#library problems

[esperata]

Since this seems to be an issue causing more arguments lately,

do you think it's okay to take your shoes off in a public library?

yes

no

Voting ended onJul 26, 2024

No nuance, we die like men

[conservethis]

The next time you think to tell someone, “Oh, just donate it to the library…” know that this picture was almost a week of work*. A week to fill up 8 boxes with donated books that were duplicates of books we already owned (which are now slated for surplus), 2 boxes of books unsuitable for (or duplicates of books already in) the special collection they were donated to (but which will be good additions to our general collection), and 3 boxes of books [not pictured] that ARE suitable for said special collection.

It’s not even my job technically, but I’m good at this kind of sorting work and agreed to help because it’d probably be another 5 years before someone else got to it. And we needed the shelf space back!

Donating books can be helpful and generous in some circumstances, but dang if it isn’t a LOT of work for library staff to triage donations. It’s why a lot of libraries either no longer take donations, or why they only accept very particular things.

And because my library is at a state university, we are technically a state entity, and as such we cannot donate said books to some other non-state entity. So we can’t just donate them to a prison library or a homeless shelter or other such things. They have to go through the same process as all other university/state property, and be sold as surplus, hopefully to be purchased and resold by a third party (versus just getting chucked into the recycling bin).

*and that was a week with a spreadsheet I already had to check the donations against our holdings. Making that spreadsheet alone was probably another week’s worth of work in itself.

[grey-gazania]

I saw this funny screencap from the new Superman movie and sent it to my dear friend @championoftheoppressed, who suggested that it would make a great meme template. And she was right! So I was inspired to whip one up for the kids at my library:

[leche-flandom]

Aw man I'm stuck in the library elevator and the emergency phone doesn't work and I can't contact the campus police. It's hot.

[thelightwillbreakthrough]

chat which thing i’ve seen a patron do recently is worse

i deserve emotional and financial compensation for these!!!

open mouth cough over their baby’s stroller

use their own hand to cover their coughing child’s mouth*

sneeze over, possibly on, a newspaper **

cough into their hand, then hand in their returns***

Voting ended onNov 26, 2024

*the child did in fact appear old enough to be told to cover their own mouth

**not even their newspaper they brought to read, one of ours. meant for everyone

***with their returns they were also carrying. a box of covid tests

[samayla]

I am so so so sore today.

After weeding the past three years, we had two empty shelves at the head of our elementary fiction section. We also had several shelves in that section that had no more room for new arrivals. I shuffled all the elementary chapter books down to make room in those tight sections. And then I did the opposite in the high school fiction, which had some shelves with just 10-12 books on them. I condensed that down to create an open shelf at the end of the aisle for new arrivals in that section.

I moved every chapter book we own. And crawled on the floor through most of it because 90% of my patrons are tiny people who need low shelves.

*cries in librarian*

[bandtobooks]

Nevermind, I had a much better day and feel like I can hold out for a while longer.

[africanmorning]

I had a very mentally taxing day at work yesterday.

Someone returned a Cat in the Hat themed board game, which, among other things, includes a set of pieces referred to as "playthings."

Now, the patron just so happened to have returned the game missing the "ball plaything" specifically, so I had to fill out a little form about the missing "ball plaything" and then send them an email to let them know they had forgotten to return the "ball plaything" with the rest of the game and to please bring the "ball plaything" back if they found it.

Later, the patron called back to say that they did not know where the "ball plaything" was and would not be able to return it, so then I had to fill out another form that said that the patron was unable to find the "ball plaything" and ask tech services if we would need to charge the patron for the missing "ball plaything."

I had to do all of this with professionalism, and it was very difficult and I very nearly failed, but I managed to pull through in the end.