I’m a little late writing this post, but hey, what can you do? I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year (although it is another belated holiday wish). Many things have happened over this past week or so and now I have plenty of material to write about. These events have revolved mostly around my job, so we’ll start there. As you know it is fortunate to have a job in such economic hardships, so I would not like anyone to view this is a complaint, but rather ways to mend the profession (and a way for me to vent).
Earlier this week I had the occasion to work at one of my more favored branches. The director is always very nice to me and is interested in how things are going with school and my life. She also likes to provide me with opportunities for dealing with unruly patrons in order to learn and be prepared for the future when I become director of a branch, or at least head reference librarian (not getting ahead of myself, but that is my aspiration). This particular branch has the reputation for housing some of the most disorderly patrons in the county. That is not to say that all of them are bad, there are quite a few that stand out in my mind and make my job a privilege. However, there is one gentleman who calls everyday and speaks to the director about (from what I can gather) the same types of books dealing with the topics of witchcraft, wiccans, Satan and the Antichrist. I say this because this was the second time I’ve talked to him about such things.
The first time, the director received the call and transferred him so that I may learn from such an unforgettable experience. It was not pleasant, but I did my best to be patient with the man and tell him that we had books on the subjects he wanted. I have worked at that branch many times since and not heard back from him. Until now. I had forgotten how fortunate I was not to deal with him and took this silence for granted. So he calls and I instantly recognize him. He asks for the reference librarian and I identified myself as such. He then proceeded to ask me about books on the Antichrist. I told him we had none at that branch (which was true) and then the reference call became ugly. He then asked me a personal question which, I would normally have no problem telling people in other circumstances, left me very annoyed. Now I know that this patron clearly suffers from some mental disorder (given his speech pattern and cadence) and even some family problems (as the director previously divulged to me), and I was wrong to so ruffled quickly, but enough was enough. This man calls day in and day out asking for the same things. He has a hefty overdue fine (a whopping $57.00 that I learned of later) and then switched to his mother’s card so he could rack up fines under her account. I went against my better instincts and snapped at him.
What question made me so angry to do such a thing? Well, it was more of a barrage questions that invoked such a reaction.
“Are you a Christian?” He countered after telling him there were no books on the Antichrist at this branch.
My response at first was more temperate than I thought it would be.
“I don’t see how that is relevant to the discussion, and it’s too personal for me to tell you. But if there is anything I can help you with, please tell me.” I said, composed and assured that this would stop his prodding. It didn’t. He persisted again.
“Don’t you believe in God?”
Like many Americans I am a God-fearing man. I was brought up Catholic and planning on being one for awhile (even if don’t go to mass every Sunday). Informing you of my faith now may make me appear hypocritical, but this guy really bugged me and when it came to the discussion in question I didn’t think he needed to know it. A few answers came immediately to mind. Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist were a few. Unfortunately my knowledge of the latter two is so limited that I would be able to carry on with a farce for very long. My tone changed to a near snarl as I answered.
“No, no I don’t. Anything else I can–.”
“How could you not believe in the Antichrist or not know what it is?” He interrupted.
Before I could respond, the receiver was slammed down with a loud thud. Guess he didn’t that care that much I mused. Feeling a little guilty but still annoyed, I went back to my business. The director must have heard some of the call or me not complete my sentence on the phone because she came over. I had told her it was her favorite patron and that he hung up on me. Slightly amused, she said she had never heard that before. Then she advised me not place any holds for him due to his outrageous fine. Feeling comforted that my lack of civility had not been unwarranted, I continued with my shift. Had the director not approached me I would have felt guilty for the rest of the day and maybe longer.
What could have been done differently? I have decided (after some kindly prodding from a friend) that after such unfortunate incidents I should take time to reflect on the situation and think of what could have been done better next time. The solution to this problem is not anything as simple as cowering before the patron and telling him my faith. I still stand by my initial response. It could have been far worse. A lesser man might have just countered with “It’s none of your damn business!” I elected for a professional option, followed by an atheist charade. Perhaps patience is something developed over instances like this. Librarians can fully appreciate the courtesy of the nice patrons and even some of the more nasty ones when compared to Mr. Antichrist. That still does not solve this problem. I guess the best way to solve this problem would have been to keep dodging the subject and ask him for what he wanted. My initial response was far superior to anything else I could have offered. But when you’re back is to the wall, and your patience at the end of its fuse, what would you have done?
* * *
I hope you’re willing to continue reading about library issues. This next one isn’t nearly as bad and did not induce a volatile reaction. This occurred at another branch with a different director and library issue. The director had deemed that a Wednesday afternoon was the perfect time to start one of her little projects since reference questions would be at a standstill until about three or four o’clock.
