Small Surprises

{ December 3, 2009 @ 10:25 pm } · { Regular Days }
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Just when I thought it would be a humdrum week after the holiday lull, we had a small surprise waiting for us in the men’s restroom at closing tonight.

It’s not like we haven’t had “small surprises” before. You know, the usual stuff: feces in the urinal, shredded toilet paper all over the floor, a flood from a stopped up toilet, vomit from a child “who didn’t quite make it,” and so forth. But the surprise tonight was a lulu: in the handicap accessible stall of the men’s room were four ladies’ thongs.

At first discovery, my mind raced. What could have happened here? Were there really four teenage (or older) girls in the men’s room stall? What were they doing? No. Oh come on, could we have missed that kind of a party? Did they actually have sex in there? No. Come on. Not possible, right? Right?

And of course, in the meeting room tonight we had a special program, Emily Dickinson Live!, with a local performer. We had a huge crowd of people who don’t normally come to the library. How many of our male guests went into the restroom to discover female underwear on the floor? How long were those thongs in there? No one mentioned it, but then, what would a fellow say? “Ahem, pardon me, but there are four pairs of ladies’ underwear in the men’s room and by all appearances, it looks like whoever had them on was in a hurry to take them off.” Sigh.

Maybe our culprits were the two elementary school aged boys who rushed into the men’s room at the last minute before we closed? But where did they get skimpy girls underwear? Did they steal them from their sisters’ dresser in order to drop them into the four corners of the men’s room stall? That’s a stretch.

All right, I confess, we gave up after two or three scenarios. It must have been a set up… a joke. Right?
… At least, we hope so…. What do you think?

Regular Oddities

{ November 18, 2009 @ 5:06 pm } · { Regular Days }
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Every library has at least one or two “characters” who are regulars but behave oddly. Sometimes, these folks are a problem and require action, but generally, they are just gentle souls who are struggling with the challenges of living in this world.

One of our regulars is primarily concerned with identify theft. We have been through periods when she is certain that one of the librarians has stolen her identity but usually, it’s someone from the outside world like a stranger at the drugstore or grocery store. As a result of this fixation, she often needs information assistance to find websites and/or contact information for various legal organizations, judges, and identity theft professionals. She has written letters and made dozens of phone calls to lawyers and judges and editors of various newspapers.

We actually do our best to make her time in the library comfortable but it does seems like something always happens to turn things upside down. One day, when she was still carrying a lot of her belongings with her (again, to protect her identity), she set the bags down in our foyer. Unfortunately, that same day, another patron was collecting clothing to donate to charity and assumed those bags were donations. It was very difficult to convince our friend that this was an accident and not an intentional theft of her personal belongings. Everything was cleared up and returned the next day, but for her, the items were no longer viable as she believed they had been worn and so she discarded them and started over.

Another day, we assisted her in photocopying pictures of models from Vanity Fair. The magazine is larger than a standard piece of paper and so we had to adjust the copier settings. Once we got everything ready and she made her copies, she thanked us kindly and then showed us the pictures saying, “I forgot what I used to look like.”

Another day, she needed pictures of herself to send to someone. We apologized that we really couldn’t help her with that. In the end, we turned around to find her pressing her face up against the copier glass and was copying it… front and side.

It’s funny sometimes but it’s also sad. And what is our role as public servants to our troubled patrons? Will we know or recognize that day when this woman might need an intervention or professional assistance?

Getting a Red Card!

{ November 14, 2009 @ 12:59 pm } · { Regular Days }
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We have been really struggling with some of our teen patrons. Mostly it’s just regular old teen rowdiness which is OK and expected at times, but there’s one group of girls who have really started dropping what we call the “F-bomb” in the library….and I mean loudly and inappropriately.

One day, it got so bad that we had to ask a group to leave and as one of the staff escorted them out, they regaled her with a string of expletives that would embarrass a sailor. We had to do something.

