Library Media Specialist Quiz

[Karen DeFrank <defrank@VOICENET.COM>]

Okay, here is the entire list...

Check all that apply.

YOU MIGHT BE A LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALIST IF:

___ 1.  ...someone asks you for a large book with a red cover about a dog,
you hand them a small book with a blue cover about a cat, and it's the
right book.
___ 2.  ...everytime you enter a classroom, everyone, including the
teacher, scurries to find an overdue book.
___ 3. ...you have a hard time reading a book over 200 pages.
___ 4. ...you have difficulty balancing your checkbook, but you can site
Dewey Decimal numbers to the third decimal place.
___ 5. ...you're always looking for more time and more money.
___ 6. ...the shelves in the Media Center are neat and orderly, but your
desk is a disaster area.
___ 7. ...people say, "you don't look like a librarian," even though you
wear your glasses on a chain.
___ 8. ...you buy a book and ask the clerk for a second copy of the"invoice".
___ 9. ...you walk into a bookstore and feel lost without the Dewey labels
on the shelves.
___10. ...you imagine that all the books in the church library would be
simple to catalog under one heading.
___11. ...you come home from shopping, open the trunk, and look around
behind you for a book cart to haul the groceries.
___12. ...your child brings home a note from the teacher which states that
it issn't necessary for you to put spine labels on your child's textbooks.
___13. ...the principal wants to speak to you about your volunteer time in
your child' library...evidently someone reprogrammed the circulation
computer to print out all the books your child borrows each month and the
rookie librarian can't fix it!
___14. ...your spices are alphabetized.
___15. ...your own kid's books have clolred dots on the spine to color code
them by broad topics on their bookshelves (fairy tales, poetry,
non-fiction, fiction, easy, etc.).
___16. ...the clothes in your closet are grouped by color.
___17. ...you have a laundry hamper that your husband built for you with
individual bags hung on dowel rods, each labeled "light perma-press", "dark
perma-press", etc., so you can keep your laundry sorted until you have time
to wash!
___18. ...you have an old, refinished card catalog in your living room with
your cassette tapes and cds in them for storage.  They aren't stuck in
there randomly, either!!  They have little labels on the outside of the
drawers: piano, Christmas, storytelling, classical,etc.
___19. ...when you go into a bookstore, you find yourself explaining things
to the clerks: ISBN, possilbe subjects to use when looking for books on the
computer system.  You also suggest titles to them that they should keep
stocked in their children's department.
___20. ...you posess several library cards from several different libraries.
___21. ...whenever visiting a new town or traveling, you make it a point to
visit the library.
___22. ...your home has a "library" in each major room for each of the
different formats: video, audio, albums, magazines, children's books, etc.,
in your house and reading materials in all the others.
___23. ...you are so busy with your work library, that your own kids return
their library books late.
___24. ...you get tired of having to hear the same old line at social
gatherings, "I didn't know you needed a college degree to be a librarian."
___25. ...you prefer comfortable shoes to pretty ones.
___26. ...when someone at home is using the phone, you go to another room
to use another line!
___27. ...you find yourself organizing your personal files at home with
Sears Subject Headings, or LC;, ie: instead of filing pictures of possible
hairstyles under the obvious Hairstyles, you file it under Grooming,
Personal.
___28. ...you find yourself answering your home phone: "This is so-and -so.
<ay i help you?"
___29. ...you ask your husband if he's seen the purchase order for Marshall
Field's.
___30. ...your scrap paper at home are used catalog cards.
___31. ...you loan your neighbor a cup of sugar and put a date due slip on
for the container's return.
___32. ...you wish the internet were neat and tidy.
___33. ...you're going to have your tombstone say: copyright c 1952
deleted 200+
___34. ...the kids recognize you by the sight of your rear end sticking out
from underneath a computer                                    cart.
___35. ...you can only read books that have at least 100 pages in them and
have never been made into a movie (for those high school folks out there)
___36. ...you wonder if you should start barcoding your personal books
because soooo many people have borrowed them.
___37. ...your favorite repair technique involves banging your fist on the
side/top/back of whatever peice of equipment.
___38. ...AV equipment always works for you (just lke that knocking
disappears when you take your car in for service)
___39. ...you can't remember anything, but you know where to look it up.
___40. ...most shopping trips include the phrase, "wow, my kids at school
would love that!" when

speaking about books, CD-ROMS, videos, stickers, bookmarks, or chairs.
___41. ...when you are planning a trip, you wonder if you will be near any
LM_NET librarians!
 if when you go to the bookstore you show the sales clerk how to work the
microfiche reader to look up books to order.

  if when you go to the bookstore you can work the computer ordering device
faster than the sales clerk and the clerk eventually lets you enter your
own requests.

  if the checks for the materials purchased at bookstores comes close to
the checks written to the local grocery store.

Karen DeFrank
Dorothy L. Bullock Elementary School
Glassboro, NJ
defrank@voicenet.com or dlb@snip.net
"Here's something to think about: How come you never see a
headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?"
-- Jay Leno