{"id":6909,"date":"2025-11-14T18:25:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/?p=6909"},"modified":"2025-11-14T18:25:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:25:40","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-public-library-worker-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny-public-library-worker-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good, the Bad, and the Funny: Public Library Worker Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Andrea, it must be nice to work in a library- it\u2019s so nice and quiet, you probably get a lot of reading done!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2026. <em>uhm<\/em>&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working at a library can be very wonderful, just not in the way you\u2019d expect. It\u2019s a customer service job, so you are in the position of helping people enjoy their time at the library- within reason and company policy. The whiplash from the jarringly different patron interactions alone is not for the weak of heart.There\u2019s a lot that library school can teach you, but there\u2019s a lot that you can only learn through experience. Even so I\u2019d like to share some of my memorable experiences working in a public library so hopefully you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019ve been bamboozled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Good:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s a lot of little wonderful interactions that really brighten up your day as a library worker. It\u2019s the small things like seeing a toddler demand to \u201cpay\u201d for their library books using the \u201ccredit card\u201d; or seeing how excited a tween gets when they finally have a library card of their own! There are so many instances of helping a patron and being thanked as if you have moved mountains when all you really did was look in the shelving area for the book they wanted to borrow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of my favorite patron interactions was with a young boy and his mom who would come in for our Sensory Friendly Storytime. He would come in with his favorite toy (a Daisy Duck plush) and stop by the front desk to ask me how I was. I would greet him, his mom, and Daisy of course, and we\u2019d have a nice little chat before they headed to the storytime room. He was always so excited to come to the library and honestly, I think the whole library staff adored him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>A List of Things That Happen in a Public Library that Keep Me Sane (Shortened)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overhearing someone lament not finding the book they were looking for, finding it in the sorting area and bringing it out to them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Showing an elderly patron set up Libby on their phone so they can listen to audiobooks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When a kid checks out a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/elmer-david-mckee\/5d34dc73b1c4b47d?ean=9780688091712&amp;next=t\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">book <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that I used to love as a kid<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing a child cry because they don\u2019t want to leave the library- it sounds awful but it\u2019s really sweet seeing how much little kids love the library.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing patrons put books they\u2019ve decided not to take on a cart instead of randomly shoving it onto a shelf<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having people of all ages tell me how much they love coming to the library<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Bad:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like I said before, working in a public library is not very different from working a retail job. You\u2019re interacting with customers day in and day out, sometimes you\u2019re lucky enough to have wonderful interactions with patrons other times\u2026 Well, let\u2019s say you\u2019re unlucky. It is in these moments that having prior customer service experience really comes in handy- even though having patrons beckon you with a finger wag or a passive aggressive throat clearing does chip away at your nerves\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working in a public library, you are expected to take on a lot of roles to take care of your community. It can mean taking on janitorial, security, and social worker duties in addition to your regular library duties and that will get to you. I haven\u2019t met a single librarian who is excited to kick out an irate patron, or have to tell someone that they have to leave the library due to poor hygiene. We do what we can to make the library a welcoming place for everyone, but that can mean having to deal with the public at their best and their worst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reasons Why I Don\u2019t Want to Talk or Hangout with Anyone After My Shift\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shelving the toddler books only to find sunflower seeds hidden behind the shelf, I didn\u2019t look closely enough to see if they had been chewed up and spat out nor did I bother to count but it was at least a couple bags worth of seeds.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being told by a patron that they \u201cpay my salary\u201d so I should let them break library policy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parents not looking after their children and getting upset when a staff member asks their child not to climb onto a table.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being stopped by an irate patron who \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cannot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> believe we are allowing a homeless encampment on library grounds\u201d (homeless patrons into the library).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Opening a DVD return and finding cat pee inside the case<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Listening to a patron <\/span><em><b>insist <\/b><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that they didn\u2019t return a book with water damage when not only was the book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">still <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wet when retrieved from the book drop, it was the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wet book in the book drop.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Funny:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Funny ha-ha or funny weird? Both. It\u2019s silly little things like a patron decisively handing me their credit card instead of their library card, or having someone ask if I\u2019m Spanish (I\u2019m Mexican-American) and if they can practice their \u201cGringo Spanish\u201d with me. I suppose these interactions could fit in either the good or the bad categories, depending on extenuating circumstances but I\u2019ve become used to them so I consider them common and negligible occurrences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Interactions I Swap With My Coworkers (AKA how to pass time at the Circulation Desk)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My coworker once saw a patron pull out a slice of pizza from his sweatpants pocket, take a bite, and put it back in his pocket. No, he didn\u2019t have a napkin or food wrapper of any kind\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At closing, I was doing my rounds when I suddenly smelled chicken. There was no one besides myself in the area so I was very confused until I found our trashcan holding a rotisserie chicken bag full of chicken bones<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having to remain neutral and professional when a patron whose head was wrapped in tinfoil came up to the Circulation Desk, asked a pretty reasonable library related question who then spent 20 minutes talking about how China is sending spies to live in apartments across the country to invade the U.S. I\u2019m not entirely sure of the details since I zoned out after the first couple of minutes and would say \u201coh, oh really?\u201d on autopilot, but it was a slow day and it did kill some time that I would\u2019ve otherwise spent staring at the blank wall across from me.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had a patron come up to my desk because she couldn\u2019t find her hold on the shelf. I pulled up her account and saw that it was not yet available. I let her know that it was currently checked out but she was first in line.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">P: \u201cBut I put it on hold on Friday?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">M: Yes, but it was checked out on Wednesday<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">P: \u201cIf you don\u2019t own it then why\u2019d it let me place it on hold?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">M: We own 1 copy, but it\u2019s currently checked out and you\u2019re on the waitlist, so when it gets returned you can check it out.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">P: \u201cBut you don\u2019t have it. Why did it let me put it on hold?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">M (eye twitching): \u2026 You know\u2026 I\u2019m not sure. Must\u2019ve been a glitch in the system. Do you want to keep the hold on the item or do you prefer I cancel it?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If I had a nickel every time \u201cThey don\u2019t teach you this in library school\u201d was said in my library, I\u2019d have no problem paying off my student loans. It is a wonderful job and I love it; otherwise I wouldn\u2019t have decided to pursue my MLIS degree, and while I have worked with many wonderful librarians there have been some who seemed to think they were misled. The truth is, the love of books and reading will only take you so far- you also have to love people and the community you serve to be a great librarian.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrea, it must be nice to work in a library- it\u2019s so nice and quiet, you probably get a lot of reading done! \u2026. uhm&#8230; Working at a library can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":6913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[282,396,186,394,395,362,397],"class_list":["post-6909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alasc-news","tag-alasc","tag-customer-service","tag-libraries","tag-library","tag-library-worker","tag-public-libraries","tag-public-library","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6914,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions\/6914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ischoolgroups.sjsu.edu\/alasc\/wp-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}