So, here’s our plan: it’s the old soccer “red card” system modified. First, we’ll use a gentle verbal warning and explain that we’ll be doing “strikes” or “penalty cards” after that. We tell them we would prefer NOT to do this but we’re finding it’s the only way to get a handle on noise and inappropriate behavior (we also have small signs to this effect in each work station). If the same person (or group) goes to the next level, we pass out a yellow card that says, “Please be considerate of others around you.” … The next level is an orange card that says, “…Strike Two is for behaviors that are not appropriate in the library.” And finally, the RED CARD, that says, “Please leave the premises for the rest of the library day.” This red card will also generate an internal incident report and hopefully a name to start building documentation.

Here’s the funny part: so far, in two weeks, we have only handed out one yellow card… most of the kids who were asked to leave that one day have not been back. On the day we started the plan, I spoke to one of the ringleaders and explained what we would be doing. I told her that she had to understand, no matter how angry a person is, one cannot attack library staff verbally. It’s simply not right. When I asked her if she would speak to her grandmother or aunt that way, her eyes got very wide, “No way!” she said.

Well, let’s see how it goes.

How do you handle truly offensive behavior in your library (whether adults or teens)?

Book Mites

{ November 9, 2009 @ 5:39 pm } · { Regular Days }
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It’s 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday and I’m the one who who gets the goofy phone call.

The woman was quite pleasant and said several times that she was not complaining at all, but she thought we should know that our books had book mites. She said she was quite the bookworm and she knew for a fact that most books (particularly old ones) have mites and usually, she simply microwaves all of her books before she reads them.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t considered that our library books have RFID tags (aka, metal) in the back of the book and so, she managed to burn a hole through the back of the book. No problem, she said, she would pay for the book, but… what should she do with the next library book?

I asked her if she was sure it was our books that had mites? “Well, she said, “the mites are crawling up my arms.”

So back to the real reason for her call: how should she get rid of the mites in our library books since she couldn’t microwave them but she really wanted to read them. Uh… my brave answer: I have no idea!

Like any good librarian, I took her name and phone number and said I’d get back to her. After telling my nearest colleague about this conversation and chortling for several minutes, we began discussing some of possibilities and searching the web … but what if they’re not book mites at all? What if the lady has bedbugs? (They are coming back, you know.) What if it’s some other kind of bug? What if she has just regular lice and doesn’t realize it? Sigh.

After a careful search (well, the 4:45 in the afternoon kind of search)… it appears that book mites do exist. They do not, however, eat books. They eat glue and they love dark places. Were they crawling up our patron’s arm? I doubt it. Book mites (also known as book lice) love dark, moist places. They are not fond of human skin, hair, or anything else. The only way to really get rid of book mites is to remove any and all humidity. Good luck with that. One article did mention that one could put the books in a freezer (at 0 degrees) for four hours.

So, I dutifully called our patron back and gave her the bad news: low humidity, light, and maybe a freezer. “Well, she said, I think I’ll put them in a plastic bag and try the freezer method. Thanks so much.”

I guess I’ll have to warn the Circulation Department … if we get any frozen books in the book drop, we’ll know the culprit. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see the microwaved book and its RFID tag burned through the back cover!

The Break Room

{ October 30, 2009 @ 3:07 pm } · { Regular Days }
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OMG… there is always food in our break room. Either it’s leftovers from a holiday or it’s leftovers from a program the night before or it’s “Surprise! I went to Dunkin’ Donuts today!”

Today, the break room table is loaded with mini-pretzels (from the Pretzel Factory), four different sauces, and a blueberry coffee cake. There are only five of us working today (Fridays are short staffed because of Saturday); that’s a lot of food for five people. I’ve gained weight just looking at all those carbohydrates.

On Monday, I predict we’ll have lots and lots of candy… post Halloween.

But what about the infamous refrigerator? Now, there’s a door I rarely want to open. Who knows what might be lurking in there! Green fuzzies crawling out of re-used margarine containers or a spilled container of home-made soup? I took a peek today and there were all kinds of wrapped up items in blue bags. Mysterious packages are always trouble in a staff refrigerator!

While we’re talking appliances, how about the break room sink? Now there’s a breeding ground for all kinds of critters. Even after the many signs we have put up, dishes end up sitting in the sink and on the adjoining counters. (People really believe they’ll remember they left that pot to “soak.”) This must be universal problem since I checked on the web and you can actually buy signs or t-shirts that show or say things like: Clean Up After Yourself, Your Mother Doesn’t Work Here. Or this:
clean-up after yourself or this: The maid-quit

And how about the disappearing silverware? I mean, really, why would anyone want a mismatched spoon or fork? But somehow, as the days go by, the spoons and forks and knives walk away.

