|
Venting about something that's been a serious nuisance for the last few days regarding patrons where I work (I'm part time, but apparently we've been having a spree of assholes for the last week or two). Yes, this is a very nice library at a beautiful little community college in a coastal suburban area, and from a major road nearby you can clearly see LIBRARY on the side of the building. We are also open to the public. As long as you don't smell, bring too much stuff in with you, have a weapon, or otherwise seem unsafe to us, we let you come into the library and spend as much time as you want in here, and read things off the shelf. And yes, it's cold out and it's warm in the library. However... No, you can't use our computers. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. No, you can't use our wi-fi. That is for students, staff, and faculty only. No, you can't use our copier, fax machine, or shredder. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. No, you can't check out books. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. No, you can't get into the back rooms with the fancy stuff like VR equipment and the 3D printer. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. No, you can't use the free coffee machines. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. And if you get belligerent with us, or creep on the female students, we can and will kick you out. The campus police are on speed-dial and will be here in under a minute. On my first day of training as a para, my boss specifically told me that they're not paying me enough to put up with that kind of bullshit from the public. We are not a public library. We are not affiliated with the local county public library system. We never have been, despite what you've told me when I'm not giving you what you want. We allow the public into the library as a courtesy, not an obligation, and our responsibilities are to our students, faculty, and staff. I'm told that until a few years ago, you needed to swipe your student/faculty/staff ID card to get into the library. Please, assholes (chiefly overly entitled retirees and drunk homeless). I have to write up reports every time there's an incident with one of you, and a lot of our community patrons are quite well behaved. Don't make us reinstate the card entry system like my boss said she's thinking about proposing at the last staff meeting.
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 02:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 19:24 |
|
|
library goons, what proportion of homeless and down-on-their-luck folks do you get who are no problem? i ask because i think most of the time when i spot somebody in this category at my local library they are pretty respectful. yes i realize that i'm not the person who has to deal with stinkers and/or work for 8+ hours there so my experience is a bit colored like when i was in college there was this guy who'd come in to the (academic, private) library during the day and set up what looked like a plausible study station where he'd have several books of a similar subject, one or two of them open, and he'd sit himself in a way that allowed him to sleep but still kinda look like he might be studying and/or had just fallen asleep from studying. obviously, he didn't totally fit in. our school had a working-adults program but this guy was older than that, probably Vietnam-vet age, and was dressed scruffily. he was always clean tho, no stank or anything. this was one of my first experiences with a person doing anything like that and i ended up just thinking "man, whatever, this guy is going to that much effort to get a nap, don't mess with it and make sure nobody messes with him"
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 03:17
|
|
|
Lutha Mahtin posted:library goons, what proportion of homeless and down-on-their-luck folks do you get who are no problem? i ask because i think most of the time when i spot somebody in this category at my local library they are pretty respectful. yes i realize that i'm not the person who has to deal with stinkers and/or work for 8+ hours there so my experience is a bit colored Honestly? The vast majority in my experience. The assholes who cause problems, either through odor or behavior (typically involving being drunk) are exceptions. Entitled rich and/or old people have in my experience been a far greater problem for staff than homeless. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jan 14, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 03:40
|
|
|
how many drunk undergrads do you have to kick out in a typical semester lol. bonus points if you can break this stat down by time of day
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 03:52
|
|
|
Lutha Mahtin posted:how many drunk undergrads do you have to kick out in a typical semester lol. bonus points if you can break this stat down by time of day None. I've been at university libraries for about three years in total to date, and frankly? Students have more fun places to be drunk than the library. I see students who are clearly mildly-to-extremely high, but not drunk. The drunkard problems I've seen have been exclusively at public libraries, and mainly consists of the elderly and the homeless.
