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January 30, 2023 38 mins

Today is a deep dive episode into the wonderful world of libraries! Yes, libraries are a place where you can find books but they also provide so many amazing services to the community and we're gonna learn about what some of them are! And we are joined by our delightful special guest, David Russell! David is a librarian, bookseller and storyteller who is thankful to live in Georgia after spending 28 years in the Buffalo area. In addition to being an experienced storytelling host, he has also performed at Naked City, Carapace, Write Club Atlanta, Titans of Talking and Stories On The Edge Of Night, Story Collider, and was a Moth Storytelling Finalist. He won his first storytelling award at the age of 9 and has been addicted ever since. 

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous News is a production of I Heart Radio and
Cool Cool Cool Audio. Hey, Amazing Ridiculous News listeners. We
wanted to put this special note for y'all at the
top of this episode that after the season we're gone
on highest. We have had such a blast creating this
show for y'all. It has been one of the coolest
creative experiences of our careers, and so of course we

(00:20):
want to stay in touch with you all. So for
updates follow us on social media. I'm on Instagram at
Mark Kendall Comedy and I'm at Worthy Bird Pictures that's
w R L E Y, and of course follow Ridiculous
News podcasts as well for updates. We would love to
hear from you all. Okay, so without further ado, let's
get to this amazing episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're amazing

(00:45):
and crazy comics to pig in to choose you would
now do the antil Ridiculous News with interesting viewers. Will
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while reports to keep us last and an up the journalism,
the strange and the usual stories, so well we give them.
We're it's all about ridiculous News, well about Ridiculous. Hey everyone,

(01:06):
welcome to Ridiculous News, not your ravage news show. We
cover stuff you didn't realize was news from the wild
and funny, to the deep and hidden, to the absolutely ridiculous.
I'm Mark Kendallum in Atlanta based comedian and I love
going to library to find a book to study, go
vote anything. Uh. They are amazing places that means so
much to their communities and that is why today is
a deep dive episode into the wonderful world of libraries.

(01:29):
And we are joined by our delightful special guest, David Russell.
David is a librarian, bookseller, and storyteller who is thankful
to live in Georgia after spending twenty eight years in
the Buffalo area. In addition to being an experienced storytelling host,
he has also performed at Naked City, Carapist, Right Club Atlanta,
Titans of Talking, and Stories on the Edge of Night
story Collider, and he was also a Moth Storytelling finalist. Dude,

(01:53):
this is the best storyteller I know, for real, no,
no exaggeration. He won his first storytelling award at age
nine and it's been a adicted ever since. David, Welcome
to ridiculous news. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much. Mark. Like I just said, this
is my first podcast I'm honoring. Yeah you man, You're yeah, Yeah,
it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. So, David,

(02:13):
We're gonna do a segment that we do with all
of our guests. It is called giving them their flowers.
So this is the part of the show where I'm
going to give you a short compliment. The only rule
is you just have to accept these flowers, so you
can't like compliment me back or anything like that. So, uh, David,
especially you know, I was thinking about this since we're
talking about libraries and the service, uh that they do
for their communities. You are a person that also really

(02:37):
serves the community. It's like anytime I'm talking to you
about your work at the library, are always talking about
things that that that they're doing for the community. You
as a member of the theater and storytelling communities in Atlanta,
you are always such a great audience member, supporting shows, me,
other people in the area. Uh. You you are someone
that like helps people through action in addition to like

(02:59):
kind words and everything, like really you know, walk that
walk and so I really admire that about you. I
think you're awesome. Thank you. I appreciate absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
So we're gonna move on to our next segment. So
this is the News Nibbles portion of the show. So
these are some quick headlines that caught our eye and
they are all centered around libraries. So this first one

(03:22):
is by Rebecca Jones from BBC News and the headline
is stolen Charles Darwin notebooks left on library floor in
pink gift bag. So what happened was there were two
quote stolen notebooks written by Charles Darwin and they were
mysteriously returned to Cambridge University twenty two years after they

