New Goal: Become Embittered, Sour Librarian

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I have discovered why so many librarians, when you go to browse the shelves, have a tendency to shoot you looks suggesting they’re about to come after you barking like a territorial dog.

It’s often because they are contemplating coming after you barking like a territorial dog.

I JUST SHELVED THOSE DVDs. It took me an hour and a half to do it, too, because they were all over the place. And I know—I know, do you hear me—that you are not going to put that DVD back in the place you just pulled it from, even if you decide not to check it out. Some unimaginable force, some possessing demon, will cause you to wander out of the DVD section with something family friendly like, say, Captivity or Hostel, and that force will lead you directly to the children’s section, where you’ll drop the DVD into one of the board book bins, probably next to the bin containing the entire Curious George series and also the Esquire issue the mystical forces caused you to pick up earlier.

You will then snag a junior reader and meander over to stick it amongst the Nora Roberts hardbacks.

I used to think that all that Library Education was a bit superfluous. I used to think that, if a person was in a library, it meant they had a nodding acquaintance with books, or, at least, the alphabet.

Guess how fast I’ve been disabused of that notion?

Fortunately, I secretly enjoy putting things back in order again. It just hurts my idealism to realize that other people don’t seem to feel the need for things to be in order.

Comments

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

Huh, this is also encountered by booksellers, except add coffee spills on books.

[baby-rissa-chan.livejournal.com]

*winces*

[nobleplatypus]

Back when I worked in a public library, we'd have preteens taking the "Joy of Sex"-type books and either ashamedly stuffing them between the reading cubby shelf and the wall, or else cramming them among the Garfield books. I never understood why they were bold enough to go to that stretch of shelf to grab the book in the first place, but never bold enough to go put it back in that general area (not that they would have reshelved it correctly, but at least it wouldn't have been where some poor little fan of the Sunday comics might find it).

[tay421.livejournal.com]

This is unrelated, but your icon made me laugh. I needed that.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I know, it's like some sort of spell they're under.

Granted, I've gotten used to checking out the weirdest things FOR SCIENCE! Or, rather, research. So I have lost my embarrassment at what I check out.

By the way, is that icon up for grabs? I see it around and love it every time.

[nobleplatypus]

It certainly is! I yoinked it from somewhere and probably credited it on my icon page.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

I've never figured out if those folks have really short attention spans or what. Obviously they can read- well, the folks in the book areas can; the DVD folks could be questionable.

And when some people DO put things back? You're better off if they leave them laying on the shelf or table, because at least you *know* they are not in the right place. I've found books misshelved in some truly creative ways- like, did you even TRY?!?!?

/rant over

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Welcome to work in a library!

I'm kind of missing the whole shelving and shelf-reading and organizing thing now. It filled me with such fury. It was good to have a purpose for my life.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

It's loads of fun!

Of course, my idea of "fun" is a little strange ...

LIBRARY BAD GUY

[placetohide.livejournal.com]

You just don't understand!

What if my arms are already full of books, and I can't possibly carry anymore, and I'm far away from my original book-grabbing places and I see a book I have to have. Am I really going to go up/down a couple of flights of stairs to get back to the proper book section to magically find where one of my currently-being-held book goes so I can swap them? Heck no! I'm going to dump a book wherever I am on a shelf so I can grab the one I want. Yeah, you heard me!

Re: LIBRARY BAD GUY

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

Put it on the table. That's why they're there. Sheesh.

Re: LIBRARY BAD GUY

[placetohide.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to put my books on tables while there are people there. The library here is usually really busy so there are always people sitting at the tables, and I'm not going to make my day awkward by stopping at someone's table and dropping off my books there while they're using it.

[tay421.livejournal.com]

I've never worked in a library, but I am always careful to put books back where I got them! And it's the same problem with other forms of retail. I swear, people have no sense of organization whatsoever. I hate it when people decide they don't want something and leave it in front of my register, on top of other merchandise. This is one of my biggest customer peeves. I CAN TAKE THAT FOR YOU. SERIOUSLY. I WON'T RING IT UP. I'LL JUST SET IT UNDER MY REGISTER AND PUT IT AWAY LATER. WE CAN SKIP THIS STEP OF ME HAVING TO CLEAN UP MY AREA.

Ffffff... okay, I'm done now.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Ah, yes, I did that when I sold clothes. "I'll take that from you." "No, I can put it back!" *Sideshow Bob growl*

I was always amazed at their failure of observance--to notice how all our other stuff was displayed and put the thing back the way they found it.

