[Sca-librarians] A must-read book for all library staff

[Lynne Puckett]

Nancy Shapiro wrote:
> Twenty-five copies in the network, all out, with nine people ahead of 
> me.  But I just put myself in line from the comfort of my sofa, while 
> the world melts and freezes by turns outside.  Yay electronic access!
>
> Ki-lin
>
> On Jan 8, 2008 9:34 AM, Sally Burnell <sburnell at raex.com 
> <mailto:sburnell at raex.com>> wrote:
>
>     I just finished a book that ought to be read by anyone who works,
>     or has worked, in a library, called "Free-For-All: Oddballs, Geeks
>     and Ganstas in the Public Library" by Don Borchert, assistant
>     librarian at Torrance Public Library in Torrance, CA. I laughed
>     until I had tears rolling out of my eyes at recognition of the
>     things that library staff are expected to encounter anymore in
>     daily life at the library.
>
>     No longer the quiet haven of intellectuals pondering great works
>     of literature, libraries have become the dumping ground for
>     society's detritus - drug addicts, homeless people, porn addicts,
>     pedophiles, wackos and other undesirables frequent libraries and
>     make them a challenging environment to work for people who tend to
>     be of the more introverted variety and aren't prepared to deal
>     with everything that gets thrown at them by these people.
>
[snip]

So how many of you get Unshelved in your email every day? Or read it 
online at http://www.unshelved.com/
It's a comic strip set in a library - and also hysterical. Among their 
regular patrons: a nudist lawyer, a homeless guy who used the home 
improvement section to help set himself up an apartment above the 
library's drop ceiling, the hacker kid...the staff is good too: Dewey 
the YA librarian, Colleen the old-style reference librarian who taught 
her daughter to read using AACR2, Mel the director. It's a hoot!

Aletheia Isidora of Philae

-- 
L. E. Puckett
Networking Systems Librarian
lpuckett at billings.lib.mt.us
Parmly Billings Library
510 North Broadway, Billings, MT 59101
http://www.billings.lib.mt.us
Ph: 406-247-8691