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Librarians

by crowspark 

Posted: 05 May 2019
Word Count: 115
Summary: I loved working in Libraries. I discovered an American series in which Librarians are super-heroes!


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Librarians

In my day they were strict
guardians of silence and rifling
paper, dusty tomes and thumbed index cards.

Much later I worked
like a bat Librarian sentinel
in the rafters, swooping down to chide or assist.

I was the one
who sequestrated meeting rooms
filled them with PCs, burbling jargon.

But now it seems
they are behatted adventurers
guardians of magic and mystery, without the whips.

They gabble, endlessly
a torrent of psychic mumbo-jumbo
can fence, wrestle and do high kicks.

On the whole
I prefer the new breed
with their hidden magical artifacts, with or without the hats.

Libraries are a place
of wonder and mystery
palaces of the imagination where silence seethes.






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Comments by other Members



V`yonne at 16:32 on 05 May 2019  Report this post
Oh 'where silence seethes' :)

This is very nice, Bill and thanks for joining in because I was ready to despair of seeing any more poems this week! crying
I like the contrasts between the old and new breed of librarians. I think there's a lot could be written in terms of old and new breeds -- teachers, politicians, post mistresses, publicans and prostitutes even. A whole series awaits! (Not that I am suggesting you'd know anything about errrrrrrr) Anyway -- great stuff. And I think it'll take a revision in places though I am not sure the repetitions don't work. I will give it some thought.

The last stanza brings us nicely to the thought that though fasions changes and social mores change, libraries themselves, the concept of them, remains almost sacred. 

Oonah

crowspark at 17:04 on 05 May 2019  Report this post

Thanks Oonah. It has to be said that it is a very silly series, but great fun. There are few heroic Librarians in popular culture so I was pleased to see this on TV.

I worked in libraries for a while and I really enjoyed it. We were building new libraries when many were closing, although recently we have handed over half of the smaller branches to be run by volunteers. Now I support them from the distance of the ICT department but like to be an advocate when I can.



 

V`yonne at 17:49 on 05 May 2019  Report this post
I worked in a library for one summer and it bored me to bits blush

crowspark at 13:24 on 07 May 2019  Report this post
I had an office at the top of the library and when I was doing system testing I was very particular about the books I chose to use in my tests. We had an amazingly diverse collection of books.

V`yonne at 15:59 on 07 May 2019  Report this post
Ah well that's a different bag o' cats. I was stuck down in accessions. The best job was a week when I was chosen to clean the covers of the hospital books!


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