Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I got a Master's Degree for This??

File under "Stuff they didn't teach us in Library School"

Someone, in an era prior to our reign here in the library, ordered literally DOZENS of rolls of Scotch tape. Now, this wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it's evidently a really odd width of Scotch tape: 1"-wide tape. Apparently most tape dispensers are built for 1/2 to 3/4" wide tape. But no, not us. Some bozo squandered please bang my wife funds (of which we have precious few these days) on roll after roll of USELESS tape. We have one tape dispenser that can sort of handle the stuff, and even that's a little bit of a tight fit. And is there any evidence of the brand or type of tape dispenser anywhere on the thing itself? Of course not!

To add insult to injury, we have no more 3/4" tape. Four dispensers that can only take 3/4" tape, and aeons of 1" wide tape. NARG! It's something akin to Rocket Science to find a 1-inch-wide tape dispenser with a 1-inch core.

You need me to find you a copy of Beowulf in the original language? Great, fine, no problem. You need a tape dispenser that plays well with 1" Scotch tape? No can do.

[Update: VICTORY! Finally found something that fits the bill in the Brodart catalog. Of course it's 3 times the price of a regular tape dispenser, but it comes with both a 1" and a 3" core insert, so we can also use up a few rolls of 3" core tape I found in the cabinet behind all the 1"-wide 1"-core tape. Now if you add in the 2-3 hours I've been dogging this dumb thing down, it's getting to be one expensive tape dispenser... but that's made up for in the satisfaction of a job well done, right??...]