Our break room is so small that a person sitting at the table has to move for someone who wants to get into the refrigerator or use the microwave. And of course, we only have one outlet in there so the coffee pot, microwave, toaster oven, and a 4-drink soda machine cannot be used at the same time.

It always makes me wonder who designs these rooms? Probably the same guy who designs public restroom stalls for women!!!

IMVU

{ October 23, 2009 @ 3:38 pm } · { New Technology, Regular Days, Second Life }
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Our computers have filtering software on them and generally, the only ones that come up blocked in a normal day are the Juvi computers. They disallow images from those unpopular sites like Facebook and MySpace. LOL.

But those PC’s are right by the info desk so it’s not that big a deal. We simply type in a code word and the person is off and running.

But now we have IMVU. For the uninitiated, this is the latest chat platform for teens … it’s “talking” avatars.

After a year in Second Life, I’m somewhat familiar with the idea, but this one has caught me off guard. Currently, the application is blocked by our filtering software so we’re unblocking the crazy site about 25 times a day… if not more. The teens love it.

So what is the draw? Sexy avatars!

It’s funny because Second Life had these skinny hotties all along. And there is a Second Life just for teens. But SL is a bandwidth hog while IMVU is relatively lite. And it’s easy and quick.

So what can you do? Well, create an identity with a special name, play dress up … change clothes, chat–of course, create a “home” and even add a furniture. You can invite your friends to get their own avatars.

As you move around or do things, you collect credits… not sure what I’ll be doing with those, but I’m sure it’s to buy things. I have been through the tutorial and I have already learned how to move my avatar’s space around and I tried some of the pre-loaded moves like “yay” and “bored” etc. I also had a conversation with a “stranger” who was quite helpful and helped me navigate the space. Thanks Dpmase!

So, a little text … an avatar … and it’s 3D chat. Second Life folks said 3D Web would be where everything is heading and I’m thinking they were not wrong. Get ready.

If you want to find me… I’m Maijara…. ;~) www.imvu.com

Pawn Shops and the Library

{ October 20, 2009 @ 11:00 am } · { Regular Days }
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Ok, I seem to be on a roll about theft and the library.

We have had our DVDs and other audio-visual materials out for the public without lock for some time. We still have security (we are an RFID system) so all of our discs have RFID doughnuts. Naturally, here and there, we find the stripped off doughnuts inside books, under bookshelves and in the restroom waste basket. No surprise there.

But last week, we had the latest wrinkle in theft at the the library, when the local pawn shop called us after an “honest” customer of theirs returned to the pawn shop announcing that all of the DVDs he had just purchased were from the library. Sure enough, they still had our hand written barcodes on the discs and the items were all showing in our branch as “checked in.”

Our thief is not the brightest bulb: first of all, he/she steals them from the local library and then pawns them at a shop around the corner; secondly, he/she gives a real name and address (though bogus) to the pawn shop; and thirdly, he/she has an account at the library and just recently “reserved a book” that generated a pick up notice. Now, really, will he/she actually come and pick up this book?

Out of 53 DVDs (alphabetically R-Z), we have recovered 30 or so. But now, the question is whether the first half of the alphabet has been pawned at a different shop. We’ll see. We’ll be doing an inventory this week with one of our volunteers.

So fun. So irritating. So exasperating!

Theft and the Library

{ October 8, 2009 @ 3:58 pm } · { Regular Days }
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It’s a strange feeling to have the police in the library.

I don’t mean our security… we do have a security guard from an agency every other day and then, on the off days, we have an officer hanging out from our local station up the street. And I guess it’s a good thing although it does seem like the really weird stuff happens when there is no security at all.

The other day we had a patron who reported that her cell phone was stolen in the library and she wanted to make a report. That process took over an hour and a half. Gad!

In the end, the officer came, took the report, we called her company and cancelled her minutes. During the course of our “investigation” we tried calling the cell phone a few times and surprise, the person answered.

