Well, normally Wednesday nights are no thing. I came in to teach a basic mouse/keyboarding class to ten enthusiastic patrons. I love teaching. It's a way to really do a lot of things. One, it creates relationships between librarian and patron. If they like me then they often ask for me by name when they come back. I encourage them to. Also, it is a terrific program for advocating library services. It sweeps in a variety of adult patrons who then go and tell their families and friends about the no-cost service that was just offered to them. And good advocacy grows exponentially.
And what is advocacy? It's everyday people holding up signs saying how much the library means to their community when decision makers consider taking things away from the library. It's everyday people calling and writing letters to complain about those decision makers making bad decisions.
Which leads to my next point. So class ends and I return to the reference desk around 5:00 p.m. It's generally slow, and for the next hour my teammate and I go about our tasks, make a pot of coffee like normal, and chit chat about the mundane like normal too.
Then comes 6:00 p.m. It's like a shit storm from that point until we close at 8:00. It seems the middle School, which is directly up the hill and abuts the library property has sent a homework assignment out that has certain students putting a Power Point presentation together. Great, eh? We can handle that, librarians all know at least a little about Power Point.
Not when about a dozen of them wait until the last day to get it done! Seriously, kids and parents. Don't wait until the last day and the last 2 hours before the library closes. I should really call their teacher(s) and rat their asses out for being so lazy. You don't get to procrastinate until you've earned the right to!
I've never seen such a tidal wave of patrons since at least last week. I am happy to help with your Power Point, but when you bring your mom along for the ride and she bitches on your behalf about the library closing at 8:00 and "where else can he get this done before tomorrow?" I feel no sympathy at that point. AND, I get the privilege of dealing with our favorite completely paranoid and mentally ill patron (I'll dub her Martha to protect her identity). Martha likes to come in a half hour before closing with all of her possessions with her because she thinks various people go through her house and steal her belongings. She totes 2-3 full pieces of rolling luggage with her every time she comes in.
Can there be no order? Why do all you people have to come in in the last 2 hours the library is open, when it is expected that things actually die down instead of ramp up? I want to help, I'm obligated to help. But there are only two of us to serve 20-30 people coming in at a constant stream. And my partner is elderly, moves slow, and fears emerging technologies including the internet like Bengali people fear cholera.
But here is the overriding paradigm: this is all in the name of advocacy. If we go out there like Starship Troopers and we squash the bug, and we truly kick ass and we help people make it in life, those people talk. We know that. Everyone talks. And they come back. And it makes our jobs harder. But they keep coming back and they keep talking about how great the library is. And they drop names. Superficially it's a pretty thankless job. But it's not. You reap the rewards for helping people at some point.
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