(03:43):
were last seen. So there were these small leather bound
books and these things are worth millions of pounds and
it includes the Scientists Tree of Life sketch. So these
notepads date back to the eighteen thirties and they were
from after Darwin had returned from the Galapagos Islands and
on one page he drew a Spinley sketch of a

(04:05):
tree which helped inspire his theory of evolution and more
than twenty years later, would become a central theory in
his roundbreaking work on the origin of species. So they
were returned. These these notepads were returned to the library
about fifteen months after the BBC first highlighted they had

(04:25):
gone missing. Uh and the library launched like a worldwide
appeal to find them. So I thought that was pretty
wild to hear. Yeah, that's that's pretty incredible. I know. Um,
when libraries like go fine free, I'm not saying that
was the case here, but when they do the fine
free like we did at the CAB, we got so
much material back and like anytime somebody is like cleaning

(04:47):
out like a grandparent's house and they see books, you know,
they have that residual Catholic guilt and they you know,
returned them to the library. So we've we've gotten we've
gotten a lot of material back ourselves. The best incredible.
It's like if you said his three that was finally
returned and you know, able to be seen by anyone. Um.
I haven't found anything that valuable in my time at

(05:09):
a CAB. My first day, I did find a huge
jar of pickles in the bathroom long with the notebook,
but no, nothing nothing related to the theory is the
evolution of Darwin. But yeah, that's incredible. I love I
love stories like that where they're like, you know, books

(05:30):
returned after eighty six years overdue or whatnot. So yeah,
that's great, I love it. Wait, so I want to
go back to this large thing of pickles and a
notepad that you had. Can you explain a little bit
more about that? This sounds kind of wild. Yes, it was.
That was That was it. There were note pages in

(05:52):
the stall um and there was opened large jar of pickles.
Large when I say large, which I don't mean you know,
like this was like like costcode or b J size.
This wasn't like, you know, twenty ounces of tackles or
anything like that. This was like you had, it had
some haft, and it was That was my first night

(06:16):
closing the library. That's what I found interesting. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah,
that's interesting because it's just like, I'm curious why you
would bring them into the bathroom, and then why you
wouldn't also take them with you if it was so
many of them. You know, I mean, people eat in
our bathrooms a lot, but not not that. So yeah,

(06:42):
you know, not as exciting as Darwin. But that's the
first thing I remember finding as a librarian. Yeah, well,
I mean that is that is certainly memorable, you know,
um so so. So it's interesting about these notepads that
got returned at the time of this article being written.
They still don't know who you know returned them. Uh

(07:04):
so the person that returned them, uh left them anonymously
in a bright pink gift bag containing the notepads and
uh yeah, and on it was an envelope that had
a message on it saying librarian, Happy Easter X. So yeah,

(07:24):
that's the beauty of library drop boxes. You know, you
can be anonymous, you can put in, put in anything
you want, you know, or you know, libraries in general,
but especially to those drop boxes. You know, we found
bathing suits, We found a whole bunch of things in
our drop boxes. So yeah, that that is the beauty
of the library, the anonymity. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely well, moving

(07:47):
on from some Darwin note pads. Uh this story comes
from the Washington Post by Kelly B. Gormley, and this
headline is an eight year old slid his handwritten book
on to a library shelf. It now has a year's
long wait list. If you heard about this, yeah, yeah,
that's loved that. Yeah. Yeah. So Dylan hell Big at

(08:12):
the time of the article was a second grader living
in Idaho, and they wrote about a Christmas adventure on
the pages of a red covered notebook and they illustrated
it with colored pencils. So they finished this book in
mid December and they're like, hey, I want to share
this with other people. And so they went into the library,

(08:33):
you know, and the Aida Community Library more specifically, which
is the Lake Hazel branch and Boise. And so they
went to the library with their grandmother and they had
this eighty one page book walked inside and so then
they just put it on the children's picture books sell
shelf and no one saw him do it, and Dylan

