# Wow, apparently I work in a dangerous place. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 1, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613 "2005-07-01T00:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/21 "2005-07-01T06:16:26Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > In a little town I used to live in, the Librarian would call the bikers to come help her. šŸ˜ƒ Hey, some of our best readers donā€™t _look_ ā€œrespectableā€, but theyā€™re invariably kicked-back, courteous and unobtrusive. They mind their own business, go their own way and expect others to do the same. One of my fonder memories of Library Wars: a nervy, hostile idiot started screaming abuse at the Reference Librarian because his internet time was up. A bearded, leather-clad biker and a sterotypical soccer momā€“both regular library usersā€“pointedly walked right up to the desk. They both _loomed_, in their different ways. Respect given and returned. The lowest common denominator is behavioral, not stereotypical. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/22 "2005-07-01T12:46:37Z")
Those of you concerned about what the library management would do will be pleased to know that by the time I posted the OP I had alread given the police a statement. The Assistant Director had recomended I call them. ``` As for the biker bar comments. I am 6'3" and 230 lbs. I have long hair and a handlbar mustache. So people say I look more like a biker than a librarian anyway (not that the two are mutually exclusive). ``` ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/23 "2005-07-01T13:04:44Z")
> [@Sweetums](#): > > ``` > As for the biker bar comments. I am 6'3" and 230 lbs. I have long hair and a handlbar mustache. So people say I look more like a biker than a librarian anyway (not that the two are mutually exclusive). > > ``` Damn, heā€™d have to be a nutter to slap you! ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/24 "2005-07-01T13:35:54Z")
Iā€™ve worked in a library, one specializing in audiovisual materials. Iā€™ve had videotapes thrown at me, Iā€™ve been cursed and threatened with violence, Iā€™ve been threatened with lawsuits for stopping children from pulling videos and books off the shelves by the dozens and dropping them on the floor. We once had to call the police to clear a group of teenagers out of the parking lot. They were waiting to jump the librarian because she couldnā€™t override the time limit placed on their free internet access and they accused her of racism. My personal favorites were the creeps who would call up some really raunchy porn site and then oh, so innocently ask one of the female staffers for ā€œhelpā€ with the terminal. People would hear I worked in a library, and theyā€™d say, ā€œOh, how I wish I did! Itā€™s so quiet and you have all that time to read!ā€ I always laughed. ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/25 "2005-07-01T13:47:01Z")
Wow! This is certainly an eye opener. I never imagined that public libraries could be like that. I guess I figured that they were filled with quiet bookish people who liked to read. Is this kind of behavior worse now that libraries provide internet access than it was in the pre-internet days? **Sweetums** Glad to hear that you suffered no permanent damage. Youā€™ll have to let us know how it turns out. ---
**Author:** ![Sweetums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Sweetums](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweetums)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/26 "2005-07-01T14:30:42Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Iā€™ve worked in a library, one specializing in audiovisual materials. Iā€™ve had videotapes thrown at me, Iā€™ve been cursed and threatened with violence, Iā€™ve been threatened with lawsuits for stopping children from pulling videos and books off the shelves by the dozens and dropping them on the floor. We once had to call the police to clear a group of teenagers out of the parking lot. They were waiting to jump the librarian because she couldnā€™t override the time limit placed on their free internet access and they accused her of racism. My personal favorites were the creeps who would call up some really raunchy porn site and then oh, so innocently ask one of the female staffers for ā€œhelpā€ with the terminal. > > People would hear I worked in a library, and theyā€™d say, ā€œOh, how I wish I did! Itā€™s so quiet and you have all that time to read!ā€ I always laughed. Unfortunately, the story is the same in most public libraries. I worked circulation at another library before getting my Masters, and got called all sorts of fascinating names by people who owed fines, or couldnā€™t check out books due to having other books still overdue after six months. I even had someone threaten me then, but was able to diffuse the situation by simply standing up, and demonstrating that I was large enough that messing with me would have been unwise. ``` Alas, some people have enough in the way of anger issues that they are bound and determined to get into a fight, outmatched or not. Fortunately, I decided that this guy wasnā€™t worth losing my job. Our library employs a security guard, but at the time of the incident he was outside having a cigarette. He dosn't do this that often, so this was just a case of bad timing on his part. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/27 "2005-07-01T14:34:55Z")
> [@Sweetums](#): > > charges will probably be filed. Press charges? You shoulda thrown the book at him! Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/28 "2005-07-01T15:21:01Z")
