RESPECT

My hands are still shaking. Funny how I can be moving through life, feeling mature and in charge, focused even, and one person can come along and make me feel 12 again.

I want to tell you the whole story--it would be good for my soul--but that would probably get me into trouble. So, suffice it to say, a patron challenged me today when I was in charge of the building, and while I think I handled it fine I also feel that he did not take me seriously. Whether it was a gender issue or that I don't look my age--not that either should matter--I don't know.

So, on to better subjects! I just had two real reference questions and that made me happy. I am almost finished cataloging the zines we had donated and I have a couple of shouts out to other zines to send them our way. I am about halfway through an order for zines from Microcosm--they seem to be out of a lot of things I would like to order. Book group was fun today. We talked about City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Now I am contemplating a walk around Green Lake w/ peeps for a little soaking up the sun time.

Yes, I feel better.

Public and Private

Opening a new branch is so much fun. Who knew that shifting books would be such blast? I spent part of today and yesterday just moving books back and forth to make the shelves look nicer and to help fix the mistake of one of the moving people that put the 000-799 on the shelves in the wrong order. Some parts would be in order for a while, then change to totally different number. It took us a couple of hours to sort it out, but it felt so good when the last book was on the shelf where it was supposed to be. Yesterday I mostly rearranged the teen area to be the way I wanted it, and to make everything fit on the shelves that I had. I perused all the books that were checked in and all the new books. The float is still MIA. It is exciting to see so many cool books at once, I just wanted to take them home with me. I also like working so closely with my new crew. Everyone is easy to be around and I know we will get along famously.

So, last week we had an interesting circumstance at one of the branches I work at. There is an elderly woman that comes in fairly regularly, but not so you can set a clock by her. She reads the periodicals, falls asleep, then swears she wasn't sleeping when reminded that she can't sleep in the library (sounds like an unreasonable rule, but in all honesty without it, we would become some peoples' bedrooms). She is a grumpy lady, but doesn't make too much trouble. Recently a social worker sent by the family has come by to check on her, but as the fates have it, she hasn't been there when the social worker drops by. It seems that she has stopped staying at the home of a friend of the family that was arranged for her, and her family is worried--they all live out of state.

Libraries have several goals, and one of them is protecting the privacy of our patrons (you may be wondering why I am blogging this subject then, but I have changed some pertinent information and have given no names, so the privacy is still protected). The social worker asked us to a)call him when she showed up and/or b)tell him what her usual pattern was, so that he could come talk to her on behalf of the family. We couldn't do that, in fact we have strict rules against it.

So I happened to be working at that branch when the Social Worker finally managed to show up at the same time as Grumpy Lady. Before he approached her, he asked us if he could talk to her there. I told him that we could not be involved at all, but that the library is a public place so he could approach her if he wanted. I also told him that if GL happened to get loud and irate (which I could see happening) they would be asked to leave the library. I also told him that usually we had a policy that if a patron was too unruly, they could be asked to stay away for up to a year. I told him that in face of the circumstances today that I would waive that policy and that she would be given a freebie. I hated to think of that woman with no place to go, losing another place.

I was wrong. She did not get upset, at least not in the loud and angry way. She spoke quietly with the man and started crying--I imagine she was happy that her children had bothered to send someone after her. They chatted a while and then departed, so I don't know what happened, but I hope she is a little happier and maybe I can stop thinking of her as grumpy lady.

Sudden Hail

I am at CAP today, enjoying the quiet. I am working with a directed fieldwork student from the iSchool--her second day. She seems to be absorbing things fairly quickly.

About a half hour ago I began to notice a raised voice from across the library. An elderly lady was arguing with an LA. She wanted a stamp in the book with the due date, was threatening to write it in there herself and said the computers were corrupt. I watched to see if things would resolve themselves, as they sometimes do, but it soon became apparent that was not going to happen. I moved into position on the customer side of the circ desk and looked concerned. My belief that the lady was a bit of a conspiracy believer was cemented as she explained that her apartment was being burglarized--although she did not explain what this had to do with wanting a date stamped in her book. Her accusations and complaints quieted slowly to a dull roar as we both stood there listening and she decided to leave. I think she wasn't as comfortable when she couldn't abuse just one employee that was separated from the rest of the staff. The LA was a bit flustered, understandably, and she had done everything she could to make the lady happy, short of damaging the book. She offered the woman a complaint form, explained the receipts, took her barrage of harsh language and explained that she would accrue charges if she wrote in the book.

Just as I was going over to check out the situation, the heavens opened up and we had a torrential downpour of hail. It reminded me of a witch movie from the 80's.

As I was typing the event above, I was called upon to help with another security issue. A gentleman was smoking right outside the doors, which not only violates the city's rule of 25 feet from doorways, but also the library's rule of not smoking on library property. The interesting thing was that the man was talking to his reflection in the windowed door. When we first went outside I expected to be confronted with two people-the smoker and whomever he was talking to, but when we got there the reality was apparent. He immediately moved off, without us having to say anything, so he knew the rule. Maybe he just got sidetracked by the possibility of a conversation partner.

I have also had the enjoyment of helping people today. A woman and her three kids came in with a list of non-fiction they needed for a class project. An elderly couple came in for value line and I answered several computer related questions. We had a security guard come in and things quieted down immediately. Just the presence of a man in a uniform was enough to change the atmosphere.

The variety of patrons here is completely different from any other library in the system. There are hipsters, homeless, middle-aged, middle class, seniors, patrons with mental problems of all ages and classes. There are also families, but not many teens. Usually the behavior issues that I deal with at other libraries involve teens, rather than adults.

Ah, now a wallet has gone missing. Who carries $600 cash in a wallet then leaves it sitting on a computer terminal? I am not sure how that is going to play out.

Yesterday at COL I had just gotten done asking a group of teen girls to keep their volume down when a woman who was in with her two children started talking with another woman right in front of the information desk. There were no natural breaks in the conversation where I would usually ask them if they could be a bit quieter. The woman had also made it known that she knew one of the librarians there, so I felt uncomfortable in case she became embarrassed. I felt like such a hypocrite for not saying something.

Time for a walk about.

Moving Around

Today I am working in West Seattle, and it kind of amazes me how lucky I have been so far with traffic out here. I worked here on Sunday, too.

I like picking up sub shifts at other libraries. I get to know more people and experience different managers. So far, I like mine best ;) Second best is the manager here. We had a chat when I was here on Sunday and she was great.

Right now there is a beautiful sunset; black, dark blue, bright orange and red. The darker colors set off the brighter ones nicely. I wish I could take a picture to post with this, but I am not off for another hour.

We had to kick out a patron today. He definitely had a problem with authority and has quite a long history of disruptions at the library. He came up and asked me to put Seed of Chucky on hold. My first search didn't bring anything up and he told me that we had it because he saw it on the hold shelf for someone else. At that point, a regular employee overheard and asked him if he was in the holds. He got defensive and started telling --me, I guess--what a jerk the guy was and that he should let him be--with some swearing thrown in. By the end, I was telling him that we could call security and the employee told him to leave for the rest of the day.

You know, even though I don't really like the idea of becoming a children's librarian, I love chatting with the kids that come in. They are so sweet at that age between 3 and 7. I like teens too, for different reasons, but the little ones are so easy to talk to. Good thing I am not a predator...