LJ Idol - Week 9 - Unprepared

[monkeysugarmama]

Library school teaches you all the theory you need to work at a reference desk, but they forgot to mention one little thing - you’re never fully prepared to work with the public.

I graduated knowing how to hunt down the best resources and how to “get the right book into the hands of the right person” but, when a 14-year-old kid in a bulging

Comments

[sydb42]

I used to work at the library at the University of Louisville. I wasn't a librarian, just staff, and I worked in the circulation/ILL department. We didn't get quite the variety of questions at the circ desk as what the reference department fielded, but we still got a lot of odd questions/requests.

Craziest person that I can think of off the top of my head that I encountered: A woman who wanted to know who had checked out a specific book in the 1980s to help uncover the plot of a soldier's pregnant wife who had been murdered. What? She absolutely refused to believe that not only did we not keep that kind of information, but if we did have it, we certainly weren't going to give it to her because it was illegal to do so.

[monkeysugarmama]

Awesome, lol!

Yeah, that whole privacy thing, some people don't get it (the government especially!) We couldn't even tell people what books they had checked out last month after they'd been turned in though - holding that many records would have bogged down the computers too much.

I was in public libraries until August, now I am at an academic library. The questions from the public library ia could generally answer in a few minutes, now it takes me a bit longer to hunt down the social patterns of white-fronted bee eaters or whatever (I didn't even know they were birds when I started the search, lol)

Small world moment

[rosepurr]

I graduated from U of L!

Re: Small world moment

[sydb42]

I went to school there too...just never got around to graduating. Heh. :)

[theafaye]

This is a really lovely little insight into your world.

[monkeysugarmama]

I forgot to mention my favorite part - storytimes! I ran back and added it in just now :)

[theafaye]

Good call - the librarian that visited my daughter's old kindy clearly loved that part too!

[jenandbronze]

And another one, ... "librarians' aren't prepared to assist blind/vision impaired people find the book they need." LOL

Great topic!

[monkeysugarmama]

We didn't have anything in Braille at my library, I was told it was a space issue, that a Braille Encyclopedia takes up like a whole room or something. But we did have a great collection of talking books we loaned out. Do you use those?

ETA - We also had quite a few books in large print, and could inter-library loan others from 300 libraries around Georgia!

[jenandbronze]

no no, audio books, but guess what, a lot of us, ... even me, get print books, for scanning ... and I can still read some print.

[monkeysugarmama]

I would go crazy if I couldn't read, so that is comforting, knowing you can!

[deza]

You nailed it!

[monkeysugarmama]

I'm glad you commented!

You know firsthand about the joys and tribulations of being a librarian. It can be the best job in the world, but don't think that just because you are in books you'll be spared some emotional intensity!

[rosepurr]

Excellent as always! I used to work in the front lobby of a newspaper. We could totally trade stories.

[monkeysugarmama]

For sure!

I tailored it to be about librarianship, but really, anyone who works with the public has the same kinds of experiences.

I got my library masters from the University of South Carolina, by the way.

[rosepurr]

In Columbia?

[monkeysugarmama]

Yes!