Bored at work

So it's been a rather boring and slow couple of days at work, outside with dealing with a crazy artist and her exhibition.  I decided to spruce up my desk with some art and cut out and made a Paper Steve Zissou for my desk. Here it is:

Next up is making a paper TARDIS.

Feeling stuck and going nowhere

I know there isn't much room for advancement in libraries, but how do I get over the disappoint of this.  I've been at my library for almost 9 years (3 months away from that accomplishment) and I've just been struck by the fact that until/unless my director retires, I have no room for advancement at all.  I usually like what I do, but sometimes I'm sick of having to cover for everyone at work and always being that go to guy that everyone relies on.  It's a great feeling to know I'm needed, but not so great realizing just how much I'm needed, and it would do good for certain employees to stop relying on me so much.  What am I going to do?  I've gone so far as to seek employment in other fields just for a change.

The day I dreaded has finally come

We got some bad news that so many others have heard before us, and they are two dreaded words: budget cuts.  This will make the next fiscal period interesting, and seeing that it's only a month away until that starts we have little time to prepare. So more bad news this will further delay our intentions of expanding the library and we'll now have to keep the money we saved up to cover our losses, boo.  I was quite looking forward to the expansion talks and ideas.

Can this week have a reset button?

What a terrible week this has been, it's coming to the end of the fiscal year, you know the time where if you spent money correctly you can purchase some things you might want for your library.  Well no that money is now going to go into emergency repairs to the ventilation and antiquated cooling system.  I can thank the power company for somehow losing 1/3 of the power to the building and thus burning up 2 of the motors that run our entire system.  In a sign that I've been in the building too long I first noticed something was wrong when I went to pour my first cup of coffee on Monday and everything was too quiet, I decide to check the basement and there was nothing but silence.  At this time I decided to reset the system to see if it would turn on, well it kinda did but then one of the motors started to smoke so off it went. Call heating/cooling guy and wait.

Yay, he actually came on the same day, he does his fancy looking around with his flashlight on his head, and about an hour later he tells me there's no power on the 240 line and to call the power company.  This then turns into a 20 minute conversation of me explaining to a power company what partial power loss meant.  They show up the next morning while I'm not in, and tell me it's an internal problem, but hey we now have power coming in to the building on all three lines, go figure.  Call the heating/cooling company and he tells me to sit down, this from a person who once handed me a $15,000 bill and didn't tell me to sit down for that. Uh-oh!  Well he tells me both motors are fried and need to be replaced the small one is $1,000 and the big one between 8-10,000 this is all without labor costs! The small one needed to be replaced immediately and I signed off on the work, FYI libraries without any air circulation start to smell "funky" really really quickly, so this became an emergency do it now type repair.  And I now have to decide how much air conditioning is worth to the library.

This is the same day I'm doing expense reports of the non-resident card fees and see a strange anomaly, I thought it was a clerical mistake, where the one year card that was supposed to be $30 was a 13 month card sold for $20.  Turns out I have a wonderful staff who decided when the patron only had $20 that it was ok, because that is all he had on him at the time.  I have a blank stare on my face and asked to hear it again, same story.  I really do wish she worked at some of my favorite stores now, but she saw no problem with what she did, and that turned into an interesting conversation.

This was immediately followed with a talk with an employee who after numerous reminders that we don't give copies for free decided to test that murky water again with me, and after a bad day my gentle reminder was not so gentle.  Her response was I didn't know we weren't supposed to and ran away.

Dear library gods, please have mercy on my poor little library and staff, I offer to you my sanity for this little gift.  I'm not sure how much sanity I have left to offer but what is left is yours for a peaceful calm rest of the year.  I can deal with my car getting hit in the library parking lot and not even getting a note of sorry from the driver, I can deal with rude patrons, but please keep the building from falling down and give the staff some common sense.

Misconception

You can only laugh at some of this if you've worked in a library.

It's National Library Week!

See we get a whole week and not just a day! We are really important, I mean it's not like the ALA or any other entity just came up with this right? So it's a week of fine free discharges, new book displays, special programming and an entire week to pimp your library to all of your users.  Wait, shouldn't we be trying to get more than our core group through the doors?  I tried, I showed a documentary that we would normally not show, I got a total of 11 people, although successfully of the 11, nine were not regular users so I take a small victory there. (And they even thanked me for showing it, actual appreciation from patrons, wow!) Now today we will show a right wing conspiracy theory documentary, and I'm sure we'll have well over 100 for that, sigh.  WHY???

And on the first day of library week I got an unexpected present, someone hit my car in the parking lot and just left, so yes there is a large dent in my back bumper, and yesterday another worker's car was also hit in the parking lot.  So, uhm yeah, thanks patrons for showing us how much you appreciate us!  But I digress, I usually like my patrons, except for the group smoking weed outside the main entrance today, sadly I did not feel like telling the coworkers that the strange smell was marijuana and not some sort of new stranger tobacco, so we let that go.

Ahh, now back to budgeting and number crunching, the "joys" of management type jobs.

Are libraries still relevant?

