For I am also a Librarian. #blogjune
When I travel I usually seek out libraries in the areas I'm visiting. In my work at the State Library I'm forever meeting up with interesting people from all around the world who've come to Brisbane and are using the library.
I find most of the times I've visited a library and told the staff there that I'm a librarian myself that they tend to be interested in talking to me about their library, showing me around a little bit if they had time and shooting the breeze about their customer base and what they deal with and any interesting features of their particular library. In a library in any country you visit you find somewhere that is familiar but different. A place where you can connect back to home and a place where no-one is trying to sell you anything and you can just sit and relax for a little bit.
A big issue that no-one really thinks about when travelling is the pressures on you as a tourist to spend as much money as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time. Libraries are the exception to this, even museums and art galleries tend to have a hand out looking for some money, which considering what they have on hand is usually fair, but still it is nice to go somewhere quiet and just not have to worry about the stress of it all and to have free wifi.
My Day.
I was going to ride my bike to the state library today to do my shift but I woke up too late to make the ride and get to work on time so I elected to cook my brother his dinner(Chicken Curry in the slow cooker) and then drove to the train to catch it into the city and then run to the library from Roma Street.
I'm still not 100% sure that Roma Street Station and then running across the river is faster than catching a train to South Brisbane and then running back, according to GoogleMaps it takes six minutes less to walk from South Brisbane than Roma Street however the time it takes to get the train and through the station at South Brisbane make up for this and the potential delays in crossing the roads at South Brisbane to get to the State Library compared to having to cross only two roads relatively quick crossings from Roma Street to get to the Kulripa bridge. These are the deep thoughts I have when I'm on a train and trying to determine which way to get to work.
I got to the library with about a minute to spare and promptly rushed upstairs to the Distant Lines exhibit which I've been working at for the last few months. It's a pretty decent exhibit and seems to be really popular with people coming in from around the city and other parts of the state to visit it. We're in the middle of changing the "activity" section of the exhibit right now, removing the postcards from the war(where visitors were asked to write postcards to soldiers from WW1 or as soldiers writing home) and replacing it with a knitting thing that I'm not entirely sure on the details of.
After my shift was over I went back across the river and paid my car registration and bought some comic books before heading home. I've been here since then just kind of relaxing this evening without much to do. Soccer training was cancelled because of low numbers and I didn't want to go cycling in the dark while I'm not 100% sure about my knee. I actually started writing this entry about five hours ago but somehow got distracted by YouTube and iZombie.
YouTube Clip of the Day.
This is a long video so don't worry about it too much if you don't want to watch it all. But it's one of the most delightful train-wrecks ever recorded on TV. Adam Pally had every guest more or less cancel on him and had no preparation or skills as a late night host and somehow made for a better show than if it had gone perfectly well.
I find most of the times I've visited a library and told the staff there that I'm a librarian myself that they tend to be interested in talking to me about their library, showing me around a little bit if they had time and shooting the breeze about their customer base and what they deal with and any interesting features of their particular library. In a library in any country you visit you find somewhere that is familiar but different. A place where you can connect back to home and a place where no-one is trying to sell you anything and you can just sit and relax for a little bit.
A big issue that no-one really thinks about when travelling is the pressures on you as a tourist to spend as much money as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time. Libraries are the exception to this, even museums and art galleries tend to have a hand out looking for some money, which considering what they have on hand is usually fair, but still it is nice to go somewhere quiet and just not have to worry about the stress of it all and to have free wifi.
My Day.
I was going to ride my bike to the state library today to do my shift but I woke up too late to make the ride and get to work on time so I elected to cook my brother his dinner(Chicken Curry in the slow cooker) and then drove to the train to catch it into the city and then run to the library from Roma Street.
I'm still not 100% sure that Roma Street Station and then running across the river is faster than catching a train to South Brisbane and then running back, according to GoogleMaps it takes six minutes less to walk from South Brisbane than Roma Street however the time it takes to get the train and through the station at South Brisbane make up for this and the potential delays in crossing the roads at South Brisbane to get to the State Library compared to having to cross only two roads relatively quick crossings from Roma Street to get to the Kulripa bridge. These are the deep thoughts I have when I'm on a train and trying to determine which way to get to work.
I got to the library with about a minute to spare and promptly rushed upstairs to the Distant Lines exhibit which I've been working at for the last few months. It's a pretty decent exhibit and seems to be really popular with people coming in from around the city and other parts of the state to visit it. We're in the middle of changing the "activity" section of the exhibit right now, removing the postcards from the war(where visitors were asked to write postcards to soldiers from WW1 or as soldiers writing home) and replacing it with a knitting thing that I'm not entirely sure on the details of.
After my shift was over I went back across the river and paid my car registration and bought some comic books before heading home. I've been here since then just kind of relaxing this evening without much to do. Soccer training was cancelled because of low numbers and I didn't want to go cycling in the dark while I'm not 100% sure about my knee. I actually started writing this entry about five hours ago but somehow got distracted by YouTube and iZombie.
YouTube Clip of the Day.
This is a long video so don't worry about it too much if you don't want to watch it all. But it's one of the most delightful train-wrecks ever recorded on TV. Adam Pally had every guest more or less cancel on him and had no preparation or skills as a late night host and somehow made for a better show than if it had gone perfectly well.
Click to view