Stolen Car?

The other week a woman came into the library frantically saying her car was stolen. We called the sheriff's office and sure enough her car was not in the parking lot. Curiously though, there was a car that looked exactly like hers, make and model, parked right next to where she was parked.

It turns out that another woman mistakenly drove home in the wrong car. The cars were so similar and parked next to each other that there was a mistake. Apparently many identical models of Saturn cars can open with the same key. (Scary thought.)

So as this woman was at our library all upset thinking her car was stolen another woman came back to the library all flustered because she had driven home in the wrong car. The cars were switched and there was no charges or anything pressed.

My question is: how could you have driven so far in the wrong car and not have noticed? Sure, the cars may have looked alike but seats are pushed at different levels, items are hanging from the rear view mirror, things are in backseats, the radio would be at different stations etc. I'm glad the woman eventually noticed that she was driving in the wrong car or she might find herself driving her new car and suddenly be pulled over.

No More Favors

There is a teen that's a regular in my library that's chosen to do his community service hours at the library. His crime? Breaking into a church. It was done on a lark with his friends. I overheard our cop on duty tell him "Now, if any of your friends say 'I have a great idea', it's usually not a great idea." Good advice.

This week has been a struggle with him to get him to do his community service hours. Monday went fine, except I had to drag the girls away from him while he worked. One girl whined to me, "Why can't I talk to him why he works?" I explained that it's not really community service hours if you get to talk to your friends.

The rest of the days have been more difficult. Tues-Thurs he's claimed he doesn't have his sheet so he can't do the work. I told him that he can still do the work and I'll just sign off for the work when he brings his sheet in. This solution doesn't work too well for him because it interrupts his internet time and although I repeatedly told him I had work for him to do, I PLANNED work for him to do, he said he couldnt' do it.

This teen doesn't seem to understand that I'M doing him a favor by LETTING him work at the library. He thinks he's doing ME a favor by working at the library. It's not easy to come up with 20 hours of work for a 13 year old to do unsupervised. That is work in itself. I'm drawing the line tomorrow, he works for me tomorrow or he doesn't work at the library at all. No more favors.

Reading Hamlet by Playing Halo

Frankly I'm tired of hearing the same old talk in library circles about the so-called links between literacy and gaming. In fact, "skeptics point out that psychological research consistently shows that skills often don’t transfer from one setting to another." This quote is from an interesting article from the New York Times on video games and reading.

Playing three hours of Halo a day is not going to help you read Shakespeare. What WILL help you read Shakespeare is actually picking up a book and reading.

This is a wicked thought but part of me thinks that librarians jump onto this "literacy in gaming" bandwagon to make themselves feel better about offering video games in libraries. Deep down there might be some hesitation against it but if some expert is talking about "critical thinking skills" they acquiesce and bring the games into the library.

I have no problem with gaming if your purpose is to bring patrons into the library. Games are great for that. However, don't gloss gaming up with the high and mighty title of "literacy", call it what it is: digital bribery.