Tales from the library VII

So, last time I wrote I mentioned something that had never happened before. Well, something new has happened again.

Last Saturday, I was working in the book drops area when I heard a loud crash. It’s common to hear the occasional crashing sound of someone accidentally tipping over a card or dropping a few books. However, this was a different type of crashing sound. So, I went over to where I had heard it and sure enough, it was bad. On the back wall, downstairs, a shelf had been completely ripped out of the wall in a section. A three or four year old was bumped in the head by a book that fell from the shelf. The two spots that the shelf literally was pulled out of the wall wasn’t connected to any studs in the wall. The little girl was the only person there when all of this happened. There’s no way that the shelves simply just gave out because it looks like the wall screws were pulled by some kind of force. I think it’s possible that the little girl was climbing on it but we can’t prove it and nobody saw it happen.

Today, while I was shelving books downstairs, I heard what sounded like another shelf collapsing upstairs. When I got up there, it was the magazine rack. Some of the shelves fell off of the display. That time, however, there were some kids that were messing with those shelves to cause that to happen.

Lastly, there’s something that I don’t understand at all. What is it that people who are at the library looking at non-fiction, are obsessed with condoms? Numerous times I’ve gone through cleaning up loose items on the shelves and found condom wrappers or unopened condoms. Seriously, what is this fascination with leaving things like that on the shelves? Today, I found an unopened one that was just sitting there on a shelf under two books that had nothing to do with sex or anything. Just doesn’t make sense to me at all.

Tales from the Library VI

So, here’s something new that’s never happened here before. We had a woman come in with her two or three kids. She must have been at least in her mid to late 30’s because her kids were around the age of teenagers. Anyways, she asked one of the librarians to get some security guards for her. The reason? There was a teenage boy, probably about 12-13, that was her younger brother that she didn’t want to have anything to do with. She didn’t want to be around him or even see him. So, she asked if there were some security guards that could be with her so that she didn’t have to deal with him. As I’m watching this, I’m watching the little boy’s face as his sister is saying all of this. It was a face of someone who didn’t understand what was going on. Like he was being shunned in a way. Quite sad to watch stuff like that but it was also quite funny watching this woman freak out like that. She was actually trying to request that this kid be thrown out simply on the grounds of she didn’t want him to be around her.

In other news…one of our pages that was hired on the same day I was is now leaving. That means that by the middle of August, we’ll be short two library pages. The other one that’s leaving is going to college. She’s been working her for a little over a year so she spent a little while around here. However, the other page is moving to a different library I guess. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.

Tales from the LIbrary V

Yesterday, I was working on my closing duties, towards the end of my shift. This consists of making sure that the books on the shelves are neat and presentable and aren’t sticking out or shoved back. After doing this to the Adult Fiction area, I moved over to Graphic Novels. (For those of you who don’t know, that’s comics) So, I started working on them and made sure they looked presentable and such. However, there were a few books that were stuck. The reason for them being stuck was because there was a broken key that was underneath them. I have no idea why that would be there. We find all sorts of random and weird things at the library after it closes and during the day in the book drops.

Something else that has been randomly popping up to me while I”m working is birthday cards. For some odd reason, people just leave those laying around and forget about them. Why you would have your birthday card at the library and then simply leave it on a bookshelf and forget about it is beyond me. I feel bad for finding them too. Sometimes there are handwritten notes and messages making it more personal. So, when I have to throw them away, I feel bad. At the same time, however, the person that left it wasn’t smart enough to make sure they had it with them when they left.

My first day of work at the library was also the first day that the new director of the library started working as well. I’ve talked to him occasionally during lunch and he seems to have a good head and view on a lot of things. One of the biggest things he was challenged with since taking this job is bringing the library back under the umbrella of the City. See, the local library is supposed to be governed and under the City. I work for the City because of how I was hired at the library. Anyways, there are policies and regulations that were changed and not followed all the way through because the library has it’s way of doing things. It likes to keep things internal and run itself. There’s nothing wrong with that at all to want to be self-sufficient. However, the problem is, it causes issues when we need the City’s help. For example, we were having computer issues so the IT department had to come in and switch all the computers back to the domain under the City. The reason for this? The library had decided to go onto its own domain and use on of it’s employees as an IT instead of calling Tech support through the City like it was supposed to be. So, the Director is having to work on getting the library back on terms and in sync with the rest of the City. I have a lot of respect for the Director with him taking this on because it’s a lot of work and it’s not going to be easy. But, he’s sticking with it and working things out while getting his family settled in to town as well.

Tales from the Library IV

So, this last Monday, my supervisor had to pay a ransom of chocolate for his hand sanitizer. Some time last week, someone had gone in and kidnapped his hand sanitizer, made a chain out of his paper clips, and turned everything on his bulletin board upside-down. There was a letter made of magazine letters saying that by 2PM on Monday, he was to leave chocolate on the copy machine in order to get it back. So, my supervisor brought the chocolate over to the copier and left it there. Later that evening, we were told it was one of the pages that we didn’t suspect.

Last week all the pages had a meeting with our supervisor to talk about how things have been going and any plans we have to make ourselves more productive or get our jobs done faster. As we started the meeting, I saw my mom pull out front in the van. A few seconds later, the janitor that was outside brought in a steam coffee. Totally made my day! So, as we’re having our meeting, I got to start off my day with a steaming cup of joe.

