Blind Date With A Book
I have spent quite some time this week setting up my library's "Blind Date with a Book" display. Each book is wrapped in white paper, and then labeled with the first line or some tantalizing keywords. You can't judge a book by its cover when you can't see it!
The knife is my Buck 110, and you might be surprised to learn how useful a good knife is in a library. I also carry a Leatherman multi-tool, but a simple single-blade knife with a big, chunky handle is a lot easier to manipulate. My wrapping paper is cut from a roll of white craft paper, and using the edge of the counter as a guide while slicing with my knife produces a faster and cleaner result than using scissors. Then, you might notice how the wrapping paper makes it difficult to actually check out the book to a patron, so my knife saves the day again as I gently slice the paper to reveal just the barcode strip. I can't pre-plan that window because the books all have different sizes and barcode locations. There's more than one way to skin a book.
Can you guess the book behind this paper from the clues in the heart? The first commenter with the correct answer wins $PIZZA!
Cigarette Rant
I hate tobacco. When I pick up litter along the road, there's always he odd cigarette butt despite the wildfire danger much of the year, and usually someone's spit bottle full of brown slime, too. At the library, people ignore our signage about smoking away from the front door every once in a while. When I check in books, there's frequently a few that reek of smoke, and make everything they contact reek, too.
I'm the first to say vices are not crimes, and prohibition is wrong, but the legal, taxed tobacco industry is the absolute worst thing sometimes. Drug prohibitionists talk about the negative externalities of weed justifying continued raids and repression, but meanwhile, there's this. I hate second-hand smoke. It makes me literally sick, no exaggeration. I hate stale second-hand smoke contaminating the book drop. We wipe down every item returned to our branch using a wash cloth and a spray bottle of specially-formulated book cleaning mix before we shelve it, but I hate having to wash these stinky items with extra care and then get a new wash cloth because that one immediately needs to be tossed in the laundry bag afterward.
As vices go, tobacco is pretty bad. Save money instead of fueling the tobacco industry. Starve the State of its sin taxes, too. Reclaim your health. I know it isn't easy. It's probably at least as hard as when I had to give up foods I love because of allergies. You can do it, though. Hell, switch to vape if you can't give up that sweet, sweet nicotine entirely, but try to kick Big Tobacco in the butt.
Goth Girls and Cougars
One of the first patrons was a young lady (man, that phrase makes this geriatric millennial sound old...) dressed in a goth-influenced red-and-black ensemble with a low-cut top. It's too dang cold for dressing immodestly. I wonder if she is getting the attention she wants, or just attracts the wrong crowd. Cute, but not what this librarian is looking for. Nonetheless, I can't help but notice what is being advertised so prominently.
I also had an awkward moment when another middle-aged woman kept complimenting me on my smile. Once? OK. Four times during one brief conversation at the checkout counter? It was downright weird. I am checking out the books to you. You don't need to be checking me out.
At the risk of false empathy, I think I have an inkling what women subjected to unsolicited compliments might feel. Note to self: Avoid being that guy. But hey, I didn't tell the Goth Girl she'd look cuter if she smiled, so I think I'm on the right track.
CRT: Censorship Resistance Training
It's time for annual mandatory library training. This year, it's a series of videos about censorship and access to information. Libraries have positioned themselves for years as places where patrons are free to read. Good libraries don't ban materials, and we librarians try to avoid taking sides, providing neutral ground for patrons to explore ideas. We do curate our collection and strive to include quality materials with a variety of perspectives, especially on contentious topics, but we don't want to silence discourse or prevent research.
Space is limited, though. We can't have every James Patterson and Danielle Steel novel hogging shelving. We weed our fiction based on how often items circulate and how many other copies are available in our network. We try to replace worn and damaged books with updated materials that fill the same niche in non-fiction, and we don't hide materials or refuse to carry items based on our political, religious, or philosophical prejudices. Unfortunately, "balanced and neutral" seems to be interpreted by most libraries as just, "we have both (D) and (R) propaganda." I can't help but notice an absence of anarchist content, but maybe that's my personal interest influencing my perspective. What do you think?
I also couldn't help but notice the disconnect between the principles we claim to support and the past two years of political and medical uproar culminating in the recent hoopla over Joe Rogan. Spotify artists who haven't said a peep about sharing a platform with rappers who have literal rap sheets and celebrities known to have frequented Jeffrey Epstein's pedophile paradise island are angry because MMA guy has civil conversations with credentialed people who dissent from the official COVID narrative?
General Dysfunction
I post flyers on the door for our events, distribute handouts at the checkout counter, post to our website, and share on local Facebook pages. Then, the day after the event, I hear, "I had no idea this was happening!" #$%@&#$%@!!! That's on you, OK?
On the other hand, there is widespread dysfunction in our Youth Services department, and that is the fault of their bigwigs. The logistics are always get screwed up, and we frontline librarians catch the flak when the Youth Services coordinators failed to get stuff to us. Miss M. the youth librarian is even in the dark half the time. #$%@&#$%@!!!
Feel-Good Story
It's not all frustration, though. I do genuinely like most of the patrons we serve, and it's fun to help people find new books, whether fiction or factual. The Blind Date with a Book is already going well. A Victorian-era fantasy and fairy tales collection left with one of the homeschooling moms who likes finding new stuff for her kids. I also know an elderly lady picked up an Ivan Doig novel, and I think she'll like it. See if your library is doing something similar. Maybe you'll find a new favorite author?
