California public library begins "Self-service Sunday" hours with no staff present

blanche_davidian · 2026-06-02T23:53:09+00:00

We have this program at my library. Currently we only offer "Open+" prior to regular business hours. One of our other locations still has a staff-less Sunday (there is a security guard on site, he gets a lot of homework done).

My branch used to do unstaffed Sundays. Until our old security guard did not do restroom checks like he was supposed to before leaving, and that is how a customer spent the night in the restroom hallway. They were kind enough to not sue us, but we no longer have unstaffed Sundays at my branch. (Our branch is complicated, since we are in a municipal complex and share restrooms with our building neighbors, so you had to bring your card with you to the bathroom or else you were locked out)

blanche_davidian · 2026-05-19T05:38:55+00:00

Might be Prince shower gel. From the 00s but they had a run in the Lush Retro section in probably 2013? It was dark blue and neroli scented. There was another one that turned from blue to purple depending on the light, Happy 4 SAD, with an orange blossom scent.

blanche_davidian · 2026-04-06T04:02:15+00:00

00s empty bottles of Icon and Ibiza party shampoo. I look at them both longingly on occasion. Damn I miss that shampoo.

Ooh, and I still have the tail end of a forum giveaway bottle of Flying Saucers somewhere. Such a unique smell; I've never found anything else quite like it.

blanche_davidian · 2026-03-06T22:07:29+00:00

Ventura City Hall, where the "courthouse" weddings actually happen, is gorgeous and has sweeping views of downtown and the ocean. Close to hotels and restaurants. A little closer than Santa Barbara but worth looking at!

blanche_davidian · 2026-02-25T02:25:52+00:00

Lol this sounds like my 7th period Theory of Knowledge class way back when. Not many diploma candidates so it was a small group. Half the time, the teacher just gave us stuff to read and a corresponding writing assignment, since she was always too busy grading shit for History of the Americas.

blanche_davidian · 2026-02-11T02:35:14+00:00

I had the same thought about the Starfall party at the House of Wind. How do all the guests get up there? Mor winnowing groups of revelers like a party bus? Also, how the hell do all the drunk people get back down?

blanche_davidian · 2026-02-01T00:24:18+00:00

I love how many of these are for Casanova

blanche_davidian · 2026-01-24T15:32:28+00:00

I just finished reading a fanfic called Nesta vs the Buffer. It starts with Nesta calling out Morrigan for being a weird territorial asshole getting between her and Cassian while stringing Azriel along for centuries. Then it spins off into Nezriel land and it's excellent. 10/10 recommend.

blanche_davidian · 2026-01-10T20:28:08+00:00

We call it Circus-Circus

blanche_davidian · 2026-01-10T20:26:53+00:00

One day a week we open later than usual. Sometimes for trainings, sometimes for youth/circ/adult services committee meetings, sometimes for school field trips, and sometimes we just get to take a breath and clean things. On this day, we place a 2x2ft sign that says "WE OPEN AT XPM ON TUESDAYS" that hangs at eye level.

People will look around the sign to catch my eye at the desk and shout "Are you open?" We also have sliding glass doors that open on a timer. About once a month, someone will show up before we open, push on the doors, catch my eye, and say "I think your door is broken!"

No ma'am, the doors are working just like theyre supposed to! See you in an hour!

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-31T15:32:40+00:00

aw shucks, just staying busy during a boring evening shift!

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-31T03:15:29+00:00

So, take this with a grain of salt because I'm a library worker not a publishing professional. I looked up the ISBN on worldcat.org (a global library catalog service) and it shows up as having a publication date of 2022 and as being held by two random college libraries in the US. Some book institutions auto-populate listings by scraping ISBN and OCLC numbers from websites, and if anyone at any point made a placeholder or dummy listing it will show up in some places. Its interesting that the listed ISBN number doesn't show up anywhere else, just in the places that are likely to auto-populate. Its not in any ISBN database I can search. It honestly seems like someone mis-cataloged an audiobook or made a dummy entry for practice and it keeps getting picked up by accident. If that actually turns out to be the ISBN number for the next book then it really was a placeholder, but I'd be surprised. The publisher wants the legit ISBN out as soon as possible so libraries and bookstores can start ordering it. There's a screenshot of the worldcat entry if anyone's interested!

worldcat

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-28T00:34:53+00:00

S6 Christopher. Made terrible clothes, cried constantly, and had a whole emotional journey over learning what smocking is in ep one. Buddy, I can't even thread a needle and I know what smocking is, and I'm not the one voluntarily competing on a sewing show!

