I started the most amazing job 366 days ago. September 2, 2013 I joined the Library world. It is by far the best career I have ever held, and changed my lukewarm aspirations of being an English professor to being a Librarian. Now most people would weigh the options of high earning English professor versus a small town Librarian and say there was no competition. I still aspire to teach, and I still love English, but I’m going to combine my love of English and books and become a full fledged (hopefully PhD holding) Librarian. I want to attend UK and get my masters.
Most people think being a Librarian is boring. Yes, I have had people tell me that. And some days I wonder if it’s true. (that’s the slow days where I don’t have an ongoing project and not many people are coming in.) However there have been many other days where life just keeps throwing us curve balls. Life is seldom boring at the Library. Here’s why:
1.We are always having to track down a lost book. Sometimes they were mis-shelved, sometimes we can’t find them.
2. Bomb threats. Yeah, you read that right. Bomb threats. Now to be fair the bomb threat was to the Judaical building a block away, but we still had to be on high alert.
3. Patrons come in and yell at you. Why? Because they were late on a book and now have overdue fees. Or because we don’t have a certain book they want, and why can’t we just order it for them?
4. Pornography. Yes, you read that right as well. No, we do not make, use, sell, shelves, distribute, or buy it. People have come in and use our public computers to look up pornography. This has happened multiple times. The first time it happened was the worst, because it wasn’t the normal kind, it was the really violent kind. Then we have to confront the user, potentially ban them from the Library, etc etc.
5. The really creepy guy that stalks you, follows you around the Library, and makes weird and random conversations with you about milk. (and the co-worker who teases you relentlessly about it)
6. Someone accidentally dialing 911 and the police show up asking if everyone is ok and you have to run around the Library figuring out where everyone is and if they are ok.
7. The cracked out woman who comes in half naked.
8. The other cracked out woman who comes in screaming for help, I rush to her, she says she needs help with setting up an e-mail address because she is 6 weeks pregnant. (She was screaming and I think on crack) Declares that we have the same boots and asked if I broke into her house and took them, says I am an incredibly amazing woman, is going to name her baby after me, and screams she loves me as she walks out the door.
9. Helping the 60 year old people with the computers and helping them read the surveys that have to take (mostly for health stuff). It’s really awkward asking a 60 year old about their sex life, but I handle it like a champ.
10. The Library flooded. Yes, book and water go so well together! Our air conditioning drain clogged and flooded our junior room. We closed for several hours so we could mop up the water, dry out the books and materials that got wet, and moved the shelves and books back into place.
It’s not all been bad eventful though! There have been some really awesome things too!
1. I completely reorganized and re-cataloged the entire DVD system. We have over 1000 DVDS and it took me a week.
2. I found an $800 credit with a company that we used to buy books from, as well as additional discounts that have literally saved us thousands of dollars.
3. I met Senator Sara Beth Gregory and State Representative Jeff Hoover (to who I mailed an overdue notice because I didn’t realize which Jeff Hoover it was….go me!)
4. Auditing our collection and fixing cataloging errors.
5. Finding all the lost reports and capabilities that TLC (our software) does and is capable of doing!
So yeah. Not everything has been bad, and some things have been insanely hectic. I wouldn’t trade it for anything though. I really do love my job.
Free to Keep Breathing 