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!<br><br>Ki-lin
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 8, 2008 9:34 AM, Sally Burnell <<a href="mailto:sburnell@raex.com">sburnell@raex.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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.
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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.
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I recommend this book especially to those of you who, like me, work in a large urban library setting where these problems tend to be more frequent than the quiet rural or suburban library setting. You'll recognize all of the kinds of people you see daily walking through your library doors and coming up to your circ or reference desk. You'll also realize just how much we're expected to be everything to everybody, from social worker to psychiatrist to security guard to school teacher to computer expert and beyond.
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But still, I suppose a bad day at the library beats a good day at, say, a jail or some other nasty place......I still like my job in spite of all the craziness we deal with each and every day. Which is why I'm still at it after 25 years.
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~Saradwen<br>
Midrealm<br>
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