#library worker

[mossworth]

Guys, queers. Specifically my fellow queers.

I work at a library. We do this thing where, every so often, we weed the collection. It hurts to see books go, but it's necessary to make sure there's room in the library for new materials.

I have seen so much support for the library in text, and I've seen folks pass around those beautiful "queer your library" flyers. Keep doing that. That's great. Nothing wrong with that. But you HAVE to turn your words into action. We MUST remember to actually go to our local organizations and libraries and actually, with our own fucking hands, interact with these materials we want to see more of.

My branch is medium-sized for a library, maybe a little small. We don't have as many materials as I'd like, but we have fundamentals. Tell me why, even with all the verbal support I've gotten from my local community for the library as a resource for our LGBT+ community, every single trans biography and a good chunk of our vaguely queer theory books were on the list. This isn't a scheme to take the books off the shelves, it isn't another bigoted American governmental push. The only thing we look at when we weed is how long it's been since the last time the item was checked out.

Three years.

No one in my community interacted in any meaningful way with the few books on trans life and history we physically had on the shelves for three fucking years.

I promise you the materials you want and need are there, but this isn't a horde. This isn't a static safety net. You have to use them. You MUST use them or, in the future, maybe in three years, they *won't* be there anymore.

This isn't a vague post, there's no one person I'm hinting at or calling out. I'm not even talking directly to anyone who's directly in my line of sight. I just want everyone to hear this. Big library, small library, whatever. Doesn't matter. Please, we cannot be losing our shelf visibility like this.

[eli-zab3th]

The librarian's magic: grabbing the book a visitor has been searching for within mere seconds

[africanmorning]

Working at a library is such a wild experience because you'll regularly run into two incredibly different extremes of patrons.

Patron 1: "Oh priestess of the books, I am but a lowly worm in your holy presence. I loathe to take the space within your eyesight, though I must."

Me: "Oh, don't worry about it. How can I help you?"

Patron 1: "But it pains me greatly to divert you from thy divine tasks."

Me: "I am literally paid to help you here. That is literally my job."

Patron 2: *Banging a spoon on a pot* "I PAY TAXES!! SUCK MY DICK!!!”

[mossiestpiglet]

Best moment of my library career just happened, we have a machine that accepts book returns through a tiny portal window and this little kid comes up and opens it to put in books. Now idk if we are supposed to acknowledge people if we see them through this window, but it’s right at head level for lots of kids so they can see into our back room which is obviously super cool for them, so I always wave and crinkle my eyes at them (mask smiling). And this little one sees me and immediately turns to their grown up (who I can’t see) and says, very excitedly, “DAD I SAW THE ELF!”

YALL. IM A LIBRARY ELF.

This is the best my life is going to get as far as I’m concerned, I have never received a higher compliment

[callmemanatee]

When we talk about sensory accessibility, we need to talk about temperature. A room that's way too hot is uncomfortable for all, but it's almost unbearable for some.

I'm plus-sized, I take antidepressants, and I'm in the Deep South. And the AC at my work still isn't fully fixed despite needing repairs for literal years.

I work at a public library. We should be a refuge from dangerous heat... especially on a warming planet. And our 25-year-old dress code needs to be revised to allow knee-length shorts, because long pants are unbearable in this climate, and skirts are way less practical.

We had our first 90°F day of the year yesterday (April 27, over a month away from the actual start of summer) and I am over this.

[iremembersky]

Due to the apocalyptic vibes of working at a library lately, I low-key would like to quit my job and sing The Last Midnight as my dramatic exit.

[fleurie3am15inspo]

Speaking as someone who works at a library, please come visit us! There are so many resources that people don't take advantage of because they still don't know we exist. We're your friends. We want to give you a safe place to be. We want to give you all the help you can get. We want you to know that you're always welcome.

Destroy the myth that libraries are no longer relevant. If you use your library, please reblog.

[unhinged-soapbox]

Me, who loves shelving and hiding in the stacks: Who wants to do some shelving?

My student workers: *groan*

Me: Why do you even work here? That's the whole appeal!

[wideeyedsmile]

Working with teenagers these days is like working with nicotine addicted toddlers. Like "yeah buddy I'll help you learn to read as soon as that vape is out of your mouth. Yes I know you think I'm a stupid bitch. You seem overtired, do you need nap?"

Anyway, smoking is bad kids, please pay attention in school.

[whoreforjstor]

Aww my poor coworker is offended when I politely correct them when they use the wrong pronouns for me and my gender diverse coworkers, BOO FUCKING HOO! Suck my t-dick bitch!

[mossworth]

I was talking to a library patron of mine and said the words - "Yeah... it's strange. This is the first job I've ever had that actually let me off on Labor Day."