> [@velvetjones](#): > > Wow! This is certainly an eye opener. I never imagined that public libraries could be like that. I guess I figured that they were filled with quiet bookish people who liked to read. > \ Our libraries sound fairly quiet and low-key compared to what Iā€™m reading here, and it still isnā€™t really a quiet place filled with bookish people who like to read. Cell phones ringing, children screaming, people talking as loud as they please; all pretty much standard now. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/29 "2005-07-01T15:58:41Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Press charges? You shoulda thrown the book at him! > > Daniel /me slaps Daniel on the spine. ---
**Author:** ![Yamirskoonir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c0e974/32.png) [@Yamirskoonir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yamirskoonir)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/30 "2005-07-01T16:01:09Z")
Your experience is exactly why I am considering a career in the academic libraries instead of in the public. That, and the ā€œwet bumā€ smell in the magazine section whenever it rained ā€“ the local indigenous population would come in for a dry nap! ---
**Author:** ![Ultraviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c77e96/32.png) [@Ultraviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ultraviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/31 "2005-07-01T16:16:36Z")
People who think the public library is a safe place are fooling themselves. Iā€™m not saying itā€™s anymore dangerous than anywhere else, but itā€™s not some magically safe haven. It is a **public** library, with the open access that implies. I work for a library system, and we constantly have problems in our main branch downtown (the city is not even particularly large, about pop. 80 000). In the past year or so we have had : -a convicted sex offender having to be banned from hanging around the childrenā€™s area -a patron who went absolutely bonkers and took four people to subdue him, even then he managed to punch one of them -several men exposing themselves to people in the stacks -a weirdo with a foot fetish who kept trying to lick womenā€™s feet -a used condom in the childrenā€™s area, discovered by a child on a pre-school tour -used needles have been found numerous times outside the library Not to mention the various unusual things that are always happening (not necessarily dangerous) : one person managing to piss in our bookdrop, the countless people who threaten to sue us when we try to enforce any sort of rules (the staff joke about saying ā€œGet in line!ā€), the delusional patrons - we have one who thinks she is Queen Elizabethā€™s daughter and was found to be vandalizing all of our royalty books by adding herself into the genealogical charts! Most days I am really, really glad that I work in the administration centre and donā€™t deal with the public. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/32 "2005-07-01T16:37:01Z")
> [@Sweetums](#): > > Tonight a patron, upset over my asking him to leave a public computer, called me quite a few names, including ā€œfucking assholeā€. This parton has been called to task on his language in the past, other patrons have complained. I them informed him that this sort of language was not permitted in the library, and that he was being warned. he then threated to come across the reference desk at me. I then told him to leave the library. His response was slap me across the right ear, knocking off my glasses. I then told him to leave the library and not come back. and escorted him out the front door. > [@TVeblen](#): > > A librarian in a distinctly stuffy, upscale city nearby has dealt with an out-of-control stalker for almost two years now. Heā€™s rich, hostile, litigiousā€“and completely out of his mind. Anybody who deals with the general public is fair game. > > If itā€™s any consolation, the large public libraries in our area just went together to purchase an automated system (SAMS) to control public internet access. All of us have experienced prolonged, serious problems withā€“to be bluntā€“flaming assholes who think they have an ordained right to camp out on computers as long as they