You guys! You guys!!!! My name is in print! And no, not in the Police Blotter. Actually, I was interviewed for an article about library social networking for the local weekly shopper that gets distributed in the town where I work but that is a TOTALLY different story. One that isn't worth telling.
Here it is: I got a fun email from the fabulous Lindsay Barber from the Bloomington Public Library last weekend. She let me know that I was named in the acknowledgments in a book! Like, a real book. That is in print. That people can buy on Amazon. For real.
Let me explain how this came to be. Librarians always have patrons that they see on a regular basis at the library. One of my regulars at BPL was Walter Mittelstaedt. I always worked Thursday nights on the reference desk and every week like clockwork, Walter would appear between 7 and 8 PM. This is a man who loves to chat. Who has an amazing memory- he always remembered my birthday, how many wins and losses the Cubs had had that season and how to spell my married name correctly. A man who loved classic movies and movie music. He is one of those patrons that you will always remember.
When I first met Walter, I noticed that he said he was always researching for a book. I didn't know him from Adam so I asked a co-worker "Hey, is this guy really writing a book or is he another one of those patrons who is very nice but also a little bit crazy?" But no. He really was writing books. In fact, we had one he'd written on Shakespeare for students on our nonfiction shelves. And it actually got checked out. Walter would talk a bit about his books and the places where he was requesting microfilm from and I soon discovered that his tastes were very broad. He loved Shakespeare and had been writing about one of his lost plays for a long time. He also loved bank robbers and was writing a book on John Dillinger. Right before I left BPL to move to Wisconsin he told me that he finally had a publisher for one of his books and was having to edit his index (which was a huge pain).
Back to the email. In it was a link to Google Books and the entry for Walter's new book, Herman "Baron" Lamm, the Father of Modern Bank Robbery. And sure enough I was named, proper spelling and all, along with other librarians from BPL in the acknowledgments. I've only read the preface and the prologue so far and I have to say, I know nothing about bank robbers but it all sounds very much like Walter :)
You never know when one of the regular patrons from your past will reappear. I guess I need to buy a copy and go back to BPL on a Thursday night to have Walter autograph it for me.
Here it is: I got a fun email from the fabulous Lindsay Barber from the Bloomington Public Library last weekend. She let me know that I was named in the acknowledgments in a book! Like, a real book. That is in print. That people can buy on Amazon. For real.
Let me explain how this came to be. Librarians always have patrons that they see on a regular basis at the library. One of my regulars at BPL was Walter Mittelstaedt. I always worked Thursday nights on the reference desk and every week like clockwork, Walter would appear between 7 and 8 PM. This is a man who loves to chat. Who has an amazing memory- he always remembered my birthday, how many wins and losses the Cubs had had that season and how to spell my married name correctly. A man who loved classic movies and movie music. He is one of those patrons that you will always remember.
When I first met Walter, I noticed that he said he was always researching for a book. I didn't know him from Adam so I asked a co-worker "Hey, is this guy really writing a book or is he another one of those patrons who is very nice but also a little bit crazy?" But no. He really was writing books. In fact, we had one he'd written on Shakespeare for students on our nonfiction shelves. And it actually got checked out. Walter would talk a bit about his books and the places where he was requesting microfilm from and I soon discovered that his tastes were very broad. He loved Shakespeare and had been writing about one of his lost plays for a long time. He also loved bank robbers and was writing a book on John Dillinger. Right before I left BPL to move to Wisconsin he told me that he finally had a publisher for one of his books and was having to edit his index (which was a huge pain).
Back to the email. In it was a link to Google Books and the entry for Walter's new book, Herman "Baron" Lamm, the Father of Modern Bank Robbery. And sure enough I was named, proper spelling and all, along with other librarians from BPL in the acknowledgments. I've only read the preface and the prologue so far and I have to say, I know nothing about bank robbers but it all sounds very much like Walter :)
You never know when one of the regular patrons from your past will reappear. I guess I need to buy a copy and go back to BPL on a Thursday night to have Walter autograph it for me.
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