Lowdown Dirty Dog Theif

A mouse has been stolen from our computer. What kind of person steals a computer mouse???? A mean one, that's who. We are now down to three computers for public use.

On another note, we just had a man come in to see if we had any computers available for use. No, they were all in use. He just decided he'd go to library X because they have more computers anyway. Duh, of course they do. Library X is part of a very large system and is one of the larger libraries in that system. They have a lot more money to spend on computers. I wonder sometimes if people think they are insulting us by telling us about how other libraries have more stuff.

We know. Remember, we's the ghetto library.

Why bother?

Sometimes like last Friday I got to work one hour and fifteen minutes before we opened. Why? I couldn't sleep so I figured I might as well go on and get up and head to work and do some stuff there. Got a good bit accomplished. No one cared. So many times I try to go an extra step to make something nice or do something nice. No one cares. Why bother? Our city doesn't care. I have no way of moving up in this place. We don't get raises. The only time I have any real job satisfaction lately is if I can really help someone find the books or information they need. I have no satisfaction in logging people on the computer and then them get mad at me because I will only let them have 30 minutes to check their email/MySpace because there are four other people waiting to do the same thing.

The same is true for all of us in our blighted little ghetto city. Our library works like crazy and still no one cares. The only thing that matters to them is that we have computers and air conditioning.

The "Sorry" Library

We are now the "sorry" library. I may start answering the phone, "Sorry Ghetto Library, How may I not help you?".

I must begin by saying that our sign up sheets for the computer say in large letters "30 MINUTES ONCE A DAY." Since we ask patrons to sign in to use the computer and I specifically told this one where the sign in sheet was one would think that she might have read it.

She asked to get an email address. I directed her to a place to get a free email address and helped her in filling out the form. I then tried to help her recover her resume from a warped disc with no luck. When her time ran out I logged her back into the computer and showed her how to pull up her document. All of this and when her time comes close to running out she is mad because we have people waiting for the computer and I cannot log her back on. I patiently showed her how to send herself an email with the resume so she wouldn't have to retype it.

Yep, we are a sorry library. I was told that no other library in our system has this problem and she has been to others. If she had known we were this sorry she would have left a long time ago. I wish I had told her we were so sorry to save us both the aggrivation.

They're, like, real people!

Well, more proof that larger libraries have no idea how we smaller libraries have to opperate. We got an email forwarded to us from the "head" of our cooperative about library/teenage relations. Apparently we are supposed to be sweet and funny to obnoxious kids so that they don't get their precious feelings hurt. And we must treat them like real people. She feels they are simply wonderful, yet misunderstood and underserved, people. I have placed this email in a special file called, "Proof that Administration Does Not Deal With the Public Often." She basically tells us that teens are patrons just like everyone else yet we must speak their language. In my experience this means poor grammar, closed mouths, and run together words. (example..."y' lume on 'puer?" This is translated, "You log me on computer?" What happened to the other words????)

I have to wonder how often the author of this email has had to deal with being cussed out by teenage boys. From her library's website they obviously have more computers than we do so I doubt that they have as many problems with kids fighting over the internet. I love teenagers (for the most part). I don't mind working with them but I do mind working with anyone who is rude and tries to act big and bad and as if rules do not apply to them. Remember, I work in the "ghetto." I know where she works and it's not the ghetto.

I do believe this puts me at an awkward spot...as a Christian I should be reaching out to the world. I want to reach out to these kids. I want to befriend them. I want to share Jesus with them. I want them to do better for themselves than what most of their parents have done. However, I also fight the flesh. My flesh wants to yell and scream at them and kick them out. What is the boundary between showing love and being a doormat? You act nice to them and they walk all over you. Half the time I want to ask the police department to come and do fingerprinting during summer reading so that they will have the kids' prints on file for the future.

Not all teenagers are horrible. I have several in here at this moment who are getting books for the last minute summer reading that they have put off but they seem to be good kids. My co-worker is in high school and she is great. Teenagers like them are easy to get along with. The others.....I can't wait for school to start back when we will only have to deal with kids for about 2 hours a day.

Oh, when reading the email, FrogN removed herself completely from the teenage class...something most of us have already done.

Ghetto Library

I was told yesterday that my library is "ghetto." Probably so. It is in a poorer part of town. Our mayor even recently had our city classified as "blighted." We don't make a lot of money and we don't order 7,000 copies of any book (even Harry Potter). One woman got mad because we don't own a fax machine. I told her that there is another library within five miles or so that does have a fax machine and she got mad because she lives in this city. I also told her two places within one block of our library that have a fax machine and she proceeded to storm out of the library mumbling about how you can't even get a book in our library and it's just "ghetto."

Dictionary.com defines ghetto as "a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships." Technically our library cannot be ghetto without declaring the rest of the city ghetto. By admitting to live in our city and declaring that we are "ghetto" she has declared herself as part of the minority group that is contributing to the label.

As far as the book she wanted...I have no idea what it was. She never asked for a book while she was in. Probably the latest "Thug" or "Gangsta'" book.