Today a patron carrying four phones on some kind of rig, all of which were playing Pokemon Go, came in to the library and checked out some DVDs. He said to his friend as I was checking his items out, "Twenty years ago this library had a lot more books. Now it's mostly DVDs."
I tried to tell him that the second floor is all books, but he didn't seem to think that that was relevant.
Also, this particular library building didn't exist twenty years ago.
A woman walked up to me on the checkout desk and said," I'm looking for Santa. Did he leave?" I froze for a second and then offered "I'm sorry, I haven't seen anyone matching that description."
As soon as the patron walked away, my coworker and I argued heatedly over whether the woman was 1) Talking about a friend/family member who resembled common depictions of Santa Claus, 2) Attempting to joke with us, or 3) dead serious.
All four branches of New Library have 4 study rooms each. Patrons love them and I hate them.
During a single hour on desk earlier this week:
Patron #1: Do you have a study area?
Me: Yes, sir. We have two study rooms available right now that you can check out with your library card, or we also have two different quiet rooms, one behind me to the left here and one over by the magazines.
Patron #1: Is that all?
As I said, patrons love our study rooms. For the other incident, it's important to know that how we handle the high demand is that each user gets two hours of guaranteed time. After that, they can stay as long as no one else asks for a room. If someone does, whoever has been there longest is asked to leave. We keep a little laminated card with a barcode on it for each room, and write down the end of the two hours on the card so that if all the rooms are full, we can see at a glance who we need to ask to wind down. It's also worth mentioning that the study rooms are basically identical.
Patron #2: Is there a study room?
Me: Right now we have 3 and 4 available, sir. Do you have a preference?
Patron: Doesn't that card say room 1 will be free in 10 minutes?
Me: Well, sir, everyone gets two hours guaranteed in the room, but then they can stay past that as long as no one else is waiting for a room. This just shows when they will hit their two hours, they won't necessarily be done at that time.
Patron: But I'M waiting.
Me: We have rooms 3 and 4 available right now, so you don't have to wait.
Patron: But I want room 1.
Me: I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not going to ask people to leave when there are other rooms open.
Patron: You're going to make this difficult, aren't you?
Me: ...
Patron: Fine, I'll take room 3.
As my friend who used to manage this branch used to say: I'm sorry there's not enough PRIVATE space at this PUBLIC library for you.
I was working at the front desk at one of the branches last week. This branch has a long lobby/breezeway thing between the front doors and the 'real' library entrance. The desk is sort of around the corner so you can't see the exterior doors.
Since I am a sub at this branch, they usually put me on the desk with someone experienced, but today one of the shelvers sat down at the other desk and said "Hi, not to worry you, but this is literally my second shift on desk. Will you help me if I get in over my head?"
So of course, this was the day a patron came and told us that "A giant dog is coming in and out of the front doors of the library. He doesn't seem aggressive, but he's making people nervous to come in."
The sweet-seeming Great Pyrenees was Gone When Police (or rather Animal Control) arrived.
My predecessor at New Library was, like many librarians, a hoarder. So much so that 18 months into my tenure at New Library I am still going through her old files and shredding stuff. This week I found two boxes of transparencies in her file cabinet. New Library has an email list for all the staff that plan programs, and I know people use transparencies for art projects and stuff, so I thought I'd email the list and see if anyone wanted them. Because there are people on that email list who are 15 years younger than I am, I included a brief explanation of what transparencies are, figuring that some of the programmers didn't go to school in the overhead projector era. The message netted me two responses claiming the transparencies, and two responses from colleagues my own age complaining about how I made them feel old.
Just wait until our technology lab opens and we have to explain to our 18-year-old shelvers what a "real-life save icon" is.
So, remember the eccentric patron from The Most Words who wanted me to measure the biggest dictionary in our reference section? An article in a local magazine came out with her byline! In it, she reminisces about interviewing semi-famous local figures and adds a bit of color by describing the massive dictionary she used to carry around, including its dimensions.
I'm sorry, weird patron. I was wrong to mock you.
Today a patron called and insisted I measure all the dictionaries in our reference section because she only wanted to consult the biggest one. You cannot make these things up.
I was working the front desk last Sunday, which was Mothers Day. A few patrons asked me if I was a mother, and then awkwardly backed out of saying "Happy Mothers Day" to me when I said that I wasn't (this may or may not be true--never tell patrons about your personal life!). However, here's where that conversation went with one patron, who immediately became my new favorite:
Patron: Are you a mother?
Me: No...
Patron: Well, happy Mothers Day anyway! You work at the library, so I'm sure you end up taking care of other people's kids ALL the time.
Shelver: Hey Emma, you're the librarian in charge right now, right?
Me (cautiously): Yes...
Shelver: An UberEats driver just delivered some food to the front desk. We have no clue who it belongs to? What do we do?
