Librarians on Holiday

What do librarians do when they go on holiday?

No - this isn't one of those jokes like how many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb? This is about two of our reference librarians having a bit of leave.

Lisa was over in our western island during the school holidays (otherwise known as Australia) and admitted to visiting a couple of libraries (including the National Library of Australia in Caneberra) plus a couple of Art Galleries and Museums.

Meanwhile Anne from Kumeu was even further afield, up in the northern hemisphere taking a holiday that was postponed because of the eruption of a certain Icelandic volcano. Anne reported that to a large extent her and her companions avoided libraries, unless it was to access the internet. Anne reports "I must say the internet access was a godsend and generally very good even in tiny little libraries in the middle of nowhere. It was interesting to note the different session management systems... I think ours is as good and straightforward for staff and customers as any we saw in the UK." Anne commented that there was only one place that they didn't have a good experience (grumpy staff and a charge to use the internet). One library closed for an hour at lunch time, not so much because of limited staff, but just because they thought it was a nice, old-fashioned sort of thing to do.

Anne continues "The only novelty we saw in the way of libraries was The Chained Library in Wimbourne Minster, in Dorset. 'The library was founded in 1686 and is the second largest chained library in the country and also one of the first public libraries' . A chained library is one where books are attached to the shelf or bookcase by a chain. This is long enough for the books to be taken down and read, but they cannot be removed from the library. This was normal practice from the Middle Ages to approximately the 18th Century as books were so valuable (i.e. before the printing press).

To finish (and in case you were wondering) there are a couple of different answers to the light bulb question:

(a) Two - one to change the light bulb and the other one to ssshhhhh her.
OR
(b) I don't know, but I could look it up for you.