Still haven’t found what they’re looking for
It seems that it is a rule of blogging to use a post here and there to ponder the many and varied reasons that people choose to visit the blog in question, and it also seems that (having apparently passed 2000 ‘hits’) it is time for the Singing Librarian to ponder this. Of course, the majority of the people that leave comments here are people that I know from elsewhere, either in that dodgy thing we sometimes call ‘real life’ or from another site, generally h2g2. However, I know there are others who pass through, either regularly or for a one-off visit, and it’s always intriguing to see what search engine terms have brought the new visitors here. And most of them will have been rather disappointed, I fear.
There is a contingent that have come looking for song lyrics. ‘As Long As I Have Music’, ‘The Sun Has Got His Hat On’, ‘You’re Just in Love’ and the score of A Slice of Saturday Night are their targets, but as I will only ever post a few lines at most from a song, they’ll have been unsuccessful in their quest. I think they’re looking for one of those terribly illegal sites filled to the brim with song lyrics. Useful, yes, but clearly a breach of copyright and thus very naughty. Sorry for the disappointment! A related group are those looking for information on A Slice of Saturday Night – cast breakdown, plot and so on. I get at least five of these visits each week and again, they will have come away disappointed by the rather inadequate review of a local production from July.
Other shows that I’ve mentioned as either a cast member or audience member have also been search engine terms that have led the unwary to my blog. Die Fledermaus is particularly popular in this way, with Noise Ensemble, Billy and A Doll’s House lagging behind. Unless they’re looking for random anecdotes, this is another group of people I’ve let down.
Mention of Batwoman has lured a few innocent souls here, and I assume that she is the reason that people have found here when looking for lesbian librarian blog, lesbian talks in London, wealthy lesbians, lesbian horror and lesbian batgirl (note to the last group – it’s Batwoman, not Batgirl, that’s the lesbian character!). Some of those might have found what they were looking for, and it’s possible that the people seeking information on 52 may have liked what they found as well. Goodness knows what the people who googled (or yahooed, or whatever) Superman begins were looking for, as there is no such film, although my almost-punny post title is probably rather obvious.
All sorts of librarians seem to be of interest. I’ve already mentioned lesbian librarian, but there’s also mentally ill librarians, rude librarians, swearing librarians, incredible librarian, librarian poem, incredibly stupid librarian and various variations on the theme of library patrons. I’m rather taken by the person who found me with the search string things you do as a librarian, and quite a few seem to use singing librarian to get here – I assume these people are looking specifically for me, but who knows? I think the librarian people are the least likely searchers to have been disappointed, as a few of my posts do manage to be about the thrills and spills of library life.
Of course, such a post would not be complete without a list of the more amusing ways that people found their way here. Tight trousers. Cats and baby pigeons. Stupid singing birds. And my personal favourite query, Is there a washing machine in the Big Brother house? I think some of these people need training so that they can use search tools more effectively, as most of them wouldn’t have found themselves here if they had, for example, used a phrase search. I rather hope the tight trousers person was looking for some advice rather than some pictures, but they’ll have been rather surprised to find mention of them in a production of Die Fledermaus. And I’m afraid I don’t know whether there’s a washing machine in the Big Brother house, but I doubt it. I know the answer isn’t to be found here.
It also amuses me that the majority of the spam comments that the blog software magically filters out are for office furniture. That shows me just how dull this blog must be!
At the end of this post, I’m certainly no wiser about the reasons people have for popping in here, and even less so about my reasons for writing anything. I hope that I have entertained or amused at least some of the random visitors. I already know that some of the real people who read this enjoy it, as you leave such lovely comments. I have no idea what I should do to make your visits more interesting or enjoyable, but I shall do my best to achieve both goals at the same time.
The Singing Librarian Talks 
Where do you find out this stuff?
Under ‘My Dashboard’ (well, to the right once you’re in the dashboard), there’s a link that says ‘blog stats’. Beneath the pretty chart is a list of search engine terms used to find the blog over the last 7 days, and from that you can expand to find out older information. Of course, if you’ve set your blog to be invisible to search engines, the information will be pretty sparse!
Since writing the post, I have realised that if someone else does enter a search string about washing machines and Big Brother, my blog will be higher up the rankings than it was! Oops.
I’ve had some very obscure search phrases ending up with people finding my blog. A few recent examples: “boy with breast”, “chop eels head off”, “adopting a gecko” and “preteen goddesses” (who may now find you next time they look for these things 😉 ).
One of the people who posts on my blog has the nickname Fanny, which must disappoint those who end up at my place, based on what it seems they were looking for.
What fun! Aren’t people fascinatingly… odd. One of my jobs is training students to use search tools, and yea, verily, but they have had their common-sense glands removed.
‘Incredibly stupid librarian’?
I have a colleague like that….
No! Down, Inner Beast of Snark! Naughty!
(Though he did glue some loose pages back into a book upside down and THEN didn’t use waxed paper between the pages so they stuck unreadably to each other and THEN took a scalpel TO A BOOK COVER to remove a minute shred of plastic. His ‘mend’ took him ten minutes. My mending of his mend took me 40).
Sorry. Beast unrestrainable. Must go lock it in coal-shed and drink more gin.
Good luck with the restraining – I wouldn’t have thought gin would help.
Luckily, ‘incredibly stupid librarian’ doesn’t describe any of my colleagues -not that I’ve noticed, anyway! And also luckily, I have to do relatively little user education, but that may change if they let me dabble over the next couple of years while I do my library qualifications. Look out, students!