People are pretty weird!  In public service — or in customer service of any sort — it’s easy to get swept up in our clientele’s bizarre quirks.  And really, it wouldn’t be any fun without them.  But on the other hand, nearly all of our library patrons — even the exceptionally bizarre — are very decent people.  That’s what I love about my career in public service.  So, in honor of the decency of library patrons everywhere, I’ve got a quick story for you tonight.

It’s usually pretty slow on Friday nights, but that’s also when I’m asked some of the most unusual reference questions.  Tonight a patron came in to ask me how he could log-in to our website to see our Chilton’s auto repair manuals from home.  First he told me he was a mechanic, then he told me he didn’t know how to read.  I think he was expecting me — the librarian — to laugh or something, but instead I told him he could come around to my side of the desk and I’d show him where to go on the site.  He admitted then that he could read a little, but very slowly, and then he winked and told me he was a really good mechanic.  He loves the Chilton’s manuals because they have detailed visual diagrams, which are exactly the kind of information he needs to accomplish his work.  I showed him how he could get to the diagrams from home on our website, and he was so ecstatic that, at the end of the whole thing, he wrote down the name and number of his business and told me to call for free diagnostic services whenever I want.

I’m a little unsure about the policies and ethics surrounding this exchange; as a civil servant, I’m not sure that it would be right for me to accept a gift from a patron in exchange for my work — what do you guys think?  But what I loved about this exchange was that a) the patron’s information need was satisfied at the library, even though he’s not a big reader, b) we had a reciprocal exchange, viewing each other as peers who could contribute equally to the dialogue, and c) he was just really super nice.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone, and I’ll see you back at the library soon!

So I know I like to have a little bit of fun here on Librarian in a Banana Suit.  In the last few months alone I’ve written about helping patrons find sex books, finding out if betrothed couples are second cousins or not, and scouring the catalog for novels about psychoactive soy sauce.

But there are many other facets to this job, too — many of them quite sobering.  Working closely with the public as trusted liaisons between them and their deepest information desires, we’re often asked very sensitive questions: we receive reference inquiries about domestic violence, unemployment, learning disabilities, and sexuality, and I’m astounded and humbled that patrons think of the public library as a place to find answers to these kinds of questions.  We can often refer them to social service agencies around the community, which I like to think means we’ve connected them with information that will ultimately really help them.

That’s not what happened a few weeks ago, though.  I was asked a different sort of question, one that was incredibly sensitive but indeed required the skills of a reference librarian.  Towards the end of the evening, a patron came in to look for the obituary of her friend.  She had been trying to get a hold of him on the phone for months when a mutual acquaintance told her that he’d committed suicide earlier this fall.  “I just want black and white confirmation, in print, that it’s true,” she told me.

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Just a week or so ago, the fabulous Julia Skinner authored a guest post here about crowdsourcing in 20th century libraries.  Today I’m following up with a little story about 21st century crowdsourcing!

I think librarians everywhere can relate to this classic scenario:  a woman walked into our library last weekend wanting to find a book she’d read, but she couldn’t remember anything about it.  She began by describing a paranormal time traveling plot to my colleague:  “It’s about this guy who time travels between planets.  He works at a video store, and his best friend’s disabled sister is a major player in the plot.  Oh, and there are a bunch of people who aren’t quite what they seem.”

Soon I was recruited to help out, but by this time the patron’s story had morphed and had nothing to do with intergalactic time travel:  “So this guy wanders into an old building with portals to alternate realities, and then he turns into a demon.  I think his name is Evan, and the title is something catchy like Don’t Read This Book.”  She considered for a moment and then added, “but I just read another book with an Evan, so that might just be my default when I’m trying to think of a character?”

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Last night I chugged a beer at the Dynamite Saloon on Mass. St., because we did it — the Lawrence Public Library is really really getting an $18 mil. renovation & expansion!  We’re finally getting things like kid-sized shelving in the children’s room, public meeting spaces, and a 300% increase in the number of public access computers.  I’m especially excited about the guy who will finally be able to watch his horror movies on YouTube without complaining that the computer monitor doesn’t work.

But really more than anything else, I’m so proud of my community for voting for this project even though the general political climate is one of extreme fiscal conservativism.  It really speaks to how much Lawrence values its public library and understands that it’s time to reinvest in and modernize an outdated structure that has ceased to adequately serve a growing demand.  Thanks Lawrence!!!