(08:53):
was quoted as saying it was naughty ish, uh. But
then when they asked him about the result, he said,
it is pretty cool. And so this book is titled
The Adventures of Dylan Helbig's Christmas, signed by Dylan hisself.
So library staff they found this book, they're like, yo,
that's pretty good. I mean, we found it in an

(09:14):
unconventional way, but this book is solid. And so they
asked for permission, uh, like, hey, can we add this
to our library. So the book got a barcode uh
and formally added it to the library collection and so
now it's part of their Graphic novel section for kids,
teens and adults. And they also gave Dylan its first

(09:36):
Houdini Award for Best Young Novelist, which is a category
the library created for him, named after the libraries owl mascot.
That's incredible. Yeah, I love that. I love What I
love about that is I mean it really shows the
sense of the community, you know in libraries, and the
sense you can kind of go in and, you know,

(09:58):
with your do it yourself type spirit, and it shows
that the library staff they can recognize that and care
as opposed to saying, what is this, let's just throw
it out, They're like, you know, this is pretty awesome.
Let's find a way. Let's find a way to get
to Yes, let's find a way to make this work
and make this, you know, this book part of our collection. This,
you know, this kid feel part of our community. I

(10:19):
mean we share the fact that we want our first
awards from a library. You know, as a kid, I
did my Storytelling Award, he did his Houdini Awards. So
me and Dylan we share something in common there. But
the fact that you know that you can you can
write a book completely bypassed the publishing process but the

(10:42):
buying process, and you know, just put it on a
shell and have that work out. I mean there's a
lot of stories about people like kind of doing that,
and you know, from plastic class and like college libraries
which are massive. But yeah, I love that story so much,
and I'm glad that it's just another example of live
where he's like embracing the unexpected and running with it

(11:04):
in the right way as opposed to like, you know,
being a rule follower. No, this isn't you didn't you know,
fill out an application you didn't want, you know, they
just did it the right way. So that's that's what
I love about that, just him feeling comfortable enough to
do it and go for it, and the library making
it work for him and going the extra mile to

(11:26):
give him an award and whatnot. It reminds me of
that story I heard that um Abby Jacobson from Broad City.
She used to sneak her art into the night, like
the gift shop, just the way get it out there. Yeah,
that's awesome. Yeah, it's just kind of you know the
same thing. People do what they can to get you

(11:48):
know their art to the world, and he chose the library,
and the librarians helped him out and made it happen.
That's why I love that story so much. Yeah. Absolutely,
I remember, you know, being a younger kid and for
school writing and illustrating these books, and I remember being
super proud of those. I mean, like, you're like, this

(12:09):
is a book I wrote, this is my story, you know.
So I totally get this kid being like, yo, this
this book here is a master work and people need
to read it. And so I'm glad that the library
was able to affirm that. Yeah, and uh, yeah, what
was your first book? You know, I don't remember the
first one, but I do remember writing this book and

(12:32):
I drew pencils on the cover, you know, so I
have a I have a memory of that, and so
I guess it was maybe a story about some pencils.
Do you remember your yes? Yeah, what was it? I'd
love to hear it? Was it first grade? Yeah? It's
called NCAM Proof Nintendo about like a sentient Nintendo that

(12:53):
would like follow kids around and like just like talk
to them. I love that. Yeah, that's awesome, great title.
It was all downhill from there. It was a great title. Awesome. Yeah, Yeah,
we're gonna take a quick break to hear a word
from our sponsor. Yeah, would Amazing and Crazy Comics to

(13:18):
choose you ridiculous news. All right, Shaws. So we're back,
uh with our deep dive episode talking about libraries. I'm
with David Russell, who is an amazing librarian himself. So
I'm so happy to have such an expert with us
here today. And so, David, what I wanted to talk
to you about was just kind of like the breath

