Eats Commas

NPR reported about the death of the Oxford comma (in its PR department, not in its stylebook) back at the end of June, and I missed that missive!  I can't believe that the news didn't make more of an impact.  I would have thought the ripples at least would have at least lapped up to the shore of Sacramento.  But, no.  We were blissfully ignorant of the Oxford dilemma.

I'm also surprised that the article didn't mention Lynn Truss' book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves since the whole point of the title was the comma.  Commas, it seems, are the maze of punctuation.  If a writer successfully solves the maze, readers are happy.  But should the writer stumble and get lost, readers immediately try to come to the author's aid or mock him/her for stupidity.  Either way, the author is left thinking the most important things in his/her book was a period with a tail.

What should the ref librarian do?

So if you're a person walking up to the ref desk, what would you rather see the ref librarian doing?

1) Reading a book.  (Well, it is a library after all!  And since I'm now reviewing for Booklist, I have galleys to read.)

2) Writing on a piece of paper or typing on a keyboard.

3) Staring intently at a computer screen.

Since I'll be working five hour shifts this summer, I'm just wondering what activity would put students more at ease when they approach the ref desk.  Staring off into space and surveying the room don't really work well.