ma a a a a a a rian! madam libra a a a a a a rian!

i shamlessly love the 1962 production of the music man starring shirley jones and robert preston. along with my love of the soundtrack to funny girl this only further heightens the possibility that i might have a small, somewhat pudgy, balding little gay man who loves to sing show tunes trapped in my body. nevertheless ...

the firm boundary that i put between the world of 1950s/1960s musicals and my own little reality was startling blurred the other day when i went into stauffer to pick up a book i had recalled from term loan. i approached the counter and one of the librarians asked how she could help me. i gleefully responded (yes, gleefully! i was really excited about finally being able to get my grubby little paws on this particular book!) that i had received an e-mail notice that the book i had recalled was available for pick up. without asking any further details that one would think she would need to retrieve the book (like the title, my last name, my student card, etc.) she disappeared and returned with the book in hand. i was awestruck. did she have super librarian powers of divination? did she, like marian the librarian, love interest of the nefarious professor harold hill, have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the books under her care? was she the metalibrarian? i gathered my wits about me enough to affirm that the book she was holding was the one i had requested and i asked her how she knew. she threw me a wry smile and laughed,

"shannon, isn't it?"

"yes ... er ... how did you ...?"

"you come here a lot. we get to know our regulars."

now, seriously. this isn't a friendly boston bar, where everybody knows your name. this isn't even the public library in the town of 115 000 people in which i currently live. this is the humanities library at (if the school website is telling the truth) "one of Canada's leading research intensive universities"; it's a pretty sizable place with, i am sure, many people recalling many books every day.

wow. am i ever a nerd.