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 03:55
|
|
|
i definitely asked that question out of academic curiosity. i would never ask that question because i had a dorm-mate one time who lured me to watch a VHS copy of What's Eating Gilbert Grape in a library study room (because he had to for a class, equipment rental rules and whatnot) and the luring involved giving me poo poo-tons of booze
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2019 06:06
|
|
|
My public library used to have a summer theatre program for tweens/teens where the director made a script out of a kids book and they rehearsed for like 6 weeks and put on a show for their families and local younger kids. I remember doing Heckedy Peg and Miss Nelson is Missing when I was a kid. My brother did Captain Underpants. Then when I was in college, I got to direct! And we did a mash-up of Wayside stories.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2019 04:08
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:No, you can't check out books. Those are for students, staff, and faculty only. Cythereal posted:We are not a public library. We are not affiliated with the local county public library system. We never have been, despite what you've told me when I'm not giving you what you want. I can understand their confusion. I went to University of Colorado, specifically their Denver Campus. They allow students, alumni, and, yes, the general public to check out books. I understand that it must get tiresome to be asked about this a dozen times per day, but please don't get mad that people ask because some schools do allow this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2019 19:30
|
|
|
Cessna posted:I can understand their confusion. Adding to the confusion, I know of several community college campuses that share buildings with actual public municipal libraries.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 17:25
|
|
|
I love not being able to check out books directly from my alma mater's library. It's so much more efficient to be required to do ILL pulls through the county library.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 19:03
|
|
|
Your old school might have a library membership you can pay for if the convenience is worth that much to you.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 19:45
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:We are not a public library. I get where you're coming from, but this is a failure of your administration. If you're publicly accessible, the public will assume they can use your services. In an ideal world, this would mean opening up those services to the general public and happily footing the bill, but, y'know, library administration is what it is, so what you've got is probably the best possible option at this point. Are you filling out an incident report every time someone asks for something they can't have, or just when they're being a nuisance? Because if it's the former, holy poo poo, your access services head needs to be screaming at the director 24/7. Skinnymansbeerbelly posted:I love not being able to check out books directly from my alma mater's library. It's so much more efficient to be required to do ILL pulls through the county library. In addition to what Lutha Mahtin suggested, it may be worth asking your local library if they can negotiate a borrowing arrangement from the campus system. It's how the local systems work around me, but it may take enough interest from the community to make it worth your county's while. I know this is "have you tried rebooting" territory, but have you contacted your alma mater's library system directly? Or failing that, alumni services? If they don't purge their patron rolls regularly, you may still have limited borrowing privileges. My home institution and former employer kept everybody, plus their immediate family, for a hundred years. Which did make it tricky to discriminate between duplicate accounts sometimes, in fairness.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 21:47
|
|
|
grassy gnoll posted:I get where you're coming from, but this is a failure of your administration. If you're publicly accessible, the public will assume they can use your services. In an ideal world, this would mean opening up those services to the general public and happily footing the bill, but, y'know, library administration is what it is, so what you've got is probably the best possible option at this point. Just when they're being a nuisance. Like I said, most public patrons are not a problem. But we have problems with the homeless and, much more importantly and commonly, entitled rich elderly because that's the kind of area this university is in. Personally, I think all university services including classes should be free. We are not a public library. We exist for the benefit of our students, staff, and faculty. I am always happy to give you directions to the nearest public library, there's two about ten minutes away in either direction. I understand the libraries in both counties we straddle the line of are closed on Sunday and Monday (because you retiree chucklefucks don't want to pay taxes for anything including education, libraries, and infrastructure), but we are not a replacement for them. Cessna posted:but please don't get mad that people ask because some schools do allow this. I'm not mad that people ask. I'm mad about the same people I'd complain about if this were a public library, but with the added nuisance that pretty much all our services are not available to the public and getting an attitude with me won't change that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 21:58
|
|
|
My academic library was open to the community. They could check out books with a community card and use the equipment. They couldn't do ILLs and they could not use the forbidden fancy-rear end equipment on the fourth floor. I think the only people who used that outrageously expensive poo poo were library staff and a handful of professors and grad students anyway. They were welcome to the 10 year old scanner and the lovely computer arrays though! We even let them play with the blurry green headache-machine (microfiche / microfilm).
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2019 23:27
|
|
|
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751104&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=2281#post491958556
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2019 04:29
|
|
|
So today, an elderly Hispanic woman came into the library to scream at me a couple hours after opening. She said she called us at 7 AM to ask about using the library and that the man on the phone was extremely belligerent with her, that only US citizens can use the library and he didn't believe she was a citizen. She wrote his name down and was only mollified when I promised to speak to the chief librarian. Just, two things. One, we didn't open until 11 AM and the earliest anyone gets here on a Saturday is around 10. Two, no one by that name works here and my coworker on the weekend shift, who's been here for years, says no one by that name has ever worked here. Fingers crossed I'll never see her again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2019 04:20
|
|
|
Sorry for double posting, but it's been that kind of weekend. I've been asked for a lot of strange things over the years I've been a librarian, but today gave me a new one. "Hello. I've recently come into possession of some tablets written in ancient Sanskrit and I was wondering if there was anyone there who could translate them for me."
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2019 23:41
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Sorry for double posting, but it's been that kind of weekend. Tell us about the new cult/religion you just founded
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 02:27
|
|
|
Bluedeanie posted:Tell us about the new cult/religion you just founded I told him to call the university admin office tomorrow and gave him their number. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 03:11
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Sorry for double posting, but it's been that kind of weekend. Oh, god, what fresh new wave of Mormonism is starting here?
