Gems from the 90s

We had to clear out the oldest, dustiest storage area in my building this week to make room for some facilities work, and we unearthed a truly horrifying set of binders belonging to a long-retired staff member, including one just labelled "Delinquent Patrons." I flipped through it to take out anything that would jam the shredder and came across:

• A cassette tape taped to a page. The cassette tape had a barcode written on it but it was also labelled "not in catalog." Reading the attached sheet, which detailed the patron's failure to return the tape in a timely manner, did not make it at all clear why our 1990s predecessors had felt it necessary to keep the tape as evidence.
• A set of correspondence that went all the way up to the library director from a patron who had accidentally recorded over a library VHS tape and was being charged for a replacement. She was incensed that a security device to prevent this mistake had not been installed on the tape, and insisted that due to the library's negligence in not making that happen, she should not have to pay for the one she damaged.
• An incident report about a patron who got abusive when told of charges on his account. Attached to the report was a Post-It note on which was written, in different handwriting than the report: "I say we hire someone to break his kneecaps" and a set of initials.
• A packet of correspondence about a problem patron who had a habit of leaving lots of notes for staff in materials he returned. This patron, Mr. Jimmy Glen, was apparently told at some point by a staff member that he could not do whatever it was he wanted to do unless he provided either his library card or an ID. Instead, Mr. Glen showed the staff a hole-punched piece of paper attached to his keychain that had been carefully 'laminated' with tape and which said "Jimmy Glen: All Access Pass."
  

Closure questions part 2

Things patrons want to know right now:

• I have a ton of zucchini from my garden and I thought the library staff might like them. Can I put them in the book drop for you?
• How late are you open today?...What do you MEAN I can't come into the building?
• But I've been holding on to these old magazines for you for MONTHS--are you SURE I can't just donate them? Don't worry, my house is very clean, I'm sure they are safe. They are great magazines, in perfect condition.
• Is there still storytime this Friday?
• Did you know that people were parking in the library parking lot while y'all were closed? I thought you should know that people were violating the law.
• I came by the library back in April to return my books, but the book return thingy was closed, so I just put my books on the top. Did you get them?
• Is the library going to never open again?

Curbside callousness

Like many public libraries, my library is not letting people into the building, but will let people come pick up their requested materials via curbside service. Our administration had the brilliant idea that we should get a service that allows patrons to text us when they are here for their pickup instead of calling. It's supposed to save us time because it forces the patron to go through a little back-and-forth to collect information before we even see their message. The phone number isn't on the website or anything, it's ONLY posted in the parking spots where patrons who are picking up their held materials are supposed to park for curbside service.

How the new text service is supposed to go:
Patron: Hi I'm here to get my books.
Chatbot: Welcome to [library system]'s curbside service! Text "book" to get started.
Patron: Book
Chatbot: What is your first and last name?
Patron: Ramona Quimby
Chatbot: What parking spot are you in?
Patron: Spot 1
At this point, on the staff side, we get a message saying:
Name: Ramona Quimby
Parking spot: Spot 1 

Them we trot cheerfully out to Ms Quimby, who is indeed actually parked in spot #1 and is even wearing a face mask and keeping her window rolled up, and has her trunk popped, and we drop her stuff in the trunk and close it and she drives away. Brilliant, right? Here's how the chatbot actually works. It turns out you can type in absolutely f-ing anything in response to the chatbot's questions, so lots of 'conversations' go like this:

Patron: why can't I come into the library to print?
Chatbot: Welcome to [library system]'s curbside service! Text "book" to get started.
Patron: i don't want a book, I want to get n the computer!
Chatbot: What is your first and last name?
Patron: cruella deville
Chatbot: What parking spot are you in?
Patron: why does tha mattter??? i just want to come in the library!
Staff member (who can only see: "Name: Cruella Deville. Parking spot:
why does tha mattter??? i just want to come in the library!"): Hi Ms. Deville. I'm sorry, but no one can come into the library right now. Did you need to pick up your requests?
Patron: no I need to get on a f-ing computer!!!!!!!!
Staff member: I'm sorry, but you can't do that right now. If you'd like to call us at [redacted], we might be able to help you find somewhere else than can help you with what you need.
Staff member: *bangs head on desk in frustration*

Open for your phone calls

This is a delayed post. We've all been sent home, but there was about a week where the library was closed to the public but staff were coming to work. We mostly worked on collection projects, cleaning, training, etc., but we were answering phones during open hours. Here's what people wanted to know:

Are you open? When are you going to be open again?

