Libraries are organized. They are organized very meticulously so people can find things. We've worked hard all summer really doing a thorough inventory of EVERY book in the Main collection on the second floor. It's a lot of items. Student workers have scanned book barcodes by the thousands every day to make sure the catalog record is correct and that things are neat and tidy.
At the end of each long range of books is a sign on the wooden end panel that indicates what call numbers are located on on that range, with a note that clearly states that one should "place used items on any red shelf". There are red shelves at the end of every range of books. They're everywhere.
Neatly organized books, ready to go up to the stacks to be reshelved. Yep, they go up by the cart load.
An end guide. Most of them in the stacks don't have thermometers and sticky notes on them. This is the RESERVES stacks behind the front desk. We're special. (And one year when the A/C went out, I wanted PROOF that it was blazing hot in my work area!)
But today....ohhhh, today. What a day. Yesterday, (Thursday, actually) my student worker reported that she had seen some boys upstairs on the second floor while she was working and they were taking books off the shelves and placing them on other shelves. Or on the same shelf. Or on a red shelf. But they were NOT using the items! They were just walking around, taking books off the shelves and moving them! She is very shy, she was in a hurry to get off to class. She didn't talk to them. I forgot about it until this morning when I went to gather some items from the second floor.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Someone really had been just maliciously and randomly moving and shifting books around!! I have never seen anything like that in all my years here. I picked up close to 50 . I found stacks (like a large handful) placed at the ends of shelves after the book end, so they kind of look like they are on the shelf correctly. But they are not. I found L in the B section and P in the H section. And more. Stacks of books, individual books. On red shelves and not on red shelves. I found items that were pushed clear through to the other side to an empty shelf--now backwards and on the wrong side of the stacks. Books were all over. I was so steamed. But I was not nearly as steamed as my student worker who has done a large bulk of the scanning and organizing lately. SHE was livid. She said, when I reported this incident to her and some other library workers, "If I see someone doing that when I'm up in the stacks working, can I confront them?" And my answer was kind of mild, "Well, I would prefer that you get a supervisor for that. We could go and talk with them and find out if they are having difficulty and explain how this ruins things for the rest of our library users if the items are no longer in order." "Oh," she said. "That is way more mild that what I would have said."
"That's not what I WANT to say to them, " I explained. "We have to not burn our bridges and make enemies for the library, etc. Would you like to know what I'd really like to say to them?" And of course they all said, "YES." And it was just what they would have wanted to say as well. Mild-mannered Library Ladies we are NOT. Mess with our books and we get steamed.
Some people can be so mean and cruel. Most of the books are still in order. I think. I mean, we don't really know for SURE unless we go up and shelf read and re-read every single call number . AGAIN. AAARRRRHHHHGGGGGG.
But, on a happier note, Natalie made this pink piggie in class. Yes, she pays thousands of dollars in tuition and fees to build pink paper piggies in college. Then, she put it in her "cubby". Ha. She's really an elementary education major. They DID make pigs in her class and the "cubby" is where our student workers store their backpacks while at work.
And SOME times, I just really need to sit down at my desk and GET THE WORK DONE instead of letting it pile up all day. I'd rather take pictures of cute pink piggies and end guides with thermostats!
No comments:
Post a Comment