I had to become a Librarian to enjoy reading again...

Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufrense - "I had to come to prison to be a crook."

When I was in grade school, I used to love reading.  I was going through Hardy Boys like nobody's business.  It all came to a halt when teachers gave us reading and forced all of the "author's" analogies down our throats.  It completely ruined the enjoyment of reading for me and it became a chore to me.  I think it's also a personal issue with me, I hate when people tell me what I should think and feel without letting me analyze it for myself.  "This is what this story is about," "This is what the author really means," "This is a symbolism for this and this only."  Damn, can't someone think on their own!??  

I'm not going to lie, all through my undergrad and grad school I didn't read any of the material unless it was directly related for a group project and/or grade.  At my last branch, my coworkers always used to call me out on it: "You're going to school to be a librarian but you don't even read!"  But that all changed when I got my first tablet.  As you can see in the sidebar of the main page of this blog, my reading has exponentially gone up.  

Even the few titles that I did read outside of school were school-related.  I was one of those snobby, non-fiction readers, "I only read non-fiction; if I'm going to read, I want to learn something."  I have come across some of the patrons in the library too, always complaining about the collection: "Why are there so many fiction books?  You guys should buy more nonfiction."  The things I did read were all books recommended by my business school professors: The World is Flat, Good to Great, etc.  But that also changed when I got my first tablet.  Now, the vast majority of my reading is fiction, and it's pretty damn good too!

So that leads me up to the present, it has been almost a full year since graduating with my MLIS (December 2011) and I have not been able to find a full time librarian job.  I have looked at other non-library related jobs, but damn it, I didn't get this degree to NOT work in a library.  I really enjoy working at my branch, I love the patrons and my coworkers, so I can ride it out for a little bit longer.  Due to all of these factors, I have decided to add "Literacy Council volunteer" to my resume.  

Honestly, I should have signed up to do this when I graduated.  I have not yet started tutoring just yet, I will in a few weeks, but I am excited.  When I filled out the application to become a literacy council volunteer tutor, I realized one of my favorite things about being a public librarian is seeing people get excited about reading.  From little kids to adults, when they see that long-awaited book sitting on the holds shelf for them the excitement is contagious .

Circle of Life at the Library...

Within the past year or so, I attended the first wedding for a library co-worker, declined the invite to another, been to a few retirement parties, and this week a funeral. Last week while on the info desk, I got a call from my friend, Red, at another branch. As I saw her name pop-up on the caller ID, I thought that she was pretty bad at prank calling. But as soon as I heard her reply, "Hey," I could tell it wasn't good news. She called to let me know that my former page manager, Miss C., passed away after over a year of being hospitalized. When I first started at the library, I met a really cool elderly volunteer, Mr. B. He was always smiling and had stories to share with me about how the area has changed over time and his experiences traveling the world in the Navy. He loved the library and even a stroke couldn't keep him away. When he came back after his stroke, I made sure to keep an eye out for him as he was pulling books for the Holds List. Soon after I was told that he passed away. This all happened within my first few months of working. Miss C was/is my first "Library Mom." If you lacked any maternal guidance/influence while growing up, working at the library is great place to find it. She was always on top of my schooling, making sure I was doing well and she would always accommodate my work schedule with my school schedule. She was always patient with everyone and willing to work with you. The patrons would ask for her by name whenever they had trouble paying back their fees or just to chat. It's a small world that at the last branch I worked at, I found my second "Library Mom," Miss J. It's ironic because Miss C and Miss J have been very close friends for 20 years. Miss J is very much like Miss C, she would help a stranger without hesitation. I'm kind of worried because I feel like Miss J's kindness is also her weakness; I'm worried that she would fall for an email scam where someone is pleading for her help. Red and I are planning to visit Miss J today. She said she's looking forward to the visit since she hasn't been feeling so well. That's what "Library Kids" are for, to reciprocate all of the support and love to their "Library Moms."

Volunteers: the Answer to Library Budget Woes...

There is this one elderly patron who is a weekly regular to my old branch. As she walks down the VERY long circ desk to the large prints, she always makes a point to greet whoever is working the circ desk and ask if they are a volunteer or paid staff. She does it every visit, she has asked me several times and when I tell her that I am a paid employee she just nods and smiles in reply. When she comes up to check out she avoids the self checkout machines like the plague. She thinks that by using them we will all lose our jobs, bless her sweet heart!