(13:39):
of what libraries do and how much they really do
mean to communities, because you know, if it's been a
while since you've been to the library, might be like, oh, yeah,
libraries great, you can go there, you can study, you know,
you can get a book or two. Um. But you know,
from knowing you over the years, I've learned libraries do
so much, and so I kind of want to start
off just kind of broad speaking, you know, you as

(14:01):
a library and can you speak to just some of
the things that libraries do for people that you may
not necessarily know if you haven't been to a library
in a minute. Yeah. Absolutely, A lot of people still
think that libraries are just books. You know, TELP people
on the librarian, they're like, oh are they still around?
You know, are they anequated? People willmost read on their
computers now. And what people don't realize is there's still

(14:25):
like a digital divide in this country and there's so
many people that don't even have access to a computer
and they go to libraries for computer use. I mean,
our computers are filled every day. And you know, these
people don't have Internet on their cell phones if they
have a cell phone, and they don't have computers, and
you know, they are completely dependent on the library. And
it's so important for social services because now everything they need,

(14:50):
social Security, food stamps, everything is an online application. So
you know, they come to the library and we have
to you know, we help them one by one go
through this process or you know, we do programs with
community organizations that you know can go in our meeting
room and help them with the process. But it's a
lot of just one on one with people that you

(15:10):
know need the technology help and we are able to
give that to them. And that's just I mean, they're
they're in there, open to close. And another another big
thing that libraries do, uh is we really help our
patrons experiencing homelessness because if you think about it, a

(15:33):
library is one of the only places you can go
from open to close where you're not pressured in buying anything.
You can just you know, you can find your corner,
you can be where you need to be, you can
use the computer, you can read anything you want, and
you don't have to pay a penny to do it.
So that I mean, for them, the libraries are an

(15:54):
absolute lifeline. That's why on days like this where it's
getting cold, you know, we tell them about all the
shelters that are open, and you know, we just make
sure and they look out for each other and our
patrons look out for them. So again, libraries are just
a huge resource for the homeless in terms of you know,
finding them help and just giving them shelter. And then

(16:17):
we do a library of things where you can check
out more than way more than books. You can check
out the internet. We have hot spots so you can
take the internet home with you and you can check
out the laptop with the internet, so you don't have
to come to the library every day. And that was
huge during the pandemic to get the internet kids that
had to do school online, so that was that was

(16:39):
huge and still is. We have more hotspots than anybody
else in the state. Two we're over two d hot
spots that are checked out on a constant basis. Along
with laptops, um, we also we check out We're about
to start checking out soccer balls. I just partners with
Soccer in the Streets. So we're checking out things to
make sure kids are active in the libraries and outside

(17:02):
the libraries and we uh yeah. So it's just a
lot of finding ways to get the community to realize
that libraries aren't just books. We have We had a
seed library that we checked out seeds for people wanting
to start gardening. And we have a steam kits so
if you wanted to be into you know, a science

(17:23):
and technology kit where you could you know, do anything
with that. I also did a program where you can
come to the library and record in oral history with
a relative or friend court sort of story corps. But
you can do that just with the library with a
library card. And I started the library so you can
check out ties. If you have a job interview, you know,

(17:45):
if you're getting married, whatever you need to tie. You
don't have that type of income, you know, you don't
even need a library card, you can just go ask
for a tie. So what everything I do, you know,
between programming, is just trying to get people to find
ways to come to the library and realized we're so
much more than just books. So that's that's basically the
breath of what we what we're doing over over at

(18:09):
the library. I love that. That's so cool and that's
so much you know what I mean like that, that's
that's really amazing and thank you, thank you for doing that.
Um you know, I also pulled this article are amazing.
Researcher Casey broke down this article called twenty five Amazing
facts about libraries from Mental floss uh and had a
lot of the similar services daven that you were mentioning. So,

