The past few weeks have been very hectic here at the Murray Library! Between exams, Take a Break, Darlene retiring, celebrating the new ground floor office, and Cathy changing roles, I think we’re all ready for the peace and quiet of summer.

To help counter the stress of exams, we had our alumni handing out box after box of snacks and a bajillion bags of popcorn, and 10 different activity stations where students could do puzzles, create origami, figure out how to play Sudoku, write obviously random words in an attempt to look like they knew how to do crossword puzzles, or wind down with some colouring (we even bought better crayons this year!).

As usual, we asked for feedback and here were some of our most inspirational and motivating comments:

• Lego isn’t fun. There were no snacks.
• Easier puzzles plz. These ones gave me anxiety.
• Kittens instead of stinky dogs.
• #verydisappointedyetstillcompletelymetmyexpectationsattheUofS

So inspirational!

We also had one of our student casuals, Josh, create a beautiful whiteboard. Thanks Josh!

“Mreow”

On April 11, we had a small gathering in room 122 to celebrate Darlene’s retirement. The cake was absolutely amazing!

The cake was from Calories and worth every penny! I mean nickle, since we no longer have pennies…

As Darlene had been with the University for so long, it’s understandable that it was emotional. Darlene gave a beautiful speech and wanted to impress upon everyone the importance of being kind.

Sarah was very kind to give Darlene’s parrot a new loving home.

We’ll miss you Darlene!

Now that you’re retired, you can eat alllll the cake you want.

Next up, we had a party to celebrate the opening of the new office on the ground floor! Do we have a room number for it yet? Just like in high school, I was unable to attend the party because my mom said no (I was actually on vacation), but I heard the punch was great!

The party was so wild that a sign had to be put up saying that we would still help you (if we had to).

The pictures I was given don’t really show a party, but I’m sure it was a wild one. Everyone knows library people know how to have fun!

Behold the feast!

And finally today is Cathy’s last day in circulation! We’ll finally have her back in room 122!!

Cathy’s OLD department decided to send her off in style by decorating her OLD desk.

They’ll miss you Cathy!! It says so right here.

I bet they’ll keep that image of her head on the wall, even after she’s safely in Interlibrary Loans.

Oh, and there were doughnuts, which I happily partook in.