[tay421.livejournal.com]

Suddenly I'm reminded that, yesterday, I was pushing around a cart of "go backs" and happened across a misplaced box in the greeting cards/party supply section. The box was one of those... food chopper things. I don't remember what it was called, Bonzai or something. I forget why I didn't grab it right then, too-- I must have been in a hurry of some kind, because I do know I growled quietly in annoyance about it. The place for that one is on the far other end of the store.

I think what makes this worse is that when I was there today at 5pm, it was still there... so nobody had noticed or done anything about it. That time, I grabbed it and put it in our cart of go backs. (There was a paper stuck to it as well. An abandoned school supply list. That went in the garbage.) Maybe it'll find its proper place for a few days.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I worked in Grocery for a while, and ran into the same problem. Including the extra hassle of highly perishable Items. "Eh, I don't really want this gallon of Ice Cream after all. I'll just tuck it back behind this display here in the Baking Aisle, it'll be fine there."

If I take a book out to look at it, I stay right there, and take note of what the two on either side of it were. If I take it away from that section, and then decide I don't want it, it goes back on a shelving cart. Well, except for a few in the SF section that I've taken out bunches of times and I know where they go probably better than some of the Librarians do.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Okay, you win. Misshelved ice cream = worse than books.

Yeah, I don't mind if someone puts it back RIGHT, but it blows my mind how many people don't know how. Or don't care.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

On an almost totally unrelated note, I read Starfish yesterday. Thanks for recommending that, I really liked it, and plan to go through the rest of the Trilogy.

I know that the later books got some less enthusiastic responses, but they sound like they're up my alley, at least.

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

Now see, I'm obsessive enough with my books to reshelf them, in order. But I'm one of the weird ones, I admit. :-)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, my own buooks have a highly weird order, based on my own spatial memory of where they are on my shelf. But that's because they're MINE, and not the Library's.

[die-monster.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Before I had worked at the library long, I too held the sad and naive notion that libraries were for SMART people who liked books and knew how to find them. No. Libraries are free Blockbusters. And places to score some romance novels, which are porn for little old ladies, basically. So, porn and DVDs. And comprooters, of course.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't really blame the free Blockbuster notion. And we get a lot of computer use because the section of town I work at is one where a lot of folks can't afford their own computers. Which is pretty cool that the library does that--I don't even begrudge the kiddie computers their use pretty much strictly as flash game consoles.

But it does make me a little sad that books aren't high on many people's priority list. I feel like they're missing something.

[michellerz.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD that would drive me insane. I always felt the same way about Library Education, and becoming a teacher has slowly been making me realize the same things. Unfortunately, adults do not have the same excuse that children often do about not being able to keep things in order! :-\

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

Some unimaginable force, some possessing demon, will cause you to wander out of the DVD section with something family friendly like, say, Captivity or Hostel, and that force will lead you directly to the children’s section, where you’ll drop the DVD into one of the board book bins

Damn straight - my boywhoisalibrarian often comes home with tales of homosexual magazines dropped into the children's section. Or once of a man who came to tell him, at the info desk, before going to check out the two books in question, that he was NOT issuing 'The Encyclopaedia of Human Anatomy' and 'Cooking With Children' because he wanted to cook children, oh ha ha ha no!

O.o

[stagemanager.livejournal.com]

Do you know about libraries and library_mofo? The latter one is filled with bitching; quite enjoyable to read.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

Method is an underrated, lost art, which explains not only this, but a lot.

[killabee886.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I know exactly what you mean, only I work in a department store. See we have price scanner thingy's that people can see the price of items, but then they decide that it's too expensive and hang it on the closest rack, which is formal dresses, and most of the stuff they put there is off the petite clearance rack. (just the way the store is laid out)

Or I'll go into dressing rooms and find dozens of dresses (usually expensive) just on the floor, inside out and broken zippers. Makes me want to scream. Although, a couple of times I've cleaned up the big piles only to find someones cell phone at the bottom of it. Karma is such a bitch sometimes.

[dgm-allenwalker.livejournal.com]

LOL!!!!!! Those people want us to clean after them :(

Welcome to the library world, Mia!! ♥

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Uh... yeah. That's what it's like working at a bookstore, too. And what's really fun is finding that expensive item the customer was enthusing over, that would have made your sales for the day, stashed in some odd corner... grrr...