Is tax help still happening this week? What about next week?

I'm not going to come pick up my holds. Can you guys hold on to them a little bit longer or will I lose my place in line? 

I've been self-isolating at home and I cleaned out my house. I have a lot of books to donate. Can I bring them in? What if I just put them in the book return slot?

If I come sit by the front door and use your wifi, will you call the police?

Can I email you something to print, and you print it, and then I come to the door and you just hand it to me really quick?

Minimal overlap

Things I have to say to patrons:
"Excuse me, sir, is that your saw blade?"
"It doesn't matter if that's you in the picture, it's still not okay to look at pictures of naked people on the library computers."
"I'm sorry, but if I have to ask you to put your shoes back on again, I am going to have to ask you to leave the library for the day."
"Is that your son trying to run out the front door?" 
"I'm sorry, you really can't go in the restroom right now. I promise the plumbers are working on it."
"Sorry, I'm not going to ask kids to leave the library because they are laughing. This is the children's area." 
"I'm just trying to do my job."

Things I have to say to staff:
"No, please don't 'introduce termites' onto the dead tree outside as a solution. I'm sure the city will come cut it down soon."
"I know that email looks like a scam, but I swear it really is from I.T. and you really do have to do that cybersecurity training. Yes, I know it's ironic."
"If this graphic novel makes you uncomfortable, you can fill out the same complaint form a patron would fill out. Please don't just hide it at your desk without checking it out."
"Sorry, you can't have book cart races."
"The library will be FINE. Please, just go home and take some cold medicine."
"I'm just trying to do my job."

Library mode

I was passing through the front desk area and saw that a patron with a small stack of books was standing there looking frustrated while both my colleagues were helping other people, so I approached her and said "Hi, ma'am, is there anything I can help you with?" The patron responded, "No, you can't help me. Every time I ask you a question, you just go into library mode and I can't understand. You people need to understand that other people aren't in that mode."

Me: "I'm so sorry about that, are you sure I can't try to help you?"

Patron (continuing as though she hasn't heard me): Everywhere I go, they go into grocery store mode, or bank mode, or library mode...it's no good, I am not in that mode.

Me:...

Patron: [leaves her stuff on the counter and walks out of the building, still muttering in frustration.]

Me to coworker: Did you help that lady? Do you know what she was upset about?

Coworker: Yeah, she said she wanted to take those books home so I said 'Okay, you want to check them out? I can help you with that in just a minute' and that's when she got mad.

Apparently "check out" was too jargon-y for this patron.

Even faster than I thought

A very generous relative sent me a gift card to an office supply store to buy stuff for Walnut Bluff. We had a program this Saturday that I knew was going to be big, and we only have custodial service Monday-Friday, once a day, and it's just not enough to keep our bathrooms non-gross on busy days. Our biggest problems are that the little trash cans overflow with paper towels and right now, because of our HVAC troubles, ventilation isn't very good. So I spent some of the gift card money on cans of spray air freshener and boxes of tissues (figuring people might be using bulky paper towels to blow their noses), and put one of each in both the men's and women's bathrooms.

The office supply store sold both tissues and air freshener in big office-sized multipacks, and a little starry-eyed part of me was like "These aren't very expensive. Maybe people won't steal them very often and I can actually make this a permanent thing!"

I put the tissues and air freshener out at about 10 a.m. on Saturday. At 4:00 p.m. Sunday, I specifically went to look at see what was still there. Only one of the four items remained. I told a coworker, who rolled her eyes and said "This is why we can't have nice things!"