(18:30):
for example, you know, New York's Public Library has a
thing where members can borrow accessories like neckties and briefcases,
you know, like to go on a job interview, much
like you were talking about, you know, people being able
to get ties um or like in Alaska, apparently they
have a taxidermy collection at one of their libraries, and

(18:52):
so patrons of the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services
and Anchorage can borrow from their collection. Of taxidermy items,
including animals, bones and hers, bear and wolf for are
among the most popular requests because they're often used in
Boy Scout promotional ceremonies. Harry Potter fans opt for snowy
owl mounts. Borrowers are asked not to remove specimens from

(19:15):
their glass containers. But I thought that was like you
can get taxider you know. The article also mentions, uh,
there's a Yale University library that used to allow stressed
out students to borrow therapy dog. So the Lillian Goldman
Law Library at Yale University used to allow patrons to
check out General Montgomery a k A Monty Border Terrier

(19:38):
mix and certified therapy dog for thirty minutes of companionship.
Um Morning passed away unfortunately. So that's that's why they
no longer do that. But at one point you have
mentioned you said, and let me know if I'm messing
up the wording, but you said like a library of
things as opposed to books. Yeah, yeah, And and I
had never heard that phrase before, but it makes so

(19:58):
much sense in terms of getting at what you were
talking about, in terms of just like the breath of
what libraries can offer. Yeah, we do this. We also
do this program. I mean, we do programs with therapy
dogs as well, where kids can read to them, where
kids you know, maybe struggling with reading can go in
and read do a therapy dog. You know, it's like
a judgment free zone type of thing. And I also

(20:20):
run this warm up to cab where the Atlanta Neating
Society and other groups and you know, people just brought
in hats, gloves, scarves, and um. We work with an
organization called at Home for Everyone in the cab and
we you know, anybody that needs anything can just take it,
you know, either from the library or through a home
for everyone in the cab. And you know they also

(20:41):
provide shelter during the cold weather. So yeah, that's that's
another another way we're helping people outside of just you know,
sending them home with books or sending them home with
stuff that they can really you know, that will keep
them warm. Another um, when you were surprised that you know,
you can check out a dog, which is brilliant. I
love that. I know, other libraries during like finals weeks

(21:05):
or you know, like when the semester is stressful, they
they literally set up like soundproof screaming rooms in the
library really yeah, where you can just like scream and yeah,
so that made me think of that, but also it
made me think of another another thing we've done four

(21:26):
or five times called the Human Library, where you can
check out a person and like have a conversation with them.
So people from all walks of life, people who are
you know, HIV positive, people who are you know, other races,
other religions, you know, somebody who identifies as wicking, somebody
who may be trans, and you can like somebody you

(21:48):
may you know, not really have ever had an honest
conversation with, and you can talk to these people, you know,
in fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, whatever, and it's
you know, so you're checking out of her and having
like an honest conversation. We've done one that was just
themed around like you know, social justice and one of
the one of the people who had been in prison

(22:09):
like wrongfully conjected for thirty years and like out of
home should talk to him and like so yeah, that's
just like another way like you know, library can hosted
and don like that and really have a true impact
on a community. So we've we've done that a few
times and we're looking to do it against him. That's
that's really incredible, and that's really incredible. Yeah, in fostering

(22:30):
conversations between people exactly, you know that that that seems
like very powerful, you know, making connections for people, kind
of like creating community, you know, and you know, sound
proofing those rooms so you can let out a screen.
That makes a lot of sense that I don't know
if uh, I don't know if your school did this, David,
But at my college, it was either like the week

(22:52):
before finals week or like a couple of weeks before, uh,
at a certain day, at a certain time each quarter,
there was like what's called a primal scream, So like
at nine pm, everyone on campus at the same time
would just like scream if you wanted to. And so
like each quarter, like around final season, there's a particular

(23:12):
day we're depending on you where standing where you were
standing on campus, you would just hear these shrieks and
like it got very normal over time. But yeah, I
think that that's I think it's healthy to be like, yeah,
you know, it's a stressful time, let it out. You know.
For us, it was like it wasn't like a state,
you know, a school sanctioned thing. But I went to