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 06:27
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Sorry for double posting, but it's been that kind of weekend. That'll set you back at least a bronze spintria.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 11:40
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Hello. I've recently come into possession of some tablets written in ancient Sanskrit...
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 19:31
|
|
|
Remulak posted:Someone is funding Deash again! Sanskrit isn't spoken/written in Iraq.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 21:20
|
|
|
Vincent Van Goatse posted:Sanskrit isn't spoken/written in Iraq. Are Hobby Lobby smart enough to realise this though?
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 23:02
|
|
|
jobson groeth posted:Are Hobby Lobby smart enough to realise this though? My guess is that they’re well known enough to have smart people throwing boat loads of grand ideas at them to see what will stick. And only the craziest ideas with the most ancient links will satisfy their curiosities. So, they don’t need to be smart, they just need to convince the community that they’re rich and that they’re willing to spend if it smells right
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2019 23:23
|
|
|
Today at my new job I was taken aside during orientation and informed discreetly that I might encounter people being strange about my office, possibly making comments like "oh, so that's where they put you...", and advised to not be put off if that happened, but that the lady who'd occupied that office before - who was not my predecessor for the job - had in fact killed herself; although from what I understand, not actually in the office.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2019 19:22
|
|
|
Hopefully she didn't kill herself because of something about the office.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2019 22:36
|
|
|
Only one way to find out! (please keep us updated  )
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 19:19
|
|
|
I never walked into the break room in my first week and got involved in an animated discussion about the right way to slaughter chickens and rabbits before
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 23:50
|
|
|
I get to be the boss librarian when my school finally gets a library!!!
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2019 23:56
|
|
|
They took me round to meet everyone in the building, and around 17 people said "I'm sure we'll run into each other a lot", by the 7th or so the phrase had lost all meaning. Special shoutout to the very friendly but clearly deranged lady who went on an animated monologue about my surname, which sounds somewhat like a predator animal, telling me she was sure I was very nice, not at all like the name suggested, "cause hearing it you immediately think, grrrr, don't you", baring her teeth and making claw gestures, and leaving me very thankful there weren't 16 more around greeting me the same way, which isn't to say I don't appreciate a work environment where you can make animal noises at coworkers you're meeting for the first time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2019 10:54
|
|
|
Fleta Mcgurn posted:I get to be the boss librarian when my school finally gets a library!!! WOOOO!  Congrats, Fleta!Also, general thread shout-out: I'm sorry I, as OP, haven't been keeping up with more stories. As Fleta can attest, my life kinda turned into a total poo poo show in the last month; I'm now poised to be that crazy homeless woman using the public library.  If anyone's got specific questions while I wait for my phone to ring with a job or public assistance getting back to me, I'm happy to answer. Just having a hard time coming up with fresh stories to entertain y'all. Seems like My Lovely Horse has taken the reins now, though... I'm so dang curious about your haunted office. Also "raawwwrr" co-worker. Thanks, y'all, for keeping up and keeping this thread gold.  fake edit: Oh! The "raawr" joke prompted me to remember my saga with The Lesbrarian, which is really more e/n than wacky patrons, but hell, while I'm killing time I can write that up. A bit off topic, but would help folks get over the idea that all us library types are bun-wearing, patron-shushing spinsters. Yeah, we can party (my former circ boss used to get absolutely wasted during the annual ALA conventions) and have crazy relationship drama just like any other industry. JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Feb 23, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2019 22:01
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse is going to begin displaying the exact same mannerisms and speech patterns as the dead co-worker, despite never meeting her. Like some sort of library version of The Shining.JacquelineDempsey posted:Also, general thread shout-out: I'm sorry I, as OP, haven't been keeping up with more stories. As Fleta can attest, my life kinda turned into a total poo poo show in the last month; I'm now poised to be that crazy homeless woman using the public library. At least you know to not yell at staff and poop in books. Everything will turn out well for you. I'll even  it.This is an excellent thread, and I regret not saying so until now. I'm enjoying the behind-the-scene perspective stories, and it's made me appreciate my local library just a little bit more. It has a fish tank! I'll take a picture next time I'm there. There is also one of those little road-side libraries on my walk to work, I'll take a picture of that too. Anyway, great thread, voted 
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2019 23:12
|
|
|
Don't worry about it; dealing with life raining bricks on your head is much more important than a thread on SA. Thanks for the excellent anecdotes shared so far, and I hope you get that job or assistance soon!
