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The Seasonal Collection Saga, Chapter I
Monday, 11 January 2021 12:56 pmBecause We Need A Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute*
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Once upon a time, there was a woman named Monica Rose who worked in the Back Room** of the public library system in the second most populous city in the Midwest. Monica Rose had been working in this job for many, many years, and she had seen many changes. She did not fear change, nor was she resistant to it on general principals.
She was, however, skeptical of anything that wasn't permitted to be criticized.
One day, her boss (the Small Boss) told that her their boss (the Medium-Sized Boss) had an idea to help the library branches with their space issue. This would also help with a problem with the Seasonal Material.
You see, Seasonal Material is Very Important, but by its nature, it's also of limited interest. The public generally does not check out Christmas books in May, or Easter books in September. For that reason, these books tend to have very low circulation numbers, which is one of the metrics used by The Computer to determine if a book should be kept. According to The Computer, books that don't circulate should be removed to make way for other books.
No-one had considered explaining the exception of Seasonal Material to The Computer.
Instead, the Medium-Sized Boss had come up with the idea of all of the Seasonal Material being housed in the back room, where they wouldn't take up space at the branches. Then, when The Computer ran the report on books that had Very, Very Low Circulation numbers, anything living in the back room would be exempt from discard.
It was a brilliant idea! And it would be so easy! The branches would send in the books and CDs and DVDs and pamphlets and magazines and other stray bits and bobs they had lying around taking up space but which nobody had asked for. Various arcane changes would be made to the item records to mark the books*** as Seasonal. The books would be shelved on the brand-new**** shelving that was even at that moment being installed on the south end of the department.
And Monica Rose would be put in charge of the physical aspect of this endeavor!
It was an exciting time.
Monica Rose unpacked boxes of books. She checked them in. She made the necessary changes to their item records. She put Seasonal Stickers on them. She sorted them. Sometimes she put new spine labels on them.
Monica Rose was busy and tired and happy.
*Mame, Jerry Hermann
**Actually an entirely separate building.
***Henceforth, all groups of material will be referred to as books.
****The shelving was not new. It had been scrounged from different branches. It was new to the back room.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Monica Rose who worked in the Back Room** of the public library system in the second most populous city in the Midwest. Monica Rose had been working in this job for many, many years, and she had seen many changes. She did not fear change, nor was she resistant to it on general principals.
She was, however, skeptical of anything that wasn't permitted to be criticized.
One day, her boss (the Small Boss) told that her their boss (the Medium-Sized Boss) had an idea to help the library branches with their space issue. This would also help with a problem with the Seasonal Material.
You see, Seasonal Material is Very Important, but by its nature, it's also of limited interest. The public generally does not check out Christmas books in May, or Easter books in September. For that reason, these books tend to have very low circulation numbers, which is one of the metrics used by The Computer to determine if a book should be kept. According to The Computer, books that don't circulate should be removed to make way for other books.
No-one had considered explaining the exception of Seasonal Material to The Computer.
Instead, the Medium-Sized Boss had come up with the idea of all of the Seasonal Material being housed in the back room, where they wouldn't take up space at the branches. Then, when The Computer ran the report on books that had Very, Very Low Circulation numbers, anything living in the back room would be exempt from discard.
It was a brilliant idea! And it would be so easy! The branches would send in the books and CDs and DVDs and pamphlets and magazines and other stray bits and bobs they had lying around taking up space but which nobody had asked for. Various arcane changes would be made to the item records to mark the books*** as Seasonal. The books would be shelved on the brand-new**** shelving that was even at that moment being installed on the south end of the department.
And Monica Rose would be put in charge of the physical aspect of this endeavor!
It was an exciting time.
Monica Rose unpacked boxes of books. She checked them in. She made the necessary changes to their item records. She put Seasonal Stickers on them. She sorted them. Sometimes she put new spine labels on them.
Monica Rose was busy and tired and happy.
*Mame, Jerry Hermann
**Actually an entirely separate building.
***Henceforth, all groups of material will be referred to as books.
****The shelving was not new. It had been scrounged from different branches. It was new to the back room.