(23:34):
a school that was right on Lake Ontario, and like
every year at the end of the semester, we would
do like like we would jump in the lake, no
matter if it was like December, it was like, yeah,
just like to like everything out and just you know,
cleans of the semester and do that now. But um right,

(23:56):
right right, yeah, that was that. That's that's what we did.
That was our thing. We didn't we didn't scream. Yeah,
jumping in that cold leg that just kind of makes
me think of purple rain and uh talk, that's when
comes to mind me. I don't know, I know, it's
not the same thing at all, but that that's that's
the moment the game. Yeah yeah, yeah. We will be

(24:18):
right back with more ridiculous news after this short break.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, don't confused ridiculous news all right, y'all.
So we're back with amazing David Russell talking about libraries. So, David,

(24:38):
we were just talking about all the amazing things that
libraries due to foster community and then also take care
of that community being a library of things in addition
to just being a place to go get books as
great as books are, and you know, I just kind
of wanted to learn a little bit more about what
what got you on this path? You know, like I
know that you're a brilliant storyteller, brilliant writer, you love books,

(25:01):
but uh, I'm just kind of curious, like how you
how you found libraries and decided like, yo, this is
this is where I want to be. Yeah, it wasn't
It certainly wasn't immediate. Um. My undergrad was in broadcasting
and English writing arts. UM. So I went to Sego
State right outside of Syracuse, and uh did play by

(25:23):
play for like hockey basketball, and it was fun. It
was great, Like especially because like the hockey team it
was DE three, so they didn't have like the regulations
of D one. So you have like twenty five year
old freshmen that just want to like, wow, have you
ever seen if you ever seen slap Shot, the movie
slap Shot, it's like exactly like that. You know, it's

(25:44):
just people getting me after the whistle and it's just
you know, it's like this totally it's just chaos. Oh
my gosh. It was great. But um, and then I
it's also where I fell in love with you know,
creative writing, um, which eventually led me a storytelling but
it wasn't like libraries wasn't my initial path. Right after,
I had like a bunch of other jobs. I worked

(26:04):
in publishing for a while. And when I worked in publishing,
I realized one of the highlights of my job was
like organizing the library at the publishing house, and like,
I love doing it, and you know, everybody else was
staying there. I wasn't able to get promoted anytime soon.
So the University of Buffalo, like literally right down the
street from the publishing house, had a library school, and

(26:27):
I was like, and somebody else at the publishing house
had just graduated, and I was like, yeah, sure, I'll
give it a try, and that that's what I did,
and I fell in love with it. And you know
the problem, the program was relatively short. I did the
whole thing from summer to summer in like one year
or so. And after that, it's snowed in May and
my graduation day and I was like, my body was

(26:49):
not meant to be in Buffalo anymore. So I started
looking for jobs much further south. And that's that's how
I ended up in uh in Georgia. Yeah, absolutely, that's
that's such a great story. And you know, now that
you've been in libraries for a while, you know what's

(27:10):
the most rewarding part of it for you, either day
to day or overall, Like, like, what's the most rewarding
part of working in libraries for you? I think the
most rewarding part is it's a job where you can, like,
you can help people on a daily basis in like
a multitude of different ways. It's not just like a

(27:31):
one one thing. You're helping everybody with you. You don't
know what you're going to get and any day, Like
one time at a library system I worked at, we
did tech help for seniors and this guy said, you know,
why is my cell phone beeping? And like we couldn't
figure out why his cell phone is beating because it
wasn't beeping. You know, we couldn't figure out what are

(27:52):
you was talking? And it turned out to it it
was it was not it was not beating, but he
said it was okay, it's very It was perplexing. We
realized it was his hearing it was low battery. Oh
my goodness, So he was here and his hearing it
thinking it was a cell phone. So it's stuff like

