You would think the Director of Information Services would be able to google something like preferred pronouns, wouldn't you?

This, yes. Storyrant time.

So you know how I work at the National Library here? And all is pretty sweet other than payment (which is why I'm applying to other jobs now. Payment is ridiculously low, to all of us). I'm surround with mostly smart people with amazing knowledge and skills, but some of them are with attitudes that make me cringe and wonder why they choose this profession.

I have the wonderful opportunity of helping to shape an SFF event in the library, inviting speakers and curating an exhibition from the library's books and archives. It's cool in mind-blowing scales, however I keep seeing two biases during the set up of this event (and in general, day to day work): 1. "I've never heard of X. X probably doesn't exist and there's no need to have a place for it in the library or take seriously the people who are talking/asking about X", and 2. "We already had this item in an exhibition in the past, so we cannot use it again, it will make us look ridiculous" (I started calling this "virginity tests", because it makes as much sense). This makes me so angry.

Colleagues, you have an incredible opportunity to work in a National Library and a duty to make knowledge accessible to others. How dare you betray this opportunity and deny access/knowledge of an item just because another person saw it before in a different context. How dare you think that you know everything there is to know and to assume that you encountered every field of knowledge that is meaningful to other people. How dare you not to use your position, intellect and skills to make information and data better and meaningful and friendly to others. This is not what being a librarian is about.

end of rant

Oof, that does sound ridiculous, Shir. Good luck in your search!

I just finally buckled down to do a task I've been avoiding, and it turns out to be not that big a deal, AND the person who asked for it might not need it anymore! So yay, I guess? (But I could have avoided some anxiety around it by finding all this out two weeks ago.)

I hate when that happens, Jesse!

One of the people I was supposed to be on a call with this afternoon is on vacation, so that's getting pushed out to next week. Ahhhh, so much less pressure.

I mean, it's better than it being a huge ordeal and a problem that I procrastinated!

Whew! I tried to order lunch on DoorDash and my credit card was declined, although the app says I have credit on that card, so I called the bank to see what was up and the CSR says, "Hmm, let me get my supervisor, I don't see an explanation" and the supervisor comes and pokes around and decides to call corporate (I stay on the the CSR who apologizes to me for the inconvenience) and finally they ask if they can call me back, corporate is going to have to do some research. Which is all fine, mysterious things happen and figuring out what to do about them takes time but meanwhile I can't get any lunch! Lucky for me, there was a class today that got pizza and salad provided so I was just able to score some leftovers.

I am an adult and a professional. Yes I am.

I was hoping that would end with them sending you free food.

Well, they still might. I haven't gotten the call back with the explanation yet.

Timelies all!

It's been raining all day. yay

Meanwhile, I'm trying to find out what has happened to a package of mine. UPS tracking says it was signed for at the local post office on 3/14. I called the post office(or at least the 800 number for USPS), stayed on hold for a very long time until I talked to a real person who said the manifest was signed for, but the package wasn't there. What do I do next?

Sheryl, I'd try following up with the company from your original order to see if you can report the package as missing. The company you ordered from may let you mark the package items as missing and ship them again free of charge, or offer a refund. You also could try following up with UPS or filing an online claim with USPS, although I'm dubious about the effectiveness of the latter.

In other news, I think I've discovered the person who's been using my email address as her own, and it's an Australian MP. Is it more or less weird to stalk someone online who's a public figure and yell at them to stop using your email address?