Notes from the Post-it Wall | Adventures from the Bucktown-Wicker Park Library Edition
• The man sitting in front of his computer loudly spoke into his phone. “Define debauchery.” I answered. “Yelling at your phone in a library instead of typing the word into your internet browser.”
• Chicago Public Library’s Bucktown-Wicker Park branch is a hot spot for gamers. One regular brings his headphones, a large water bottle, snacks (for which the crotchety security guard would scold him if she bothered to make her rounds), a (estimated) 21-inch monitor, full-size tower, full-size keyboard, and an eight-outlet industrial power strip. If this is his travel gear, I imagine his home resembles the inside of Tron.
• I’ve got a children’s book idea I’ve been fleshing out for a while now. I’d like to scour through the kids’ section for research but without my own kid with me I seem to make everyone in the library uncomfortable.
• It appears the Dewey Decimal System is dead.
• Worker morale at the Bucktown-Wicker Park branch is terribly low. I come here for several hours a day about four days a week — for months now — and though I make eye contact, smile and greet each employee I see, I get little more in return than a dead-eye stare. The security guard ignores me completely. I wonder if CPL’s CEO Brian Bannon is looking into this human resources issue. Then again, maybe everyone here hates me because of the way I’m often hanging out in the kids’ section without a kid of my own.
• The water fountains at the Bucktown-Wicker Park branch dispense water at the perfect temperature. Goldilocks temperature. Not too hot or too cold but juuuuuust right. Ahh.