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2019 23:43
|
|
|
Thanks guys! Mighty Moltres's post reminded me of another library story, one I'm not particularly proud of, and before my time actually working at the library. But I'm so loving tired of filling out job apps over and over again... I need a creative writing break. When I was about 12 or so, I got really into fishkeeping. It started with one little 5 gallon tank with guppies, and ended up with me having 10 aquariums before I moved away for college. My city had an aquarium society that met at my local library, two blocks away, which I joined when I'd discovered this hobby I enjoyed so much. Before I joined, they had donated a tank to the kids' section of the library, and it was maintained by volunteers. Their usual volunteer had moved, and they were looking for a new one. Since I was young, unemployed, and lived a 5 minutes walk away, I volunteered for this. Library staff fed them daily, but every Saturday I'd walk down to the library with my bucket o' cleaning stuff to do water changes, replace the filter pad, vacuum the gravel, etc. Tank was always a loving nightmare: constant hair algae, filter that was literally built in the 60's, and a weird mish-mosh of species living together (people would just "donate" their unwanted fish, no real thought given to making it a peacefully community tank). After doing this for about a year, it got kinda stressful for an obsessive fishhead like me. Adding to that stress was the fact that despite stickers on every panel of glass cheerfully reminding kids not to tap on the glass, I'd constantly see kids not just tapping but banging on the glass. I loving hate that. Doing that not only spooks the fish, but can kill them if they stress out and start bashing into the glass trying to escape. One day I was really fed up, and this one little boy kept banging the glass. I'd tell him, politely, "Hey, can you not do that? It scares the fish." He'd giggle and run away (mom/dad are nowhere to be seen). I'd take my bucket to the kitchen area adjacent to the community room to get more water, and when I'd come back, there he was again, pounding that glass. I got more and more stern each time until I was finally hissing at him "DONT LET ME CATCH YOU TOUCHING THIS TANK AGAIN". I was fed up. My last round of hauling 5 gallons of water back to the tank, there he is again, palm-slapping the glass like he's trying to get a Chronicle of Riddick VHS in there. He looks at me with a poo poo-eating grin, and tries to dart past me down the aisle. I casually lift up my leg and clothesline him with my ankle, causing him to face-plant and start bawling. "NOW YOU KNOW WHAT THE FISH FEEL LIKE" I hiss, and go on to finishing the job. As I said, not my finest hour; but hell, I was like 13, and it felt drat good at the time, and I never got called out on it because people think kids' sections of public libraries are also babysitting services --- no parent ever showed up.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 22:22
|
|
|
Not all heroes wear capes 
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 22:35
|
|
|
I got screamed at by a student for my first time in a new job, but fortunately got an email from my boss today backing me up all the way. Students: don't leave your assignments until the last minute. Especially if your assignment requires either a signature from a librarian confirming that they helped you find the very specific kinds of articles you need for this assignment or a phone call from said librarian to the professor attesting as much. Because this assignment was due on Sunday night. And no titled librarians - the specific people the assignment required, all our current librarians were listed on the sheet as potential contacts - work on the weekends. And they had since the second week of January to do this assignment. And I had to tell the student how to reach the college's website in the first place. They genuinely didn't know that "[normal three letter abbreviation for the university].edu" was our website.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2019 22:51
|
|
|
I'd back you up too, but I think I'd want to have a chat with that professor. That's a weird requirement in the first place, and it would be fair to point out that the deadline extends past availability of all requirements. (Granted, if you need the articles for the assignment, logically you can't go to the library last anyway.) At my last job some faculties required students to bring confirmation slips that they attended our library introductions. It was pretty common for people to put that off until shortly before graduation. Our inofficial policy on that was, if you pulled off getting to graduation without needing the library intro, hey, more power to you, but you do have to attend one to get the slip. e: if you were smart you'd arrange for a special intro session with your buddies who also put it off and then we could just run you through the basics in five minutes pro forma. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Mar 5, 2019 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 08:30
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:I got screamed at by a student for my first time in a new job, but fortunately got an email from my boss today backing me up all the way. Definitely let the prof know. That class needs a talking-to. Also, that student is dumb as hell.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 08:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 19:24 |
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:I'd back you up too, but I think I'd want to have a chat with that professor. That's a weird requirement in the first place, and it would be fair to point out that the deadline extends past availability of all requirements. (Granted, if you need the articles for the assignment, logically you can't go to the library last anyway.) My boss said don't worry about it, this happens every semester with this professor - he brings his class down to the library in the first week specifically to introduce them to the library and its resources, and tells them that the librarians aren't in on the weekends.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2019 15:23
|
|