When it comes to library volunteers I love all of them (except the one that stole from my cubicle). If it wasn't for their hard work we would have drowned in a sea of book returns several SRP's ago. Unfortunately you encounter the rare regular patron who avoids library staff and only wants to interact with a computer. They despise budget cuts when they are made to the collections and would prefer they were cuts to staffing. I have been told several times by patrons that they think an all-volunteer library is the answer to the budget woes. Really? Well, why don't I see you donating some of your time for the solution you fully believe in???

The Library Thief.

Last week I got a text from a coworker-friend that another coworker caught one of our teen volunteers stealing a Yu-Gi-Oh card from my cubicle.  I was sitting in the middle of my Classification & Cataloging class so I received all the real time updates VIA G-chat.

Apparently it was this kid's second day to volunteer.  My cubicle is on Main Street too, it is right off the main walkway from the library to the backroom so it's in the open, it's not one of the off in the corner cubes.  The coworker that saw him asked him what he was doing and he just replied, "Just admiring."  She asked him if he took anything and he just poker-faced it and lied to her.  She went to the youth manager who is in charge of teen volunteers and told her.  Of course being passive aggressive librarians, neither youth staff asked him directly.  My C.F. told me that they both acted like they didn't want to deal with it at all.  The youth manager asked her, "Does he (referring to me) even care about the card?"  Really???  Is that how we are going to handle thefts now?  We only do anything if the item was of any value to the owner.  We had one witness and if you looked in my cube, you would see a whole section hanging loose because it was the cornerstone to which I started taping my collection up with, he was also caught a second time in my cube.

My C.F. said that I probably don't care about the card which is true since everything I have posted in my cube is stuff people have left unclaimed from their returns.  But still, she tried to reason with the manager that if he's willing to brazenly/stupidly take a gaming card what isn't there he wouldn't take?  We all know that stealing Yu-Gi-Oh cards is a gateway theft, next thing you know he will be "stealing" moldy book donations from the Friends, and then he'll be boosting cars from the staff parking lot!

The Circ P.I.C. got wind of this after the second time he was caught in my cube, and he went to the Info P.I.C. and she asked my coworkers for the details and then promptly fired the guy.  The two youth info people got upset that they weren't consulted at all, not sure what other outcomes could have come from it.  "Okay, so you got caught stealing once, don't let us catch you again---now go shelve these books."

When the kid's mom came in to pick him up she didn't act at all surprised when she found out he was fired for stealing.  If you know your kid is becoming a kleptomaniac, wouldn't you let the volunteer host know????  We could have made arrangements and he still could be volunteering.  Hell, if he really wanted the card he could have asked me for it and I would have given it to him.

Volunteers - You Get What You Pay For...

I love these teen volunteers who completely slack off during the whole summer when it comes to completing their community service hours. They walk into the library with their form completely empty and ask if there's any work to be done --- right then and there.
The other day we also had a young teen who thought they were being helpful by removing all of the inter-filed adult graphic fiction novels and placing them on carts next to the young adult graphic novels. Thank goodness there's only a handful of '300' and 'Sin City' like books. Well, at least our pages had something to do.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love our volunteers. They're a great help when the County keeps making employees do more with less.

Punch a Patron in the Face Day...

I will be the first to admit that working the circulation desk is easy breezy. But like in all jobs, there will be errors, whether human or mechanical. Fortunately for me, the biggest possible error I could make is overcharge someone's credit card(which my manager has done) but that is easily fixed, no damage done.

So it pissed me off yesterday when I heard a patron ask a volunteer who was working the circ desk to check in her books because she's had problems with them not being checked in properly. After all of her returns were checked in she told the volunteer, " this wouldn't be necessary if you did your jobs." I was in earshot and the patron was lucky she was not in arms length because I would have popped her(ok in my mind I would have). After she stomped off, the volunteer and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

Yes, there have been plenty of times were people have been charged for an overdue book(s) that was not checked in properly and found on the shelf. I know how frustrating it can be. But you know what, it is easily fixed. It does not involve bringing 2 state issued ID's and a urine sample to clear your name. It could even be done over the phone. The comment about not doing our jobs is just plain low. I did go over to the computer and made note of the patron's name --- let's see what happens next time...