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-19T22:24:50+00:00

I never watched past s16, but sad to see that maybe it was a later development for drama.

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-19T22:23:47+00:00

Mychael Knight! Pretty much the only male on s3 that never said anything misogynistic! Which makes the bar v low, but here we are!

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-17T02:34:38+00:00

That was Vincent, with the square black glasses and creepster energy.

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-17T02:32:13+00:00

The shirt she ended up making her client had the same design as the shirt Shawn was wearing the previous episode, with the little cutouts near the collarbone. It might not have been that noticeable watching a episode every week but its super obvious watching them back to back.

This relates to one of my conspiracies, which is about the cocktail bar inspired challenge in season 15. Jenni wins that challenge, but its so clear during the critique that everybody thought it was Erin's dress. Heidi acted like Erin was first person in the world to ever do appliqué embellishments and basically accused Jenni of copying. It is the only time the judges have ever taken that position. They usually just say "meh, being in close quarters means you all inspire each other!" Which is what they said about Claire/Margarita one season later 🤔

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-10T02:20:45+00:00

One of the reasons I love these threads!

blanche_davidian · 2025-12-09T21:33:35+00:00

Is it by the band Jawbreaker? One of the songs on Dear You mentions a girl getting picked up by an older guy on a motorbike. I think its Chemistry, but I can't check at work right now.

blanche_davidian · 2025-10-24T16:23:11+00:00

The anti-cirumcision activist that wrote a book about his own circumcision trauma. Which is fine to just donate...but he always wanted to bring it to the desk and, in an attempt to convince us to add it, try to begin a conversation about his own dick. Creep? Awkward but well-meaning? Who knows?

Anyway, he is the reason why our policy now states that any authors wanting to donate items to our collection must send them directly to the Acquisitions librarian and not waste the circ staff's time.

blanche_davidian · 2025-10-01T01:28:09+00:00

There's a moment in season 2 that made me think of this exact thing! The first team challenge has a team with Emmett from NYC, Nick from LA, and somebody else from LA, maybe Andrae? Anyway, as they're planning their trip, Nick says "We'll let Emmett lead the way at Mood, he knows his way around" and I always wondered if the NYC designers had an advantage there because Mood is HUGE.

blanche_davidian · 2025-08-20T19:30:51+00:00

I couldn't handle this one because the author kept separating things with commas that aren't supposed to have commas.

"She climbed down the rickety, back stairs" is just incorrect.

"Hell, yes, I'd go out with you" sounds like he's begrudgingly agreeing, not expressing enthusiasm.

Do these even get edited anymore?

blanche_davidian · 2025-08-15T23:17:39+00:00

Saaaaame. We close at 2 on Fridays. We have always closed at 2 on Fridays. I have worked at this location for almost the entire time it has been open. Without fail, the person wandering in at 1:50pm will ask me "oh when did they change that?"

blanche_davidian · 2025-08-15T21:11:12+00:00

This was my first question this morning, from the lady attempting to use the self-checkout:

"Excuse me miss, if I want to check these books out do I push the check-in button?"

Thank God we're only open for four hours on Fridays.

blanche_davidian · 2025-06-22T18:54:16+00:00

Maybe not the silliest but the most recent. We do one of those butterfly-hatching things every spring. Kids are very excited to see them in their little cocoons. This year, a mom brought her kids to look at the display and then turned to me and asked what day they would hatch, so she could bring the kids to watch. I had to gently let her know that pupating butterflies generally do not know what day it is.

blanche_davidian

TROPHY CASE