Not fine fines

Reasons patrons have given me for why I should waive their fines (note that at my library system, we only charge overdue fines if someone else has requested the item--if there are no requests for an item that is late the fines are automatically waived):

"It wasn't me who checked out this book! It was my sister!"

"I didn't get the courtesy reminder that they were due!"

"I am a teacher and I left the book in my classroom over winter break."

 "That season of TV was missing disc 1 when I checked it out."

"I forgot to unlock the case, so I never got to watch it."

"Your automated reminder emails are too long, so I don't read them."

Maybe not

Long-time readers will know that I'm pretty ambitious and would like to be a branch manager, or something similar, someday. However, I have times when things happen that make me discouraged, like this week. Here are some dilemmas I encountered recently that were both boring and difficult to figure out how to handle--a bad combination:

Someone left a cart belonging to the grocery store down the street in our parking lot. Do we take the store's property indoors even though it isn't ours, or do we leave it in the lot and risk someone's car hitting it and getting damaged?
(Our resolution: We brought it inside, but the next day the manager rolled her eyes and took it down the street to the store. We didn't know we were allowed to go off-premises for things like that!)




We are one of the places where kids who are truant from school can come and to make-up work. The school district gives us a big packet. We hand out a copy to each kid and keep track of how much time they spend at the library working on it. Today a girl came in who really didn't read English at all, and the packets are only in English. Do we give her the English packet and tell her to do her best? Translate the packet into her native language on demand? Tell her sorry, we can't help her? Of course this is in the evening so the truancy person at the school district cannot be reached, and she insists she needs to work on it NOW.
(Our resolution: We told her sorry, we couldn't help her. No one is happy with this, but neither can we come up with a better solution.)




A kid peed on a chair. Our custodian doesn't work weekends, and neither does the central system's call-in system for bigger clean-ups. Do we clean it up ourselves? Block off the area until Monday? Call the on-call facilities manager and ask him to handle it?
(Our resolution: I put on latex gloves and cleaned it up after a coworker discovered it. I firmly believe that if it has to be cleaned up before someone whose job it is can get there, the highest-paid person in the building at the time should be the one to suck it up and do it.)

Valedictory

Big news, readers! The title of this blog will soon make sense again! Later this month I am moving back to the not-so-great state of Texas. This means I'll be looking for a new job, so there may be a lull in posts. I've scheduled some ahead of time, so there won't be nothing, but the post frequency will decrease for a bit until I get established somewhere else.

This also means, obviously, that I will have to give up my positions at Small Town Library and Downtown Library. I'm getting a little preemptively nostalgic for them both. As a valedictory, I'd like to present some of the greatest things about these two libraries:

At Small Town Library:

There is a teen boy who wanted to volunteer at the library, but didn't want to do 'girly' stuff like make art or cut up things for craft projects, so he follows the building manager around and helps him out with 'manly' things like taking out the trash and fixing stuff.

I got to create a collection while I worked here. We pulled Adult Graphic Novels out of non-fiction (they are in with the art books) and put them into their own area. It made me absolutely dizzy with power, and also increased their circulation.

Our circulation staff is so great. They are friends with all the patrons and they dispense book recommendations cunningly hidden in between inquiries about how Your Son Bobby is doing at college and if anyone has bought Your Old Neighbor's House yet.

They let me order books! If I end up with a job in a system that has centralized ordering, I'm going to miss this so much. One of the things that makes me happiest at Small Town Library is seeing someone check out something that I ordered.

I 3D print stuff all the time and no one needlessly monitors it or feels the need to make rules. Kids just give me stuff and I print it. No forms to sign, no charge for materials, all excitement.

At Downtown Library:

The collection includes books about everything. I go through our new items because one of my jobs is posting about them on Twitter, and I am always amazed by what we get.  You can make some pretty excellent displays from our collection.