And he looked at me, dumbfounded, and went. "But... isn't that like? Illegal or something?"

"No. I mean, when people get the day off, they tend to spend it going out places? So those places have to be open? You're going to a restaurant this Saturday, didn't you say?"

"I am but that's... huh. Weird."

"Anyway, here's your stuff. It'll be due back in three weeks. Thanks for coming by!"

"Oh, I'll probably have it back in by the weekend. You're all open then, right?"

"Yes, but we'll be closed Saturday."

"What? Why would you be closed?"

Sometimes, I really do just wonder about people and about how much of a person they consider me to be.

people who have not worked in the service industry in years (if at all, ever) will be like “you have to work SATURDAYS? 😰” yeah man things you guys go to are open those days. So there i must fucking be

[africanmorning]

Yeah, so turns out that pursuing a love of information and stories leads to some major dilemmas if you don't make sure everything lines up just right

[mossiestpiglet]

Just had a kid reach through the shelves from the other side to put some books into my hand and say “you’re welcome” and you better believe I would sooner die than leave without checking out this mystery child’s recommendations

[mossworth]

Falling asleep at the front desk at work, so I use a squirt of hand sanitizer from the jumbo bulk sized bottle like a fainting Victorian lady uses the smelling salts in her purse.

[mossworth]

Under this, I'm going to write--as close to reality as possible--a real conversation I had at work with a college student (who was, at the time, older than me). I'm a public librarian.

"So, I just don't really know what I'm supposed to *do* here. Like, my professor is just not telling me at all what I'm supposed to do with this."

"Okay. It looks like you've been assigned to write an outline for your next assignment, which is an essay. Here, you've shown me the submission link for the outline. There's a template attached. You can follow this template as a guide for your essay. Which book has your professor assigned?"

At this, he vaguely gestured at his computer screen. On Blackboard, there was a pinned post about the assignment. The professor had picked three pieces of classical lit for them to choose from.

"Okay, these are your options. Which one did you choose?"

"That's not what I'm asking. I already have the essay, I just don't know what *this* assignment is supposed to be."

"Which book did you go with?"

He, again, vaguely gestured to the screen. My best guess was the title closest to his pointer finger.

"Is it Desiree's Baby?"

He shook and nodded his head at the same time. It was, but he didn't really know that. "I don't understand what she's asking me to do, here."

"So, you're being asked to write an outline. Based on this template. From there, you'll write an essay based off of the information points on your outline."

"Oh, yeah! Okay yeah, I have the essay. I don't have the outline, though."

"You have the essay?"

"Yeah, that's done."

"Okay, so the essay is done. I get it. Sometimes in college I'd write my essay first and work backwards. So, what you can do is take the points you made about the book in your essay and boil them down into an outline."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You... wrote an essay about Desiree's Baby. So, take the thoughts you had about the book when you read it and write them into an outline, following this template."

"Oh. No, I didn't read the book."

"What?"

"I didn't read the book."

"Okay." I am a customer service worker first and foremost. I had to remind myself of this and find, somewhere within me, the tone of voice that matched that. "Without an outline... and without having read the book... *how* did you write an essay?"

He gestured to the screen again, this time towards a document. In front of me was an essay, not in any format but "document" with fully realized sentences about the societal implications of race and heritage in the short story Desiree's Baby. "Can't you just help me?"

"With 'what'. Which part do you expect me to help with?"

"Can't you just... make the outline for me? I already have the essay. I shouldn't have to do all this extra stuff."

"Sir." I don't call my patrons by titles. We're not that formal. But, I do remember being told--as a child--that when and if I wanted to call someone a bitch, I should curb the impulse and call them 'madam' instead. In this case, 'sir' served the same purpose. "Doing that would be against our policy. I can see if the book is in our collection. I can get it for you, and you can read it. After that, you can actually write your outline, and then, your essay."

He didn't take me up on the offer. I never got him the book, and even without my help, it wouldn't have mattered. On Blackboard, right under the assignment submission link, was the link to a six page PDF of Desiree's Baby. Free, unedited, avaliable, and short. Very, very short. But, hey, maybe I was the one in the wrong. He already had the essay.

It was such a weird day, standing in a library and being told about the unfairness of being forced to do "all the extra stuff"--namely, reading. Reading anything at all.

Sorry man, I feel like this derails a bit. I don't really have a point, I just don't want to be the only one that has to feel the frustration from that conversation. I never saw him again after the day I told him I couldn't help him if he was just using AI for his homework.

ur future nurse is using chapgpt to glide thru school u better take care of urself

[iremembersky]

This book cover at my job has the same energy as Weegee.