If you want to pile on, by all means, give it your best shot. Of course as an old timer here you should know that such things are to be prosecuted in the pit. I look forward to your starting a thread for me.
You’d think so, but weekends are notoriously slow. People bitch and moan when a library announces that it plans to cut weekend hours, but when they are offered, no one comes in.
Monday is definitely the busiest day, followed by Tuesday. Then it probably goes Friday, Wednesday and Thursday (a library is basically a ghost town on Thursday, don’t really know why either).
The busiest times are early in the morning and right after school lets out with another mini-rush from 4-5.
Are libraries today actively trying to get young (5 - 9 years) involved in reading?
Something like a book club or even volunteers to read books to pre-schoolers? I’ve wondered what is the current approach for kids reading programs?
I recall my hometown library had the children’s section decorated and had child size chairs, tables etc. It made it more fun. But, I wished there had been more variety. It never seemed to change.
Well then, the cut back hours make perfect sense. Although, knock on wood, a successful bond issue in Nov. would mean the restoration of full hours. Even so, its nice to know they are trying to be available as much as possible.
That’s funny - Sundays are by FAR our busiest day. Partly that’s because only the main library is open then - all the branches are closed - and partly because we’re only open 4 hours, so you gotta get in and get it done in less time. But Jesus Christ, there are Sundays I never once sit down.
Don’t flatter yourself anymore than you already have, dearest.
Justin, I’m interested to hear how you choose your history books. I noticed we either lacked or only had missing copies of a couple of well known books that are utilized in college classrooms and to your average person interested in history. When I brought this to the attention of our history guy, he seemed unfazed. Whereas I’m continually impressed with our selection of science stuff and cook books. Are the lacking areas often due to just one person’s decisions, and where’s the oversight?
aceplace57, I’m not a librarian, but I was an intern for five months last year. For part of that time my duties were those of the children’s librarian, who was on maternity leave. Our summer reading program was very popular, and a lot of time, money, and publicity went into it. There was a kick off petting zoo at the Main library and tons of other smaller events (sporting event ticket giveaways, rewards for certain local restaurants for reading so many books, etc).
But I can definitely tell you, beyond a shred of a doubt, that nothing, nothing matters more than the makeup of the parents or caregivers. I remember one little girl and boy came in with their grandfather twice a week. They loved Grandpa, and looked up to him - and he left the library with a DVD and multiple books each time, and so did they. They were fiercely competitive with each other in regards to how much they read. Conversely, lots of parents would come in with their rugrats screaming (at ages of like 6 and 10, ages kids certainly have control over themselves to an extent) and sign up for the free sporting tickets and often lied about what the kids read in order to get restaurant coupons. I honestly think that the “get your kid to read in the summer!” crap doesn’t help, it’s just fun for the kids who were already GOING to read, it doesn’t bring anyone new or on the bring into the fold. I should also mention that the branch I was at (for 2 months) was in a working class neighborhood, so income wasn’t a factor there.
What helps is a ton of books and a knowledgeable librarian or library assistant and programs where kids are read to - no matter what age. This is, of course, IMO.
Duly noted and filed.
More questions:
Do you still buy books now that you have access to your library’s entire collection? Are you ever tempted to buy books for the library that you personally want to read (and that you wouldn’t otherwise purchase)?
Have you ever felt physically threatened by a patron? Are you concerned about being stalked by some of the odd people who use the library?
How do you deal with ethically questionable requests for help? Let’s say that a mentally ill patron wants help searching for the home address of the mayor or somebody on the Internet? Can you refuse or does that violate the Librarian’s Code?
Libraries will never stop trying to get young kids to read. It’s practically our entire reason to exist (which does cause a little jealousy sometimes).
The Summer Reading Club is always very popular. Kids read 20 minutes a day, they come in and get a little prize and always leave with more books. Storytimes, school visits, reading lists. We don’t stray too far from the standard stuff.
But the big push nowadays is teaching literacy as well as pushing books to read. Storytimes will include a game or a song or something that builds on a literacy skill and we have stacks of literacy kits that parents can use at home to help their kids become better readers.
It depends entirely on who and how many people a library has for book selectors. Most small to medium-sized public libraries have one or two people choosing the books and if they’re not well versed in a subject they’ll by what the recommended titles are. With history, it’s important to remember that what might be well known might also be old, so a librarian may be holding out for a more updated take on the same subject.
So yes, it often comes down to one person’s decision and there is no official oversight. You just have to make your suggestions and hope the other person is listening.
I was never a big book buyer and all working for the library has done is made me appreciate used books more. So I’ll buy a ton of books at our book sale for 50 cents, but the number of new books I buy for myself has stayed at a pretty constant 1-2 year for my whole life.
I’m not the book buyer for my library, but I definitely buy DVDs and CDs that I’m interested in for the collection. I rationalize this by saying that my tastes match up with a lot of our patrons (and it’s true, I’m not blowing smoke up my own ass), but I will admit I buy them for me first and the collection second.
