Winter at the library early in the year is an odd time. The holiday break is over, and kids mainly come in after school to play Roblox on our computers. We have had a few issues as a result. Excited kids quickly forget they're in a library, and raised voices can be a problem. Even worse, though, at least one kid keeps trying to set up his phone for voice chat with friends somewhere else. Much shushing has happened.
These public school kids are often our informal wards. Librarian duties don't formally include day-care or baby-sitting, but it seems we are still perceived as such. One of these moms has been bringing in a non-service-animal. There haven't been any issues yet, but we do have a no-pets-allowed policy. We want to allow service animals, but the legal environment of today leaves us in a bit of a quandary when anyone brings what appears to be a pet. I anticipate a confrontation if this continued to be a thing. I hate confrontations.
We have a lot of home-schoolers. Part of that is our rural independent-minded population, and part is a result of COVID disruptions leading to general dissatisfaction with the government school systems. Several moms regularly bring in rafts of children to browse for new books, gather research materials on different subjects, and grab some recreational reading. I like these families. The kids are generally a lot more respectful of library etiquette, and more interested in exploring the library's literary offerings. Moms are also open to crafts ideas, poetry suggestions, interesting biographies, and other ways to enrich education with novel things outside the rigid structures and schedules of typical formal schooling.
Source
I am starting to schedule my own craft programs for the next several months and coordinating with the district's usual Springtime gardening programs. We hope to have a few local gardeners travel to different libraries to discuss various topics including herbs, bonsai, deer-proofing, and turning our not-particularly-fertile dirt into good gardening soil. I also plan to work in some new D.I.Y. programs along with the typical arts and crafts programs I offered about once per month pre-COVID. Spice mixes, breadmaking, and some technological electronical projects are in various stages of preparation. We'll see what I can actually make happen.
Back in 2018, I wrote about one of our more eccentric visitors, the mountain man. I was worried when he stopped dropping by, but he's still around this long after the plague hit. He's been visiting regularly again. As for my other old library posts, the problems seem of have dissipated since, but here's a look back at some of my other old patron tales with the pre-fork links updated to HIVE.
The Frazzled Parents
Rancid Crabtree's Relations
The Girl Who Knocks
Monster Boy and Horror Girl
The Deaf Ashtray
Library Urchins
An Odoriferous Library Intrusion and the sequel
Eventually, I need to start making curated content collections of my old posts on different subjects. I have a lot of minor edits I should probably make, too, changing out old Steemit references to HIVE, making sure my early images are properly attributed, fixing old typos, and who knows what all else. Maybe that can occupy my mind next month?