‎"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life." -- Henry Ward Beecher


This quote I posted on Facebook brought up an interesting question: "What exactly is the library profession's argument for its own existence these days? I ask in all sincerity, as someone who agrees with Beecher's statement in spirit but worries about the future of libraries."


My response was a quick response: there are multiple reasons that libraries are still relevant.

First of all not all US households have a computer or internet connection in their household, nor can afford one. The library is a great equalizer for all people, rich or poor to be offered the same information.

Second the books we keep are still a national treasure. Recently I found out that the library is the only place in Hamtramck that has the City Master Plans that are required by law. Without our library many of the documents would have been lost. Many libraries are archives for their cities and hold priceless documents that do not exist online.

Third, there are still people like me that absolutely hate e-books, nothing can replace the feel of holding one of your favorite books. A screen is not a proper replacement to replace the feel and smell of a book.

Libraries also see the need to become more than just a repository of books. We do shift as an industry to the times. Libraries are more of a community center for people to gather. We can fill a need for cities that others can't. We don't shush people much anymore, unless you are truly obnoxious and rude. My library gets on average 300-500 visitors a day, and yes most of those come in to use the computer, but our circulation has also gone up over the past few years. Is that an indication that people are reading more, or that we have begun to adapt our collection to meet the needs of the community.

That is the main part libraries adapt to meet needs of their communities, we can outreach and do other things for people, we offer ESL classes, have a community garden, movie screenings, and in my opinion libraries are worth far more than they get credit for. We change with the times and do more with less and less each year.

Here's also a piece about the library's shift towards going digital.

But how can libraries break the perception of becoming obsolete?

Thank you for patron intervention

The library I work at has two pianos in the main hall, given to us through donations, and as many people may know libraries have a hard time turning down donations.  Yesterday, as you occasionally need to do, we had to have them tuned, much to the dismay of many people's ears.  Well after a few complaints and apologies one man was not happy and started to tell people at the door not to go in because we have "the worst piano player" he's ever heard playing.  

Our computer section is almost always filled and once again I heard complaints of the worst piano player ever, I was about to explain how the piano is getting tuned, when a patron who knew what was going on stepped in.  He told the others to be quiet and that the library is letting a homeless person learn how to play the piano and that we are letting him try and play as he is waiting for his instructor.  I stood there trying not to laugh, the other complainers looked at him and said "Oh in that case it's fine."

Dear sir, thank you for your intervention and making me laugh.

Yes dear patron we can tell what you are doing.

One of the most awkward situations is when you realize that a patron is pleasuring themselves.  Ahh the joy of having unfiltered computers.  One can only imagine how sly they think they are as they push the monitor to the end of the desk/table/corral and think no one notices their one handed typing or their panting.  It has only happened a few times, and awkwardly enough the first time the person was right next to the circ desk.  There are also the patrons who decide to take a break and use the restroom.  Usually you tell them to stop or kick them out, or ban them, and you hear apologies or denials, or at times they just don't want to stand up.  I can gladly say I'm happy we don't have more than one floor with hidden away computers as I've seen elsewhere and as I'm sure other people have seen.

But wait there's salvation filters were installed, sites have been blocked due to content. But there's always a person that has their own special fetish that is just not blocked, and yes I am the one who manages to find them. In comes foot fetish patron, watching youtube videos of feet.  At first I try to ignore this, but it gets worse, he believes he has outsmarted the entire library staff, because you see he comes in wearing a jacket when it's 60 degrees out, but this jacket has a purpose.  When on the computer and he gets his desire to finish what the video just won't let him do, you take off the said jacket and cover your arm and lower torso.  By doing this no one can figure out what you are doing as you stare intensely at the screen of videos of feet playing on the monitor.  At this point my least favorite part of my job is approaching the patron.  Now how do you decide to interrupt, do you do the polite cough to let them know you are there, do you tap them on the soldier, do you disconnect the computer, do you joke or are you stern about it?  I, being a sort of an ass at times, and knowing that getting in trouble for this is not really going to happen. (when a patron is caught doing this seldom ever will they admit they were doing so in a complaint) decide to go to the stacks, find The Family Foot Care Book slam it next to his computer and tell him his time's up and he will have to go finish at home.  Puzzled, startled, then looked at the book he decided to get up and leave the library.

Yes I know some of you believe that I have acted improperly, but until this happens to you and more than once, you don't know how to react.  No the patron was not mortified or angry and even returned the next day and said hello to me.  Ahh the joys of libraries never seem to end.

How it all began

Fresh out of high school, I was approached by the local librarian to fill a computer tech position at the library.  Wanting a vacation and time off, I ignored this request. Six months of being asked and I went in to interview for the position and was hired the same day.

Nine years later, I'm working at finishing my degree (more on this later) and am a librarian.  This was not at all what I had anticipated doing, but for some reason I love what I do.  I did turn down a few job offers and took a hefty pay cut to be a librarian, but I wouldn't change the past.  I hope to share some of the "joys" I've experienced from my nine years at the library and the many new stories that are bound to come.