Blogging from the Library

Well, this is new. I’m posting from a place that isn’t my home. Feels kinda odd. I’m not sure why I care if someone sees, whatever I write is going to go straight up onto the internet, where it will be seen by millions. Or at least dozens. Well, dozen. If I’m lucky. Hmm, I just checked Freddy’s blog, and he has recently blogged from a library too. How’s that for a coincidence?

So, anyways, I’d better say something interesting. Hmm, what’s interesting? Hey, how about a rant about library duty at school today? Yeah, that’ll do. I’m writing it at a library. It’s, I dunno, Irony or something.

Right, well, at lunchtime today, I was on library duty. Turns out Monday  is one of the busier days in the library. So, knowing my luck, I would be on at lunchtime. And it would be the same day as the ‘Invisible Children’ presentation, which half of the team was at. So, for the first 10 or so minutes, there was me and a new team member. She started shelving books, and I worked on returns. Or, at least, I tried to. I sat down and returned one book, then was swamped by midgets. Err, I mean year 7s. They all wanted about 5 books each. Of course, some of them had just returned some books, and since they were being incredibly unreasonable, they all wanted me to issue them books, seconds after putting their old ones in the returns slot. I’m not the Terminator, I do take time to do things. Then another person showed up, so we could actually get something done, not just try and keep a status quo going.

But speaking of returns, the returns slot. It’s a slot in the wall where you put your books in, and they then go into a large trollley thing, to await scanning, swiping and shelving. Now, the trolley can only take so many books. When books don’t go in any further, it’s quite obvious it’s full. What is the intelligent thing to do? Hand them over the desk, and let your friendly student librarian know that the trolley is full. What is the stupid thing to do? Shove your books down, jamming eveything up and blocking the slot. Guess which the kids did. That’s right, the way that would have gotten you a dunces hat in the good old days.

Another thing that annoyed me was issues. To issue a book, you bring it up to the desk, give the librarian your card or student ID number, get the book swiped, and leave. It’s an easy system. Then you get year 7s coming up not knowing their number. COme on. They’ve been there for two weeks already. They should know that by now. It’s 4 digits long. How hard is that to remember? A monkey could do it. So I ask them for their names, if they don’t know their number. They tell me their first name. Wow, that’s helpful. So they tell me their last name, after I ask them for it. They mumble something vaguely foreign sounding to their feet. Hello! I’m up here! Eventually I work it out, and get their book issued. It takes ages. It annoys everyone involved. They really should learn things faster.

So, there we go. That’s my rant for the day. All that said, I actually quite like library duty. It’s got a good bunch of people involved in it. It’s fun. In the winter, it gives me an excuse to be inside. So, aside from my little rants, it’s not all that bad.