It's a Beautiful Day in the Library-hood

The following events have all occurred within the past week at the library.

• Our manager asked a woman who was screaming at someone on her cell phone to please keep it down or take the call in the lobby. The woman decided that instead of doing this relatively simple thing, she would instead berate and threaten our manager resulting in her eviction from the library for 6 months. When she received her eviction notice in the mail, she proceeded to call our location at least 6 times in the space of 30 minutes continuing her threats and abusive language. She then went to another library where upon learning that yes, she was evicted from all libraries, she told every person she could find that she had been kicked out for talking on a cell phone, managing to make it out of the parking lot before the police arrived. She then called the Main library at least 15 times that afternoon continuing the same rant. She is now evicted for a year.

• I spent 15 minutes on the phone with a woman who thought we should clear a $4.20 fine because when she selected "renew all" on the phone she didn't realize that items that couldn't be renewed wouldn't be renewed. We had cleared fines for her at least 5 times previously.

• A man comes in to complain that he was being referred to a collection agency for overdue items on his card that his son had checked out. His son was unable to locate the items. The man couldn't believe that we would refer him to an agency rather than deal with him directly, especially since he had just donated a large number of hardcovers to the library (people always think used books are worth much more than they are). While I tried to explain that the recovery agency only handled the notices, phone calls, and address verification for us, he still insisted that we cancel his card after he paid for the missing materials. He then said he would get a card with a different library system. For the record, most libraries use some form of materials recovery or credit reporting for long overdue materials. The materials on this man's card were over six months late.

• I observed an exceptionally stern and domineering father tell his two school-age children that they had to sit still in two chairs because "this isn't playtime," while he was finding materials he needed. The kids are on Spring Break.

• I shelved a bible story book for children entitled "John the Baptist: Wet and Wild."

• A long-time customer from an unspecified African country who had been working on his citizenship exam with the assistance of nearly every staff member in the branch stopped at the desk to tell us that he had passed and was now an American.

I love the library.