We have someone whose whole job it is to work out problems with Overdrive, hoopla, and our other digital content vendors. I don't know how much she gets paid, but I'm sure it isn't what she deserves.

We have a library card that kids can sign themselves up for! It only lets you check out one book at a time, but it's excellent for school trips and for kids whose parents or legal guardians aren't usually with them in the library, plus what kid doesn't want to be able to be in charge of their own card?

My coworkers are master reader's advisors. We have social-media-based RA, staff picks scrolling atop the library homepage, and tons of displays within the library, including one where patrons can pick out their own favorite books to recommend to their neighbors.

Things Small Town Library does well

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about ways in which libraries could do a better job of living up to their own values and I illustrated some points with examples from Downtown Library and Small Town Library. I don't want you to get the idea that either of those places are bad, or even below average, compared to other libraries, so today I want to tell you about some of the things that make me proud or happy to work at those places. I wrote one about Downtown Library already. Downtown Library was easier because it's part of a big system that, like most big public library systems, tends to conform well to the American Library Association's Code of Ethics. The strengths of libraries like Small Town Library are significant, but ideological purity isn't its strong suit (nor, I suspect, is it the strong suit of most small-town libraries). When you have limited resources and different demands from your community, it doesn't tend to be a priority.


That said, here are some ways in which Small Town Library practices what it preaches:

• Items on the self-serve hold shelf are covered with white paper so that other patrons can't easily see what their neighbors have on hold.
• The library offers study rooms in which patrons can have private conversations, and which library staff could conceivably use for confidential reference interviews (Downtown Library, to my constant annoyance, has cubicle-style study rooms that are roofless and not private at all).
• Privacy screens are offered by default at all public computers for adults.
• The library has held on to Fifty Shades of Grey and similar materials despite patron complaints about the 'inappropriateness' of those titles for a public library.
• Despite an overall chatty atmosphere, staff members very rarely share what a patron was looking for with a coworker unless it's specifically to help meet that patron's needs.
• The library has refused to place rating-based restrictions on what DVDs kids can check out, despite patron requests to do so.

Things Downtown Library does well

I wrote a post last week about ways in which libraries could do a better job of living up to their own values and I illustrated some points with examples from Downtown Library and Small Town Library, the two places where I currently work. I don't want you to get the idea that either of those places are bad, or even below average, compared to other libraries, so today I want to tell you about some of the things that make me proud or happy to work at those places. I'm starting with Downtown Library, since that's where I am today. These aren't the only things I like about Downtown, but they are the ones most related to last week's post.


Privacy:

• Items on hold for people to pick up are shelved spine downward, and are labeled with a code (first three letters of your last name, first three letters of your first name, last four letters of your library card number) instead of your name.
• Our IT department does a really good job scrubbing internet history, created files, etc. between each user's computer sessions.
• Our catalog computers and print stations are set up to time out if they are left untouched for a while so that people who forget to sign out still have their privacy protected, even if on a delay.

Access:

• We have a patron elevator for our two-story building, and a process for taking patrons through the staff areas to use the freight elevator if the patron elevator is broken so that they can still get where they need to go.
• We have library card brochures and applications in four different languages (including English).
• I am pretty confident that all public areas are passable by electric wheelchair (you might think this would be an Americans With Disabilities Act requirement, but actually it isn't).
• We have many members of staff who practice extreme patience with, and have great empathy toward, patrons with intellectual or mental disabilities. It's a pleasure to listen to our circulation staff chat with some of our regulars who have limited capabilities--they not only make them feel welcome, they always make sure to keep them in the loop about any library changes that might affect them.

Copyright thoughtfulness:

• The system of which Downtown Library is a part is the only one where I have ever worked where I have had first-hand evidence of the library paying for stock photos instead of just borrowing photographers' work and using it without compensation to the creator.
• The existence of colorful sign templates that are used system-wide discourages people from pulling any old file off the internet in order to create signage.

Two-minute accessibility quiz

Is your library accessible to people who face more than the typical barriers to using it? Find out in with this quick quiz!