want. We got damned sick and tired of the screaming abuse at librarians, fights (verbal and fists) over time slots, refusing to leave when we close, etc. > [@TVeblen](#): > > One of my fonder memories of Library Wars: a nervy, hostile idiot started screaming abuse at the Reference Librarian because his internet time was up. A bearded, leather-clad biker and a sterotypical soccer momā€“both regular library usersā€“pointedly walked right up to the desk. They both loomed, in their different ways. Respect given and returned. > [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Iā€™ve worked in a library, one specializing in audiovisual materials. Iā€™ve had videotapes thrown at me, Iā€™ve been cursed and threatened with violence, Iā€™ve been threatened with lawsuits for stopping children from pulling videos and books off the shelves by the dozens and dropping them on the floor. We once had to call the police to clear a group of teenagers out of the parking lot. They were waiting to jump the librarian because she couldnā€™t override the time limit placed on their free internet access and they accused her of racism. My personal favorites were the creeps who would call up some really raunchy porn site and then oh, so innocently ask one of the female staffers for ā€œhelpā€ with the terminal. > [@Ultraviolet](#): > > -a convicted sex offender having to be banned from hanging around the childrenā€™s area > -a patron who went absolutely bonkers and took four people to subdue him, even then he managed to punch one of them > -several men exposing themselves to people in the stacks > -a weirdo with a foot fetish who kept trying to lick womenā€™s feet > -a used condom in the childrenā€™s area, discovered by a child on a pre-school tour > -used needles have been found numerous times outside the library > > Not to mention the various unusual things that are always happening (not necessarily dangerous) : one person managing to piss in our bookdrop, the countless people who threaten to sue us when we try to enforce any sort of rules (the staff joke about saying ā€œGet in line!ā€), the delusional patrons - we have one who thinks she is Queen Elizabethā€™s daughter and was found to be vandalizing all of our royalty books by adding herself into the genealogical charts! Man I never knew all that kind of stuff went on in libraries, even though I practically lived in one when I was growing up and Iā€™m not a stranger to them now. You guys should get together and, I dunno, write a book or something. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/33 "2005-07-01T16:37:58Z")
Why hasnā€™t Fox made a reality show about libraries? Jeesy Creesy! ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/34 "2005-07-01T20:05:07Z")
> [@Yamirskoonir](#): > > Your experience is exactly why I am considering a career in the academic libraries instead of in the public. That, and the ā€œwet bumā€ smell in the magazine section whenever it rained ā€“ the local indigenous population would come in for a dry nap! Thereā€™s still weird stuff that goes on in the academic libraries sometimes too. We had a foot licker/fondler here a few years back ā€“ wonder if he was related to the one in **Ultravioletā€™s** town ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/35 "2005-07-01T22:48:53Z")
Sweetums ā€“ I admire your restraint and professionalism. In Atlanta, the downtown library (main branch of the Fulton County system) is full of homeless loiterers on a typical day. Having been a homeless loiterer myself for a short period, and having actually spent a night in a university library for fear of freezing to death, Iā€™m not being judgemental; but it doesnā€™t make for a pleasant visit. Panhandling inside the library isnā€™t allowed, and there are usually police officers around (I think) to deal with the seriously crazy or violent people, but otherwise you can hang out all day. I always wanted to work in a library; now Iā€™m not so sure. > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by Sweetums > As for the biker bar comments. I am 6ā€™3" and 230 lbs. I have long hair and a handlbar mustache. So people say I look more like a biker than a librarian anyway (not that the two are mutually exclusive). > > Damn, heā€™d have to be a nutter to slap you! Iā€™m not as big as Sweetums, but Iā€™m fairly big, and some troublemakers consider that a license to mess with you. (Is there a better place than the SCA to meet librarians who look like (or are) bikers? I doubt it.) ---