However, the day before that was awful for me. Last tuesday I was working and needed something for the pains I was having in my back. Around lunch time, my mom brought me a Vicodin. I took it at lunch after I finished eating and about an hour later, I was noticing that it had finally kicked in. An hour after that, things started to get bad. I started to get nauseous and my stomach was REALLY upset. My co-worker asked if I was okay and I told him what was going on. He told me that if I needed a break to just tell him. So, I tried working but I felt like I was going to throw up, so I told him I needed a break. I laid on a couch in the break room for about 15 minutes and then told him I was back. He said that if I needed to go home to just tell him. 5 minutes after that, I was throwing up in the bathroom. When I told him that, he had me go home. For the rest of that day, I was out of it. I’ve taken Vicodin before so it wasn’t that I wasn’t used to it. But it kicked my butt.

Tales from the Library III

So, numerous things happened today. First off, I was working my shift at the library this afternoon and things were nuts! We started a summer reading program and there are kids EVERYWHERE. When I first clocked in, I was the only page working for the first hour. After that, the other page was set to mail and had to spend A LOT of time doing that. There are several doors that are emergency exits that are throughout the library. They’re all marked saying not to use them because there are alarms. However, I guess you don’t have to be able to read to go to the library. There were Emergency Exit alarms going off EVERYWHERE! The issue with this is I’m the only page and it’s the page’s job to get the keys for the alarms and turn off the alarms as fast as possible. There was one alarm that took me a minute to realize because I was on the other side of the building.

Many people have asked me how I like my job and what are the pros and cons to it. To be honest, I can’t think of many cons to it at all. It’s a simple job where I can get my work done and think about things at the same time. To me, that’s a HUGE plus. I enjoy being in my head and contemplating things. The fact that I can now do this at work in an environment where I also make money, perfect!

Tales from the Library II

So, here’s another post about the random things found out while working at the library.

Today I was empying the indoor book drops and I found numerous things from library cards to trash. See, there are two drops. One is for books, magazines, things like that. The other is for CDs, movies, games. Anyways, I asked the circulation people working next to me what the weirdest thing they found in a book was. The funniest and weirdest thing they found in a book from the drop was a coupon that was made for a “Free Love making session” as a bookmark. It wasn’t from a organization or anything. In fact, it was homemade so that made it funnier.

A few days ago I was doing what’s called Walkthrough 1. Basically, you go through the Young Adult and Non-fiction area to make sure the shelves are clean and in order. Well, I knew it was going to be an interesting day because I was walking through the non-fiction and I found a condom wrapper. Now, when I found something like this, it made me wonder how in the world it got there. To be honest, I really don’t want to know in the first place.

The third one was a little farther back and it was something I didn’t realize till today. I was talking with a friend of mine that also works at the library. My parents had just gotten out of a funeral service in a Mormon Ward. They were telling me that it was so annoying with all these kids who were like 2 and 3 saying that they knew that the Mormon church was the true church. Anyways, we were talking about how sad and annoying it was and in comes one of the other pages, who is also the one training me. She seemed to get a little uncomfortable as my friend and I continued talking so I dropped it. Today, I found out why it was uncomfortable for her. My co-worker is supposedly a BIG Mormon. *facepalm* Gotta love how things like that happen.

Tales from the Library

So, there are weird things that happen at the library where I work and you hear some of the most obscure things as well. As of yesterday, I decided that I would write some of these things down and tell you some of them.

The first is about a little boy. He couldn’t have been older than 2nd or 3rd grade. Anyways, he was with this guy who was like his “Big Brother” in a sense. Kind of like one of those people that helps the child out when there’s issues at home or at school. So, I guess this kind was thrown up against a wall by another student and was hit in the face by this same bully. What does this other kid do? He hits him back in self-defense. Well, the school REALLY didn’t like this and this kid was given more punishment than the one that started the fight. So, they’re at the library reading this book that was explaining that it’s wrong and disrespectful to hurt ANYONE. Whether it’s self-defense or not. THAT IS CRAP! When I was in 7th grade, there was a kid that decided it would be fun to beat up my back. I went home and my back was hurting pretty bad. So, the next day, he decided to start doing it again. That’s when I tried running away. The downside to running away was we were in the locker room and he was one of those prep guys that has everyone on their side. So, he starts walking towards me and hit my back so I punched him twice in the face. We were both sent to the Dean’s office and they tried to give me more punishment because I defended myself and didn’t handle it the way they wanted me to. To the people that think this way, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to put your hand vertically in front of your face so you’re staring at the palm. Then, look to your left and SLAP YOURSELF UPSIDE THE HEAD! Why? For being an idiot.

Okay, so the next thing was this woman who decided she needed to talk louder than necessary on the phone. She was going on about how her daughter married this guy who’s a pastor. Anyways, so this woman is complaining about how she doesn’t EVER want to bible bash at all. In my head, I’m thinking she’s a little nuts for that but oh well. So, she explaining that this son-in-law of hers is a total jerk because he thinks that if someone files for divorce for a reason other than adultry, they’re going to be an adulterer if they marry again. Personally, I would have to agree with the son-in-law. However, the only way I wouldn’t is if the person being pulled into the divorce can’t stop it or have any say. Anyways, this woman needs to look at the palm of her hand as well.

And lastly, this one is a little more…interesting. There was another kid that was with his “Big Brother” and he was talking about a test he had taken earlier that day. He was saying “we” when referring to himself. After they finished talking he was saying how “we” were excited to go play on the computers downstairs. That’s going to be an interesting mind