Thursday, August 12, 2010

Did you know that...


research can provide awesome pictures like this?!!!

On a positive note...

Our frogs broke the "no having sex" rule in the library.

We're classy. Super classy.

Also! I found a 1970's People magazine in the library. The back cover had a cigarette ad with Tom Selleck. I love me some Tom Selleck. I put it in a plastic cover and hung it by my desk. My collection of men grew though. It now consists of not only Tom but Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Alan Rickman, Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz. I'm thinking of adding Mark Ruffalo but I'm not sure he would meet the minimum age requirement...

Sshhhh don't judge my man collection. It makes the library more happy.

Not funny crazy

Dealing with the crazies is a part of the job description that is never mentioned. I think this mostly refers to public libraries but I'm sure academic and other libraries get their fair share as well.

Today was a BIG TIME CRAZY PEOPLE day. Now while most of the time I write blog entries to make light of the situations that I witness and the crazy weird people I encounter, I try not to make fun of them too much. This crazy person was a little too crazy for my liking... it was kind of sad and I almost feel bad for writing about it.

There is a lady that we call Babushka Lady. She has been in a few times before. I can specifically remember helping her, but I don't remember what I was helping her with. I do remember that she was very disoriented and did not seem to be "all there" when I was helping her. Anyway, she came into the library today and sat down in the picture book room with all of her papers and suitcase and everything spread out. She was blocking access to the shelves and was harassing a teen volunteer. She was informed that she would need to move to a table so that patrons and staff could access the books and she became very upset. I believe she was even name calling out ASL (Adult Services Libarian). Now after she moved to a table she started saying that she was missing her cell phone. Then she said that someone stole her keys and ID and that she had no way to get home. ASL called the county mental services and was referred to an older adult services entity. She started getting more outrageous and yelling so ASL called our local police office.

Now, normally when we call the police we kind of get a brush off. The only time I had ever had the police interested in what I had to say was when I was sitting outside on my break and some guy walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy drugs. (Super classy right?). But this time when we called the police they were very very very helpful. Officer KO came and talked with her and listened to her stories and complaints. He then made the effort to find out her living situation, call county services and request that a mental health professional come down to evaluate her. AND he stayed for 1.5 hours until said mental health professional made it to the library. Above and beyond in my book.. but probably just his job. Anyways Babushka Lady's family friend came and picked her up. She has a history of mental illness as well as a history of outbursts at different libraries in our system. She apparently had an outburst in a local library about 2 weeks ago and refused to leave and when she finally did continued to yell and scream at the library staff and spit on another person who tried to calm her down.

Now for the story's sake it would have been fun to say that she was carried out of her dragging and screaming and in handcuffs. But she wasn't. She was really calm. She was really apologetic. Her friend came to pick her up right about the time that the mental health professional arrived but the mental health service is going to follow up with her so that's good.

Most of the crazies I deal with are funny crazy. Babushka Lady is sad crazy and sometimes it's hard to deal with the sad crazy.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Day of Weirdness

I love my job, I do. But sometimes the crazy and weird all converge on one day and it gets a little hectic!

I had a gentlemen come in who wanted to find an article about this man who was a veteran and drew comics about WWII. I honestly had no idea who he was talking about and he didn't have a name or anything, but I figured that I would be able to find out who he was looking for (Bill Maulden). Once I found the article that he was looking for, he began to tell me about Jesus. About how Jesus had told him to go visit Mr. Maulden in the hospital. And then he began to ask me about my beliefs and handing me tracts. "Do you know where you will spend eternity?" Now. I am all about people having the right to believe in whatever they want...but that's not an appropriate question for your lovely, local Library Assistant.

We also had one of our regular paranoid guys who is completely convinced that we are spying on him through the computer. That's why his e-mail never works and his print jobs never come out. Ugh.

Homeless lady who had a VERY animated yet quiet conversation with herself.

The man who called asking if we subscribed to a particular journal, which we did. But did not have access to the particular volume and edition that he wanted. When I asked if there was specific article or something that he was looking for, he said no and that he wanted the whole thing because he didn't know how long a journal was.. and why didn't we keep back issues of EVERY JOURNAL PUBLISHED!??!

The regular who was now harassing our patrons into signing petitions or registering to vote. When he was informed that he wouldn't be able to do that in the library, he contacted a lawyer who told him he could and he wanted to bring that to our attention that our policy was incorrect..

I think it all has to do with the full moon...

Fun Questions From This Past Week

Do you know where you will spend eternity?

The computer is stuck. Can you unstick it?

Does the printer need more paper when the paper light is flashing?

Do you have to whisper all day?

What's a journal?