Yesterday I went to the library with the purpose of getting some info off of some floppy disks I have since I no longer have a floppy disk drive. Ninety percent of these floppy disks are simply photos: stuff I had developed and put on disk ten years ago and photo disks from when Elijah was a baby that I got from the photographer.

I only had one hour before the kid-watching-area closed and some of that time was taken up with buying a punch card for Elijah and taking him over there. I then went into the library (this is all in our community center), walked past the front desk after signing in to use a computer, to the genealogy section where I always go. There are two computers there, separate from the main computer area. They are better because there’s not usually many people back there, it’s near all the stuff I might need (books, more tables, microfilm, etc.), and the monitors aren’t down in the desks. I hate desks like that, hurts my neck.

So I pop in a floppy disk, then one of my jump drives. The plan is simple: copy files from floppy disks to USB drive, be done within 20 minutes to a half an hour. The USB disk didn’t want to load. I suspected as much, I mostly have trouble getting all but one to work any other time; dig out the other one and try that. While I’m waiting for the computer to find that, someone comes running at me. I mean literally running around the corner.

It’s Library Guy.

This guy… I don’t know him, but he’s been around the whole time I’ve been in this town. He’s one of those what you might call “funny little” men. He’s also got this air of superiority about him and has a strange demeanor. So he’s basically freaking out at this point and it takes me a second to realize that he’s telling me that I cannot use any floppies or USB disks on the computer until they’ve been scanned for viruses and “approved” by him.

Um… I just kind of look at him and say, “ooookay…” I laugh and tell him there are no viruses but he’s welcome to scan all twenty floppies and three jump drives if he wants.

He says something about it being the rules and I say that I understand that, I just didn’t know about the supposed rule. I do understand that those are the rules BUT he was just so figity and strange, it was weirding me out. Not to mention that those shouldn’t be the rules, they should have a virus checker on the computer to handle disks that are put in, simple. Heck, if anyone’s afraid of getting a virus, it should be me, not them. After all, this is what the computer I was using said:

So he ran off with my floppies and three USB drives not leaving me a chance to tell him I was only going to use one USB and which of the floppies I was going to use. I’m left to sit there and stare into space wondering how in the world he even knew I had those and was using them. I mean, none of them were out in the open when I walked by, just had my purse and my laptop in a sleeve. And I’m all the way on the other side of this huge room, around a corner… and I’m quiet.

Then he comes running back, asking if I have a library card and have I signed all that stuff about internet rules. Yes.

He comes back again, telling me to rewrite my name on the sign-in sheet. He says he can read my first name but that my last name is “illegible.” Um,… okay…

Then he comes back again and insists I don’t have a library card OR internet papers. I know that I have internet papers because I’ve signed them twice. Apparently the library card expires after three years though and I got that however long ago. So I have to go up to the desk and fill out more crap. At this point, I’m thinking I should just forget this, I don’t have much time, but I press on, considering using a fake name/address. Too bad I’ve already signed my name on the sign-in sheet and my USB drives are named with my last name. :P

He continues to scan my stuff and I continue to smile and say “thank you” more than I should have to. I copy my files and I get out of there as soon as I can, though at one point I had to bring E in with me for a few minutes because the kid area closed at noon.

You know though, scanning stuff may be the rule and it may be a good rule in some cases, but seriously. If they would keep their virus checker updated, they wouldn’t have to worry about this. Not to mention, I am there all the time using stuff and have never caused a problem, etc. I’m there on every second Tuesday night and every fourth Saturday for meetings and workshops. No one has ever asked us to sign anything except for the first person there signs in both computers for us… one signature. And we all use drives and no one says a thing unless, heaven forbid, someone sets a soda on a computer desk.

I also thought about how his “scanning” my disks in a main desk computer where I cannot see what’s going on can be an invasion of my privacy. I didn’t know what was on those floppies, how do I know he wasn’t removing stuff or going through everything? It did take him an awful long time to do two USB drives and two floppies. Maybe he’s opening every file to see if it has a virus in it. :P

He’s the dude in charge, though, so… whatever. I just don’t like being treated like I’m 3-years-old by men who are on the verge of a nervous break-down. It’s just that I remember why when I go I tend to avoid him and that I’m glad when we have our meetings and stuff that he’s not there. :P It’s good, though, that they’re finally sending out some wi-fi, so each of us can bring our laptops and do what we need to on that. I’ve discovered I can access one of the library-edition databases from home if I access it there on the community center’s wi-fi and then don’t close my browser. I can still use it now from when I was there last night, going on 24 hours later. (If you try to access it anywhere else, it asks you for a login that you don’t have.)

So, yeah, hopefully now that this floppy disk adventure is over I won’t need their stinking, probably virus-ridden computers anymore. At one point though, while I was bored waiting on floppies, I was messing around on the internet and clicked a Google ad that turned out to take me to a casino. I was unable to delete the history. I’m sure he ran over there as soon as I left and checked out the history and I’m probably banned from touching a computer in the library again anyway. :P

Oh, terror? I fooled you. :P