(28:12):
that where you're just like you're helping people in so
many different ways, or you know, other times it's just
as much as you know, you read a kid a
story while his mom applies for unemployment benefits or housing
or something like that, and you know you've affected her
in that way, and it's just something you do without
even thinking about it. But just the people that use libraries,

(28:33):
it could be like a literal you know, a literal lifesaver.
So I think what I love about my job is
just you never know what's going to come through the door.
It's kind of like medicine, yes in that way or
the year, but you just never know, you know what
somebody is gonna need on a daily basis. So being
able to help people in any way is really what

(28:56):
I love the most about the job. And then just
finding way is to get people in the building think
outside the box. Like one of my friends Klin, we
had a program with her where she took free family portraits.
Mhm um. We've done it with Analyze as well at CHAMPI.
But then Calin kind of took it over at Wesley

(29:17):
and uh she helped like thirty five families and she
did free family portraits of all of them that they
turned into Christmas cards. You know that that's just one
less expense they you know, they need for the you know,
for the Christmas season. So just finding ways to help

(29:38):
people and finding ways to get them in the library
and you know, help them with things that they might
not even realize any to help with. And absolutely I
love him my job. That's really cool. So, you know,
because you don't know what what you're going to run
into on any particular day, You're dealing with a wide
array of people. What you know, what skills kind of

(29:58):
are most important with that? Like what what do you
need to keep at the forefront of your mind when
you know you're you're you're dealing with so many different
variables each day. Yeah, just staying calm, you know, and
like nobody has the answer to everything, you know, knowing
what who on your staff is knowledgeable about certain things

(30:21):
that you may not be knowledgeable about, Knowing that you
can always pull somebody in to help that person out
instead of just saying no, I don't know, just find
a way to get them the information they need or
find a way to get them to somebody that would
have that information. So I think, yeah, that that's the
main thing is just being prepared an up to date um,

(30:43):
you know, everything the state offers in terms of services. Um,
we had whole seminars on nine eight, the new mental
health you should have and that sort of thing. So
just continuing to you know, take webinars v up to date.
We have, you know, the webinar type things where we
just kind of refresh our skills and reference or management

(31:06):
or you know what other libraries are doing for programming
and yeah, just that's kind of really really it just
stay in calm, being up to date, knowing you're not
going to know everything without looking it up, and you
know that's totally fine with everyone. You know, you can
look it up. You can Google it, Honestly, it's okay,

(31:28):
Like you know, librarians aren't going to not use Google,
and you know, you just have to use your librarian
skills to understand that you're going to a reputable site.
You know you're not you're not going to the first
targeted ad above the reputable sites. So as long as
you do that, you know, and use your context, you

(31:48):
can you can be okay and find the information they need. Yeah, yeah,
you know, speak speaking of you know, these questions that
people come to with the library each day. Has there
been a pretty cular question that was like especially memorable
to you or just like I will not soon forget
that that question or request. So many I know, like

(32:11):
your your social media is awesome because you will sometimes
share you know, certain instances or exchanges and they're all
really really cool. But but I'm I'm just kind of
curious if there's one that maybe he sticks out to
you a little bit. It's all over the map. There
was a guy at another library system I worked at
that UM he just like had this belief that we

(32:35):
had Robert de Niro's facts number and that we could
fact Robert de niro Is screenplay that he'd written. That's awesome.
He just wouldn't take no for an answer. He came
in like every day, yeah, asking And then I mean
there was a woman who would tweet at ving Rains
every day to tell them that he's sexy, and she

(32:57):
would make sure that she had the right out every
day for weeks on end. And you know, it's stuff
like that. But then there's stuff where like I mean,
I remember years ago, I was like it was right
before my for Bigger Show, and I was like all right,
let me just get out of here. But then like
the last person in the day, uh like had like

(33:22):
a cancer diagnosis. He was a veteran in the v A.
I was telling him that way was sending his chat
to an address that like he didn't live at anymore.
So we had to, like you know, we went and
we had to prove to the v A that this
house was demolished and this wasn't his address. And we
got that straightened out and he came back and like,

