitting there beside me (whom I believe have very little appreciation for Shakespeare) just nodded at her, unsure of how else to react, while I, frustrated on so many levels, shook my head in disgrace with my face buried in my hands.

The librarian's nosy like that. She once asked another one of my friends if she could browse through the website that he was reading on the Internet. She insists on asking all the young kids what they're working on and whether it's economics, English literature, history, geography, or art, you can count on her to have something to say.

There's a girl three years below our class, and she had to write a hundred words on China's One Child Policy. She had already managed to cram more than a hundred words into her work with the help of trusty reliable Wikipedia, but our tragic excuse for a librarian just had to butt in. For half an hour, the librarian kept yelling at the girl, telling her to have a look at different websites like the policy report on the New England Journal of Medicine website and countless articles on BBC. I just found it incredibly ridiculous. Not only did the librarian not care about keeping hush-hush about it, but the girl that was doing her work really just didn't give a damn, making the librarian's Samaritan-eqsue deed completely futile. Sometimes, students in the younger years just don't care about their work enough to go further in their research beyond Wikipedia. In addition, sometimes, librarians should shut up.

Her behavior drives me insane and it's not just when there are loads of students there. There was one entire hour where it was just me and her and the story to come is the root of my problem with her and the inspiration for today's entry.

So, I go to the library to do some homework by myself while all my classmates either went out for lunch or had class. I couldn't believe it when I first heard her voice, but she was talking to herself, asking the air around her, "I wonder which African countries were occupied by France?"

Okay, okay, I knew she wanted to talk to me, as I was the only sitting there, but I wasn't going to let her seduce me with her useless, trivial ponderings. Nonetheless, I still had to listen to her speak for the whole sixty minutes and yes, thanks to her inability to keep her own Internet readings to herself, I now know that Benin, Niger, Mali and several others were under French rule for sometime during the French colonial empire.

Isn't that great?

Whatever. She doesn't deserve such in-depth analysis. She's overly-curious, abrasive, patronizing, uncontrolled, loud when she shouldn't be, self-involved and she doesn't take her job seriously. It's no wonder nobody's actually bothered to learn her name. Hah.

Oh, and I just remembered that I sometimes check my blog at school in the school library. She might actually read this because she's just that nosy... Meh. (Today, I heard 'meh' is now an official word in the dictionary.) Miss Librarian, if you do indeed read this, I hope that it's clear now that I hate you! (...as a librarian)

6 comments:

Douglas said...

Does she have a superior? Perhaps the Dean? I think I might have hushed her... as in "Shhhhh... it's a library, people expect quiet while they read or study. Thank you." and turn away. My rule is that it is ok to be rude to those being rude.

Michael said...

*adolescent term coming up*

Your last line actually made me LOL. That's good advice and I'll carry it with me for a long time to come.

I've thought about hushing her, but I don't want to cause offense. She seems to like her own personality, one of those that likes the way they are and will never change for anybody.

Michael.

Unknown said...

There's this weird guy at my school library who takes what little hair he has left and slicks it into an oily ponytail. He is SO annoying, because he likes to shush people. Honestly, it does absolutely nothing because he shushes louder than anyone is actually talking. Gah!! One of these days I'm going to shush him back.

Michael said...

Ew. The words, 'slick' and 'oily', do not sound attractive, Zoe. And yes, the people that shush people only to create a bigger noise. I hate that too. Gah!!

Michael.

Anonymous said...

haha! she was trying to be helpful but ended up being a form of distraction. you, on the other hand, were trying to study in a quiet place and ended up being distracted and annoyed..

well. indifference is annoying, isn't it?

Michael said...

Dear hrix,

Yup. Indifference is hell-annoying.

...and I'm so happy that it's ironic.

Michael.