Adventures in Library Collection Failure

So yesterday I had several missions involving not one, but two libraries. I went to the Monroe County Public Library first, because I had to drop off a movie (Great Expectations starring Ioan Gruffudd, which confirmed two things for me: 1) I really love Ioan Gruffudd and 2) I really hate Great Expectations, even when Ioan Gruffudd is in it. Sad.) and I had something on hold (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 Vol. 1. This is, in fact, a comic book, so yes, my geekery levels just skyrocketed, but I was hoping to supplement this checkout with some more credible stuff.)

Anyway, I went in and headed to a computer where I could access the OPAC because I needed a copy of Cyrano de Bergerac for book club. I searched for "Cyrano de Bergerac" and got the movie, the opera, the novelization, etc. but no plays. I tried changing my limits. I searched for just "Cyrano." Nothing.

So I went to the reference desk because I believe in that sort of thing, and the librarian also looked it up and got nothing. She looked up the author, she looked it up on Amazon, she looked it up 14 different ways for 15 minutes, and still there was nothing.

I still needed some other things, so I went downstairs to look at the new children's department and find the resource room, but the resource room wasn't readily jumping out at me, and I was running out of time, so I decided to look at the resource room when my class visits next week because I was planning to grab a couple of books that my professor said she was putting on reserve for my project.

I went to the Media library to look for our next Best Picture movie, Cavalcade. Nothing.

So when I finally went to the checkout desk, it was empty handed. "I've got something on reserve," I glumly told the clerk at the desk. He went to find it with a very straight face, but when he came back he was smirking. "Is this it?"

Yes. And I'm a giant geek who was really hoping that this would be one of four things I was checking out instead of one of one thing.

And also, shut up, smirky library clerk. I'm just curious, okay? You read enough stuff about the comic when you start subscribing to a Joss Whedon blog that you just have to wonder whether it's any good and I'm just wondering, okay? And ignore that part about my subscribing to a Joss Whedon blog, because that is not helping my geek levels to even out at all, is it?

Meanwhile, the IU library had Cyrano, although I think I ended up with some weird translations (but I'm kind of excited that one of them is the Anthony Burgess version and I secretly hope that Cyrano will speak in that made up language from A Clockwork Orange - if people have to offer appy polly loggies for their baddiwad behavior to Cyrano - well, that would just be awesome) and they also had Cavalcade, but the books I thought were on reserve weren't so in the end I had things for three different non-school projects and nothing for school. Thank goodness for Google books not actually having what I needed, but at least having the table of contents from the book I needed so I can use the name of the thing I wanted to do for my program.