The Library and Microform

SEE:
Sitting in the second floor of the Library, my vision is blocked by the enormous “Microform Reader/Printer #7.” I don’t even know what microform is. However, it was the only available desk that also let me have a view of the main staircase. I doubt anyone will need to use this machine, or has needed to for the past 10 years. Most of the reading tables are along the edge of the building, by the windows, separated from the main circulation area in the center by shelves of books. Seeing as I didn’t really want to watch people read, I sat in the busiest part of the second floor, which unsurprisingly is not very “busy.”

There is a man sitting two tables away from me reading a magazine. He is very into this magazine. He looks about forty and is wearing casual pants that are too short and a sweatshirt. The desks we sit at are surrounded on three sides by book shelves, books and many filing cabinets that hold…what do they hold?

(I get out of my chair to look at the sign will small print on the filing cabinet)

MICROFORM!!! And on the titles of the drawers there are titles of magazines. So… using context clues, microforms are slides of magazines or newspaper? Is it like in the movies when detectives go scroll through those digitized old newspapers and always discover that the person they are looking for has actually been dead for 20 yeas, and their identity was stolen and so the person the detective is looking for really isn’t the person they are looking for? Anyway…

We are surrounded on three sides by bookshelves, books and many filing cabinets that hold microform. On the fourth side are the stairs, which every few minutes someone walks up. If I look across the stairs (around the Microform reader, of course), I can see two employees at a desk, under an enormous black sign with white letters that say REFERENCE. The security guard walks past me. So does a man in a Redskins wind breaker and a crocheted boat hat. I bet his wife made it for him. The magazine man gets up and walks down stairs, probably because there is a lot of noise.

HEAR:
This is not exactly the quietest library. The two desk workers are chatting away to a third librarian, probably about how awesome microform is. A rather enthusiastic typist is typing as loud as possible to my left, while on my right the elevator dings constantly and the well used door of the restroom bangs loudly as it closes. Behind me a man coughs, a woman’s cell phone goes off (twice), and a kid breathes oddly loud (He’s behind the shelves and I can still hear him. I wonder if he lost his inhaler.), and a girl’s chair squeaks loudly as she adjust positions, probably because her leg is asleep from sitting with it tucked under her.

FEEL:
I on the other hand, only feel the nice avocado green chair under me that probably came original with the microform machines. The tan laminate table top is smooth and cold with a surprisingly low amount of scratches/ graffiti. My Pilot Razor Point II is starting to hurt my hand, and every few lines I turn it in my hand to take a break from writing. My elbow sits on the table and I prop my chin in the palm of my hand. With my hand so close to my nose, I can smell the soap I used in the restroom before I sat down at the table.

SMELL:
The library looks like it should smell really dirty and old and like all of the early 80’s furnishings that are all laminate or green or brown. However, it smells fine. Nice even. Every once and a while I get a wif of my perfume I sprayed on this morning from a sample bottle I got for free when walking through Nordstrom. Or a wif of an unbathed fellow walking by that, I would bet, just parked his shopping cart by the side of the building. He had a bit of his previous meal still left in his beard.

TASTE:
I did not taste anything in the library. Eww. Gross.




Microform: noun- 1.any form, either film or paper, containing microreproductions. 2. An arrangement of images reduced in size, as on microfilm or microfiche.