I’ve never felt physically threatened, but I definitely feel like Witness Protection Man and Muttering Guy Who’s Definitely Not All There have a violent streak to them. It wouldn’t surprise me if either one ever took a swing at somebody, but I’ve never felt like “today’s the day” in their presence yet.
As for stalkers, I’m not concerned about it, but I definitely think about it. Especially because Muscle Shirt Man likes to make a point of “I saw you at [store close to my house]” or “I saw you walking your dog on [street near my house]” when I know for a fact that Muscle Shirt Man doesn’t live anywhere near there.
All I have access to is publicly available materials. So if someone wants to know an address for someone, all I can do is open the phone book and look. So in a situation like that, I’d just look up the address and hope for the best. I can’t say I’ve ever dealt with anyone that I felt was looking for an address to do a beatdown on the owner though.
But I will say that if the request bothers me, I won’t put my full effort into it. Oh, Crazy Magnetic Waves Lady, you want me to find a study from the early 80s that proved that homosexuals were depraved psychos who admit they deserve the die? Yeah, I looked and I couldn’t find anything (I didn’t really look). Sorry.
As a female librarian at a downtown library I definitely worry about seeing some of my patrons near my house. It’s happened, because I don’t live that far from the library and the bus goes near my house, and I don’t know if it’s ever been on purpose, but I’ve informed security at the library a few times. I also have a very large, ugly dog.
Talk about being uninformed.
I live in world-renowned :rolleyes: Gainesville, Florida, and my local library has Terry Jones’ book, Islam is of the Devil, listed as being on order. What do you predict will happen to it? My prediction is that the first person to check it out will “lose” it.
Do you have a problem with words that trace their usage back to the 1800s?
I know about the preacher but I didn’t know his name was Terry Jones. My first thought was “Odd name for a book by a Monty Python member”, but he is a medieval history & Crusades enthusiast so it could work.
As an academic librarian a lot of my issues are different from public librarians, but to chime in on the “future of libraries” (an oft discussed topic) I’m not what anybody can call an optimist but I honestly do think they’ll be around for many years and libarianship as a profession with them. Librarianship is first and foremost a service profession and like other service professions we evolve as needed to keep up with the demand; daily life for librarians in 2010 is significantly different than in 1990 which was significantly different than in 1970.
Go back further into the history of the occupation and it’s amazing how much it’s changed: at one point librarians were famous for prudery and acting as local censors and arbiters of morality- a stereotype some still have associations with even though it was generations ago- whereas today they’re famous for the other extreme- zealous protectors of information availability and freedom (at least where adults are concerned, sensible precautions for the underage of course are in force- Billy Jr. and Cindy don’t really need to be checking out The Joy of Gay Sex and The Anarchist Cookbook for their respective 3rd grade projects just yet).
In academia there’s also the issue of students who think that because they’ve used the Internet daily most of their lives they’re experts in finding information, then they find out they’re not. Databases can be very complicated for starters, then there’s the issue of not everything being on the Internet, then there’s the issue of “it’s on the Internet but I challenge you to find it if you don’t know where to look”. (Government Documents are perhaps the leader in this field- if you want to know about estimated graphite deposits in Iowa or how many gas pumps were in Sioux City, Iowa in 1948 or the text of a House of Reps speech from 1988 it’s in a government document and probably online, but you’ll go nuts getting to it.)
If librarianship had an official motto or mantra it would be the quote from Boswell’s Life of Johnson:
We’re the people who know where to find information upon it.
Or, as I said once on another message board- and was reprinted in Library Journal (with permission and attribution of course),
(to the tune of Modern Major General):
You should probably just cut me off, because as someone who spends too much of my free-time in libraries, I have a million questions.
You mentioned that modern librarians don’t restrict what people check out. What if a ten-year-old wants to check out something racy? Like the Story of O or something? What about something tamer, like Lady Chatterly or Lolita, but you know they have conservative parents? Are there minor policies in place?
How often do you actually notice what your patrons are checking out? If I go up to the check-out desk with a Cat Fancy magazine, a copy of 120 Days of Sodom, and Build Your Own Fireworks at Home, will you even notice, or will you discreetly wait until I leave and then tell all your coworkers about Firework Cat Porno guy?
I was at the public library a while ago and the lady in front of me had a couple dollar fine from two or three years ago. She loudly proclaimed that she had already paid it, she had returned the items in question on time, etc. Finally, the clerk said just forget it and proceeded to check out the new books or DVDs to her. The woman continued to proclaim her innocence. How would you have handled the situation? Is it easier to just forgive a couple bucks when you know the person is going to kick up a stink?
No. I just have a problem with you referring to someone as uninformed when you choose to use the vulgar corruption of “all right”.
I don’t care if it’s vulgar or corrupt: natural language change is alright by me.