Of course, it was a password problem compounded with a network error. I logged a job with the Helpdesk (who are extremely helpful). They called me back to say the Library had to deal with it. As the person in charge of Web access at the Library hadn't been responding to my 'phone calls and e-mails, I trotted over there. After multiple attempts at logging on, the duty librarian finally managed to get her username and password accepted but I was still in Limbo. (If Limbo remains. It might have been dismissed by now. Or was that Purgatory? Anyway, I was there.)
The duty librarian rang the Web librarian. Her admin officer answered.
'Oh,' he said, when I spoke to him. 'I know your name from somewhere.'
'The 'phone calls and e-mails to which you haven't responded, perhaps?'
'Yes.'
'Can you fix it?'
'No. You need to contact the Helpdesk.'
So back to the Helpdesk. They sent a techie over to show me how to change my password. (Sure, she could have given me the instructions over the 'phone, but they're all desperate to get out of the office.) And that's when the trouble started. I couldn't log on to the system and neither could she. We didn't exist.
Maybe it was my computer? So we trotted back to the IT office. No, she couldn't log on from there. Nor could the other IT personnel. One by one, we were all being excluded from the system.
What I wanted to say but didn't (because I couldn't remember the quote exactly):
Skynet became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
But we averted Judgment Day and I now have regained access to the Library database. Woo hoo!