“The biggest issue this library faces is space management.” This director started. I was anticipating something straightforward like moving books. She was right, the library is in the basement of the police station which also shares space with the board of education and parks and recreation department. There has been talk of getting this library a new building for a long time, but just when the branch was on the cusp of receiving a new building, the economy failed and the carpet was yanked out from underneath the library.
As you can imagine, there are as many books as crammed into the basement (err, library) as possible while still allowing the library to be a relaxed setting. Despite this lack of size, the library has devoted a few of its shelves to paperbacks that need to be weeded or deselected. This was it, I thought. This was what my collection development class had prepared me for. The director presented me with the arduous task of weeding the entire paperback section of about 850 titles. At first the seemed all too easy. Going through circulation statistics would be easy enough and the choices were simple. If something had been added to the catalog three years ago and had not been checked out since, it could be removed from the collection. If a paperback was worn out and falling apart, toss it, its not doing the collection any good. I was getting through the A’s no problem. I was actually beginning to delete more titles than I thought myself capable.
Most people join this profession because they are enchanted with the idea of books. They love the way the feel, look and smell. This notion is fading in the digital world, but that’s a discussion for another post. My point is that when pitted with the idea of discarding a book, an older librarian often turns away in disgust, wondering who could ever throw away book. I was once assigned to a similar chore at my days in Somerville Public Library. A Children’s librarian asked me to weed the non-fiction collection because she couldn’t bear to do it herself. Given the imperative nature of wedding in this cramped library, and the fact that I was charged with weeding only paperbacks, this seemed a much easier task.
When I got to the B’s however, the circulation statistics were not so cut and dry. It was not as apparent that a book could be easily discarded. Instead, I spent a few minutes on each title. By the time I got through the F’s, nearly an hour and a half had passed. Eventually I finished with the J’s and took my break. The director had been out on a few errands and came back midway through my reprieve.
“Want to kill me yet?” She said, snickering pleasantly at her own joke.
“A little bit.” I said.
She then told me to go out for a walk and clear my head. When I came back she recognized the mind-numbing insanity of weeding and told me to stop for the day. We then discussed other issues of running a library including space management and weeding, as well as spending grant money and dealing with community indifference towards libraries. The rest of the day passed quickly and I received a few reference questions. A young boy asked me for football books for a report. After deducing that he liked the Giants, we headed over to the biography section to see what we had. I was shocked that this boy, no more than 9 years old, knew who Lawrence Taylor was and wanted to learn more about him. Unfortunately he had to settle for Tiki Barber, but he seemed more than contented.
I’ll take a quick moment to reflect on the tediousness of weeding. Even though I too love a good book, and all of the pleasantness associated with its feel, touch and smell, I realize that it is necessary to weed collections. This is one of those things in library school that you can’t learn. In my classes, my professors state that it has to be an individual decision. You have to go with what you know. So I would like to admonish future librarians that this is something that can only be learned in the field. No collection development textbook will help you make the tough decisions when it comes to weeding. Weeding a collection is all about personal judgment and acting on intuition. Personal biases may come into play. We’re all guilty of that. I for one did not delete some of the Star Wars novels in the paperbacks collection because I loved them so much. They did circulate by the way; they were just a little worse for the wear. So librarians be warned, weeding is not an easy task, it’s more of an epic feat.
* * *
I end this post with just a few notes on what I’m reading these days. I finished Dead until dark. It was exactly what I had expected. I’m not a literature critic, but when it comes to vampire novels, few critics will herald a title as an instant classic to be read through out generations (with the exception of Bram Stoker’s Dracula). This book had all of the twists and turns as the television series, and the murderer of Bon Temps is eventually caught and, unlike the show, not beheaded. It kept me interested, but I had a hard time picturing the characters Harris described in any other way than the HBO series portrays them. Although, I had wished the show would give readers the privilege of seeing a vampire Elvis (with an Alf-like appetite) like in the book. While that may have been too whimsical to witness, this is a show about vampires, so what’s really out of bounds?
I’ve now moved on to Harry Potter to see what all the fuss is about. In contrast to True Blood, I have not watched a single movie in the series and am (as my girlfriend has dubbed me) a “Potter virgin.” It’s only taken me 13 years, but I think I’ve decided to read all of the books in the series. I’m just about finished with Sorcerer’s Stone and I must say I do really enjoy it. I see myself finishing the series by the end of the semester if my Reading Materials for Adults class doesn’t interfere. I bid you, faithful reader, a fond farewell and hope that you’ve found this post interesting. I’ll be back when I have something useful to write about. -M
The Wandering Librarian 