The String Lady

Sometimes working at the library makes me feel like a sad clown in the Theatre of the Absurd.

I walked out for my final desk shift yesterday and there was a woman standing there with paperbacks from our booksale covering half of the circulation desk. That in itself wasn't that strange. She had just paid for the books (approx. 30 mass market paperbacks) and one of our employees had given her a ball of string. Don't ask me why. So, the woman was working on this elaborate art project with the string and books. She was tying up little parcels of paperbacks books and covering them with string. But she didn't contect herself with this level of eccentricity alone...oh no....she had to accost other patrons as well.

She took it upon herself to chase after several customers and ask if they had small children. Ostensibly to inform them about the library's children's programs. Why she felt the need to act as our publicist, I don't know. Then, when a police officer came in to pick up his holds, she leaned across the desk and said, "I didn't know you people knew how to read." Nice. Then, she grabbed a book called Tropical Spa off of an endcap and ran over to an elderly Japanese woman with it. She thrust it into the startled woman's hands saying, "This looks like something you might be interested in." Really? On what basis?

After an hour of tying up books, the String Lady demanded that my co-worker J. load them into individual sacks for her and then promised to return soon.

We can hardly wait.