Library Life

N.J. library patron overstays welcome; eats and reads well

The above is a story that librarians are sending to each other, about a man found camping out in N.J. library basement. The reporter takes a light-hearted approach to the story, as if the homeless man was fulfilling a dream, like a kid hiding away in a candy factory. Reading to his heart's content, and eating from the staff refrigerator, who could ask for anything more?

I can't imagine it that way. One of my friends who worked in a small public library described a similar situation to me. First, let's picture a typical basement: dimly lit, cobwebs, dusty supplies stored on sagging shelves, an old furnace. You are a librarian, going down to the basement after closing time, alone. You had heard a sound from upstairs, wondered if it was maybe a mousetrap going off.  Next to the furnace you see jars filled with murky liquid. From the shadows behind the furnace a man steps forward. He is painfully thin, hair unkempt, clothes torn and stained. Doesn't sound so cute and whimsical, told that way, does it?

Thanks, Mr. Baker

I like to watch old TV shows, like Columbo, Kojak, The Rockford Files. They take place in a world without computers, microwave ovens, GPS, and cable tv. The telephones have cords.

Don't get me wrong--I like gadgets. I have two kinds of rice cookers. (I am able to enjoy my old tv trips down Memory Lane through a streaming wi-fi connection.) But I am a cautious, reluctant adopter. I like to wait til the kinks are worked out. It might take years. I got a cell phone in 2004. I started turning it on in 2008.

So I would like to thank Nicholson Baker, for looking into the whole video game thing for me, in the August 2 edition of the New Yorker magazine. (The link takes you to a podcast of an interview with Baker, the article is not online. You can check out the magazine at the library. We have a lot of magazines you can check out: Cooking Light, People, Poetry, etc.)

I guess video games have been around for a while, but I kind of missed the boat on them, especially the home versions. I was around when video games were introduced in arcades, and I played Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Robotron. When the home consoles came out, I was busy with other things. Life went on...now it's possible to get a four year college degree in video game design. I'm not really sure what to think about that. Should we have them in the library? Circulate them? What do you think?