(33:44):
you know, he he bought up. You know, he said,
you know, it all worked out. So it's just you
never know what you're gonna get. And it's just memorable that, like,
you know, you really can help. It's a job where
you really can change people's lives and help him. And
that's what I but I'll always remember and like love
about that. It. I love it. That's great. Um that
that that that's that's really cool. Even the tie library,

(34:07):
I mean that tibrary came about for us because we
were I was helping people, like you know with that
type of reference question like how do you tie a tie?
Like that was the question I would get with people
going to the courthouse, people going you know, wherever, and
I would get that question a lot, and I was like, well,
how can we how can we take this to the
next level? So I would be given them ties, you know, myself,

(34:29):
and I was like, what we might as well just
do this is an official program, So just a lot
of what we do is like not only answering questions,
but then using that as just jumping board to see
how we can help more people that might have this question.
I love it. I love it. I know because you know,
as I appreciate you for doing programming at the library,
what did you see at the library? Did you were
you surprised by anything you saw when you did programming

(34:50):
at the library, or were you surprised by uh yeah,
so um, I didn't really know that library had such
extensive program until I showed up to do some of
the programming, you know. So so you were kind enough
to bring me by to do an improv class once.
I didn't know you could necessarily do an improv class
at a library, or you know, we've done comedy shows

(35:13):
at the library. I didn't know libraries necessarily like hosted
comedy shows like that, and so that that was honestly
what I was most surprised by. And then from that,
you know, I just kind of hear more and more
about what you were doing there. But that was kind
of like the starting point of learning, like oh wow,
and that was not actually when you when you did

(35:33):
your show. That was like the first one of my
first programs for the system, and it actually had a
really big effect on me and like a lot of
people in the class because remember that that woman who
said that she had a stroke and like she was
trying to use improv to just be a little faster
like responding to people. So it's just like, you know,
she got to take this free class at the library
with you know, this brilliant teacher, and uh, it's just

(35:58):
she she loved it, and you know, she she came
to so many other programs. But that's awesome. Yeah, it's
just you know, it's just another way that libraries help
people without even really you know, thinking about it. Awesome. Yeah,
I'm so glad that she continued to engage with the library.
That's so fun. That's great. So we're gonna move on
to our final segment for today's episode. It's called the

(36:21):
Spring of Inspiring Inspirations. So this is where we share
an inspirational quote to end things on a positive note.
This one comes from Albert Einstein and the quote is
the only thing you absolutely have to know is the
location of the library. I thought that was a fun quote.
I thought it was on theme. And David, thank you
so much for joining us UH to talk about libraries.

(36:44):
I can't wait to go to one again soon. And
UH for the folks listening, UH, what's the best way
for them to follow you or stay in touch with you,
or support you or anything else that you would like
to plug before we depart, Just you know, the best
thing they can do is go to their local library,
whatever their library is. Get get a library card. Yeah

(37:06):
it's even it's been twenty years. Just get get a
new library card, and UH support your library and they
will they would love to see you, and that's that's
the best thing to do. Well, David, thank you again
for coming. It was so awesome. You're the best. And
thank you the listeners. Thank you so much for tuning
in to ridiculous news. We know you have a lot
of choices of what to listen to, so we say

(37:28):
this is genuinely thank you, and you know you can
stay in touch with us too. You can email us
at ridiculous News at i heeart Media dot com and
on Facebook and i G follow Ridiculous News, and you
can check out our comedy videos at Mark Kendall Comedy.
Bye All, Thank you so much. Ridiculous News is hosted

(37:58):
by Mark Kendall and Bill Warley. Executive producers are Ben
Bollen and Noel Brown, Produced and edited by Terry Harrison.
Research provided by Casey Willis and theme music by Four
Eyes and Dr Delight. Four more podcasts from my Heart
Radio visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
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