Add one point for each of these:


1. A wheelchair-accessible computer station


2. A way to get into the restrooms that doesn't require manually opening a door


3. Large print materials that are distinguished physically in any way (a separate section, with stickers, whatever)


4. Text-to-speech software of any kind on public computers


5. A website that has any of the following features: alt-text over images, text in a language other than English, the awareness that color blind people exist


Subtract one point for each of these:


1. Any piece of assistive technology (large print keyboard, trackball mouse, magnifying glass, etc.) that is kept behind the desk and not advertised anywhere


2. Any non-English materials that are labelled only in English


3. Any policy or sign using the words/phrases "disabled," "wheelchair-bound" or "the handicapped"


4. A "No dogs in the library" sign


5. No provisions for people who cannot travel to the library to access library materials




Scoring:
Three to five: Congratulations! Your library is actually doing okay!
Negative two to two: Your library is average, but "average" as in "only as bad as a typical library," not as in "okay."
Negative five to negative three: Do you work with me?


What do you think, readers? Anything you would add to make the five-minute version?

So personal

One of the many things that my library 'science' education didn't prepare me for was how intimate a window I would get into other people's personal lives as a public librarian. It really demonstrates how much privacy is a luxury good. If you have a stable life, a good education, and your own computer with internet access, you don't have to deal with this stuff. But if not, well, here's a sample:


I helped a man on a computer for a long time to access a form he needed. When we got the form and went to print it off, he got the standard popup message warning him that he would need to pay 15 cents for his printout. He looked at me and said "Where am I supposed to get 15 cents?"


I have helped several different people photocopy their divorce papers and other court documents (Downtown Library is a few blocks down the street from the county courthouse).


Patron accounts in our computer system have various notes in them--usually insignificant things like "Replaced lost card 4/2016" or "Patron returned X-Men II DVD case without the disc. Called and left message 3/8/14." Not anything embarrassing. Today I pulled up someone's account to check whether any holds had arrived for her and got a popup message "[Patron] has a caretaker, Sally. Phone number on account is Sally's."


A patron needed my help printing off a letter of recommendation for someone. The letter mainly focused on how long he'd been sober and how he was a different, more responsible man now.


A man who wasn't good with the keyboard and couldn't see too well wanted me to type his social security number into a website for him.


I wish our next staff day would have a priest and a doctor come talk to us about how to be a good recipient of people's most intimate information.

A little different

A family member and fellow librarian (isn't that great that I have such a person!?) pointed me to this tumblr written by a Target cashier a while ago. Although the writer works in a for-profit store and books and media are only a small fraction of the material he provides people with, it is strikingly similar to both this blog and my daily life. It's worth a read.

#saturdaylibrarian

I was the Saturday Librarian (yes, it has its own hashtag) at Small Town Library today.

First, a woman was massively rude about a book she requested that was sent to a branch other than what she wanted (investigation revealed that, surprise, surprise, the problem was user error, but she still wrote a nasty note to our supervisor). She was so rude that our normally-very-nice circ lieutenant said after she left: "Good thing the thing she was waiting for was a book and not, you know, a kidney."

Also today, I approved a purchase order for $6,000 worth of magazines. That's about how much money I have in my savings account. Between that and being the sole representative of my department in the building today, I'm positively drunk with power.

Accusations

The reference desk has been quiet lately so I've started to get whiny about how little entertainment I have. I had to give myself a reality check by reading this article on the worst things librarians have been accused of by patrons: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roz-warren/bad-librarian_b_8721990.html

My personal answer: Ms. Opp once called me a Nazi because I told her I could not answer her question because she had already used the allotted 3 phone calls per day.

Exciting hour

Someone called and asked me if I could locate a definition of 'listicle.' She read the word in the newspaper but it wasn't in her print dictionary. It wasn't in most of our dictionaries either, but it does have a Wikipedia article. Fortunately, she was willing to accept an online, user-sourced source!