**Author:** ![Yamirskoonir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/c0e974/32.png) [@Yamirskoonir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yamirskoonir)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/36 "2005-07-01T23:20:46Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > Thereā€™s still weird stuff that goes on in the academic libraries sometimes too. We had a foot licker/fondler here a few years back ā€“ wonder if he was related to the one in **Ultravioletā€™s** town ā€¦ Hehe, yup. I currently work as a library assistant (aka cataloger) in the library of a polytechinic university, and in my six years here weā€™ve had: a flasher, countless thieves, a would-be rapist, and an anthrax scare (yeah, that evac was oodles of fun). But I fear the earthquakes more than anything ā€“ my department is on the 6th floor, and the university lies directly on a major fault! I also had my share of fun at a public library for four years: everything from the serial vandalizer who liked to deface magazines with ball-point pen renditions of his penis, to the belligerent woman who had a nervous breakdown, to the pile of human excrement smack in the middle of an aisle in the childrenā€™s section. :eek: Despite all the chucks and giggles, I think Iā€™d prefer to do reference work with procrastinator college students who have never heard of a call number, over that omnipresent eau de stale pee of the magazine section. But Iā€™ll try to keep an open mind in grad school. > [@Baldwin](#): > > (Is there a better place than the SCA to meet librarians who look like (or are) bikers? I doubt it.) Huzzah! to that! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/37 "2005-07-02T00:29:50Z")
> [@Yamirskoonir](#): > > Hehe, yup. I currently work as a library assistant (aka cataloger) in the library of a polytechinic university, and in my six years here weā€™ve had: a flasher, countless thieves, a would-be rapist, and an anthrax scare (yeah, that evac was oodles of fun). Preach it, **Yamirskoonir**. Even the academy isnā€™t a refuge from the weird. A local university library just had a (student) bigot razor pictures of lynchings out of reference books to send as hate mail. Their newest wacko is an internet perv who surfs porn and refuses to leave at closing. His newest tactic? Heā€™s an _undercover police officer_, conducting a sting operation. He gets very pissy when asked for identification, as it would jeopardize his ā€˜coverā€™. It was quite fun when he threatened to arrest the librarians for obstruction of justice. It was even funnier when the real cops showed up. A person couldnā€™t make up this shit. > [@](#): > > Despite all the chucks and giggles, I think Iā€™d prefer to do reference work with procrastinator college students who have never heard of a call number, over that omnipresent eau de stale pee of the magazine section. But Iā€™ll try to keep an open mind in grad school. Sigh. I veered toward publics, even though my subject masters made academic work more logical. I loathed the cutthroat politics of academia, and facultyā€™s untouchable status, no matter how much they abused the library. To each his own. Slight tangent: there must be at least one misplaced member of the British royal family in every town. We had Queen Elizabethā€™s older twin sister. She could _prove_ she was the older twin, and therefore rightful heir to the throne, by the silver plate they put in her skull. She became quite hostile when we couldnā€™t find documentation to back up her claim. She decided the crown had co-opted all reference librarians into the conspiracy against her, even though we explained that the palace somehow neglected to house their secret documents in a public library in Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/38 "2005-07-02T03:08:09Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > His newest tactic? Heā€™s an _undercover police officer_, conducting a sting operation. He gets very pissy when asked for identification, as it would jeopardize his ā€˜coverā€™. FOR THE LAST TIME I AM WHO I SAY I AM. IF YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS CONSULT MY [SUPERIORS](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=22149). ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/39 "2005-07-02T03:16:53Z")
_snerk_ Good one, **Wolfian**. Distinctly sick, but good. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613/40 "2005-07-02T16:44:03Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > Thereā€™s still weird stuff that goes on in the academic libraries sometimes too. We had a foot licker/fondler here a few years back ā€“ wonder if he was related to the one in **Ultravioletā€™s** town ā€¦ NC Stateā€™s library had so much trouble with the local homeless population wandering into the library that they permanently closed all the Hillsborough Street entrances to the library building; you have to walk all the way around to get in. This doesnā€™t keep everyone out though; the most memorable event was the time a campus security officer caught a nude person bathing in one of the restrooms. I think the students are worse though; they once caught a student ā€œpolishing the bishopā€ (campus newspaperā€™s exact words!) in one of the computer labs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-apparently-i-work-in-a-dangerous-place/310613.md?page=3)