I was shocked, I didn’t know what to say. I ended up saying something goofy like, “Excuse me, but this phone belongs to someone at the library…. please bring it back.” Click.

I called the number again, but this time the phone was busy. About ten minutes later, one of the librarians came into my office and said, “You won’t believe it, but the person who stole the cell phone just called and asked if we had just called her and what we wanted. Go figure.

The policeman was there by then and we called her yet again! Yep, she answered. The policeman identified himself and told the girl she was using stolen property and… click.

She did not answer again.

The next day we watched the surveillance footage, but really, who can tell if a person is copping a small cell phone from off the floor? So, patron loses cell phone, kid gets cell phone with blocked minutes.

Ebay gains a customer.

Mr. Squirrel

{ September 29, 2009 @ 8:04 am } · { Regular Days }
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This all happened within a few weeks of my becoming a Branch Manager. First of all, I got a late night call from the police that the security alarm had gone off. I asked the policeman to meet me there and “check it out.” Nothing. All was quiet.

The next morning however, I arrived to find books scattered all over the floor, posters knocked over and a general bit of chaos in the children’s department. The mystery was solved when one of our Pages yelped and there, across the tops of the self-help books, was a scampering squirrel.

Naturally, he was more terrified than we were, well, except for the Page who kept running the opposite way from Mr. Squirrel’s sprints through the shelves.

So, we did the really brave thing: we called Animal Control. Actually, I felt pretty stupid, “Excuse me, can you send a van, we have a squirrel racing through the biographies.”

While we waited for the “professionals,” we did manage to corral him into the “quiet room” (also known as the magazine room) and closed the door, just in time for our public at 10 a.m. Our building is pretty old, so we actually have windows that open. So, we opened one of the windows in the quiet room and made a trail of treats to the open window, hoping for the best. We left him alone in there to gather his thoughts (and maybe his nerve).

After 30 minutes or so, I decided to keep him company. Finally, he took to the cheese trail (ok, no one had peanuts) and the next thing I knew he hopped onto the window sill and started out, but not before turning back to get the last chunk of cheese. Wise squirrel.

Oh, animal control? That’s about the time they showed up of course. And as to how he got in? We’re pretty sure he dropped through a vent in the ceiling, but we’ll never know for sure.

Butterfly Story Time

{ September 27, 2009 @ 11:24 am } · { Regular Days }
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It started out as a great idea, honestly.

I had some really nice titles (even some sweet nonfiction). Of course, Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar was my first selection (this is, after all, the 40th Anniversary of the book). I even came up with a cute caterpillar craft and 3 sweet finger plays. Now, I’m not a children’s librarian, but I was good to go!

Historically, we have anywhere from 10-18 children show up at our drop in story times. I was ready!

Surprise, not 10 kids, not 20, but 2 1/2. I say 1/2 because one was a walking-type baby and although she was welcome to be there … she was not interested in being there… at all! Apparently, I was the most boring thing she had seen all day and she made sure her mother knew it! Wahhhh!

OK, so I’m reading for two kids. That’s fine. Kids are kids. They’re regulars. They like me… I think. Of course, for the first 3 stories, little Miss 1/2 was much more interesting than me. Sayonara. They finally left.

Then, the first finger play, which I was sure was easy-peasy, but poor boy-child could not hook his thumbs and wriggle his fingers for anything. Finger play is not much fun for kid if it’s finger struggle!

Forget that … let’s read. Not bad. They’re listening. They’re watching. Great. Let’s do the craft. Right.

Just in case you’re wondering, Elmer’s glue does NOT hold puffy balls to clothespins. Also, Elmer’s glue does NOT hold jiggling eyeballs to puffy balls. And, Elmer’s glue does NOT hold small folded pipe cleaners between puffy balls and onto clothespins. I don’t care WHAT the picture shows on the craft website. However, I will say that Elmer’s glue does very well holding puffy balls to little fingers … and big adult fingers… also it’s very good at holding jiggling eyeballs to fingers and naturally pipe cleaners to both table and fingers.

This was one of those story times when, in the end, you’re grateful there were only two kids, two adults, and the baby left before the craft started.

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