She is patron of the day, probably because there is so little competition--I asked a frustrated woman trying to release her print job if there was anything I could do to help her, and she said "Yes, watch my kids!" When I said, "I'm sorry, I can't do that" she said "Then there's nothing you can do to help!"


Another patron asked me a lot of questions about printing and using the library, all phrased as statements but with intonation indicating it was a question: "I can check out books here?" "I need to enter my number?" As soon as he walked away from the desk, another patron, carrying a long strip of paper and a peeled twig (a wand?) came up to tell me: "That man's behavior seems kind of suspicious. I mean, not suspicious, I don't think he'd hurt anyone, but odd. Abnormal." I managed to reply with "Well, this is a public library, we get all sorts of people" instead of "Nice to meet you, Mr. Pot-Calling-The-Kettle." Then he talked to me for 10 minutes about how the American education system is broken and he never finished high school ("There were a few incidents and I never went back.").


There are only 7 copies of this book in WorldCat. Any chance you can get one for me?

People being annoyed

Things patrons have complained about this week:

That the Friends of the Library took down the lifetime membership plaque in order to update it, so she couldn't look at it right this minute.

That TurboTax is hard to use.

That the clerk who called to tell her about her overdue item "wasn't very nice."

That the copier gave her a free second copy. 

That someone who discovered a lost purse turned it in to the lost and found instead of calling her personally to let her know he found it.

That this year's summer concert series is in a local concert hall instead of outside on the library's lawn.

That Millennials "don't understand metaphors."

Contrast

It's interesting to work simultaneously at Small Town Library and Downtown Library. Here is a sample of reference questions at both:

At Small Town Library:
Are there any spaces left in the garden program?
Could you please order this for me for my book club?
Where is the children's program that's happening this afternoon?
Do I need a key to get into the restroom?
Where do I sign up to volunteer? 

At Downtown Library:
How much does it cost to get about seven copies from the computer?
Do you have an occult section?
I need to sue my landlord; where is the form? 
How do I make the computer screen bigger?
Do you have another bathroom? Someone's been in there for half an hour and I think he's doing drugs.

At Small Town Library, our patron base is white, upper-middle-class retired people and white, upper-middle-class stay-at-home moms and their children. At Downtown Library, our patron base is pretty much the same as the patron base of the bus station down the block--poor, disproportionally nonwhite, and unemployed.

Many of the differences between how the two libraries work are symptomatic of larger inequalities between wealthy bedroom communities and large-ish urban areas--the differences in the quality of the facilities, the different amounts of funding, the different attitudes of community members toward the library--and are mostly out of not just my control, but any individual library staff member's.

The most striking difference in my everyday life, though, is how staff approaches patrons at each library. At Small Town Library, the patron always has the benefit of the doubt. The rules are designed to be permissive. If you're not sure if something is allowed, you generally let the patron do it. At Downtown Library, it is the exact opposite. The rules are restrictive. If you're not sure if something is allowed, you might get in trouble for letting a patron do it. It's made me wonder about cause and effect. Are Small Town Library patrons appreciative, polite, and patient because of the culture they come from, or because we approach them with the expectation that they will behave that way? Are Downtown Library patrons sometimes adversarial, rule-breaking, and impatient because of all the other stuff they've got going on, or because the library is structured in response to a perception that that is how they will behave?

You can probably tell which way I am leaning. I'd love to have the power to swap the staff and policies of the two libraries for a month and see how people's behavior changes. If only that were remotely possible. Maybe someday when I am the Librarian of Congress...*


*Important note for non-library nerds who might be following this blog: The Librarian of Congress has almost never been an actual librarian, at least not in the sense of having a graduate degree in the subject from an institution accredited by the American Library Association. Carla Hayden is currently in the nomination process. If confirmed, Hayden would be the first woman, the first black person, and basically the first actual librarian to hold the position. By the way, she got that ALA-accredited degree from my alma mater (although it no longer has a library school). Read more in this news article.