(On the phone, in the park, just outside of the library, with all the cats, including the one with one eye.)
R - Yes, hello. Could I please speak with the Señora Hilda regarding the status of my library card?
? - Hilda? No one named Hilda works here.
R - I think she works on Floor H, in the offices near the Hemeroteca.
? - Oh, right. Well, you've dialed the wrong floor. This is the 6th floor, and you need to call down to Floor H. Here's the number...
R - OK. Thank you.
R - Yes, hello. Could I please speak with the Señora Hilda?
H - Speaking.
R - Hello. I was just calling with respect to the status of my library card. We talked last week about all this, and I filled out the application last week--
H - Yes, OK, but you have to call up to the 6th floor. They'll know what your status is.
R - The 6th floor? But I thought--
H - Yes, THE 6TH FLOOR! You need to speak to Susana Nuñez. Here is the number...
R - OK.
H - Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
R - Uh, yes, I do.
H - Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you? You have to call up to the 6th floor!
R - Right. OK. Thanks. Bye.
R - Hello. I think I talked to you earlier, but I'm wanting to know about the status of the library card that I applied for a few weeks ago.
SN - Yes. Hello. OK, what is your name?
R - Robert Wells
SN - OK, let's see, let's see... Yes, here it is! Come up to the 6th floor - we'll have it here waiting for you.
R - Great! Thank you. Bye.
(Inside the library, speaking to one of the employees at the front check-in desk, where I have to fill out a form detailing where I'm from and what I will be doing at the library, because I do not have a library card.)
Check In - Your document, please? What floor will you be going to?
R - I'll be going first to the 6th and then to H.
CI - To the 6th and then to H?
R - Yes.
CI - Hmmm. OK.
(On the 6th floor, but on the wrong side of some glass doors, so I can't get to where I need to go, so, naturally, I ask the midget wearing a leather jacket that's standing next to me if he knows what to do, because it seems like he knows what to do.)
R - Hey. Excuse me. How do I get over there, on the other side of those doors? I'm trying to get my library card.
M - Well, you have to go back down to the 5th floor and then either take the stairs or the ramp (rampa) back up here to the 6th floor.
R - Ah. OK.
M - Yeah. Either take the stairs or the ramp.
R - Right. It's so easy!
M - What?
R - Nothing
(On the 5th floor, going to take the ramp, should be fun, but the lady at the desk stops me first.)
Lady at the Desk - Excuse me? Where are you going? You have to leave your bag in one of the lockers first, please.
R - Oh. OK.
(On the way up the ramp I pass a guard at his post, but we say nothing to each other, and only acknowledge each others' existence with a slight, masculine nod.)
(On the 6th floor, on the proper side of the glass doors now, speaking to someone sitting at a desk.)
R - Hello. My name is Robert Wells and I'm here to get my library card.
? - One moment, please. Have a seat.
(Out walks Susana Nuñez.)
SN - Hello, Robert Snider?
R - Yes, that's me, Robert Snider Wells.
SN - Ah, OK, hello. You just need to sign here and here, please.
R - Sure.
SN - I'll be right back with your card and then you can be on your way.
R - Great, thanks.
(In the meantime a male desk employee missing two of his four front teeth keeps staring at me, and he doesn't seem to realize that we've talked before, down on Floor H, where he told me that he thought the rest of the world should go to war with the USA and that with Barack Obama as President the only real difference is more "dunga dunga" (seemingly a reference made to Africa, the jungle, monkeys) in the White House.)
SN - Here it is!
R - OK! Thanks! It's official!
(In the elevator on the way down to Floor H, and in walks the missing teeth man.)
MTM - What floor are you going to?
R - H.
MTM - Are you Brazilian?
R - No. I'm from the United States.
MTM - Oh, really? I lived in California for a few years.
R - Ah, nice.
MTM - Yeah, I went to the University of Southern California...This is where I get off. We'll talk later.
R - Bye.
(Floor H, in the special reading room, I have my camera and my small notebook with me, and I can see that one of the female employees who I've come to know is there at a desk in a side room.)
R - Hello!
(She doesn't respond to my greeting, nor does she come to the main desk in the room to help me, and thus my uncertainty as to whether or not this woman and I are friends increases. In walks another employee I now know. We are friends.)
R - Hey. Here is my library card!
Friend - Wow! Looks good.
R - Yeah, thanks! I'm an officially licensed investigator now.
F - Indeed you are.
R - OK, I have a few things I put on hold right over there.
F - Of course.
(After looking at these books (really, collections of old cultural/literary/philosophical/political journals from Argentina from the 1920s and 30s) at a table in the back of the room and taking pictures (some more legible than others)
of certain articles that would seem to be of interest to my project, I take them back to my friend at the front desk and ask for a few more. The process goes something like this: 1) I fill out a small sheet of paper w/ the day's date, the name of the periodical I'm looking for, the specific month and/or volume number, the year, the book code (if I don't know the code, and I never do, I have to take the slip of paper to another desk located in another room on Floor H where they look it up for me), and then sign the sheet; 2) I hand this slip to the employee who then signs and dates it; 3) The employee puts the sheet in a sort of small elevator/dumb waiter and it travels down, I think, to some other group of employees in the special collections department; 4) If I'm smart, I didn't turn in all of my materials in at once and still have something to look at and take pictures of while I wait - you're not allowed to bring books into this part of the library; 5) My name is called and I go back to the desk to retrieve what I asked for.)
F - Hey, we don't have this one, but they do have it at the Library of Congress.
R - Oh, really? That's right by where I live here, only about five or six blocks away from my house.
F - Yeah, they have a much better collection of old magazines and journals and the kind of stuff you're looking for there.
R - Oh.
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