Like many of the Klub Kat bloggers I am a baby librarian. In fact, I have worked in a library only twice as a shelver in high school and my internship in library school. Second fact, I am probably the most grammatically challenged of our group. (Yogurt Moon correct me. Please.) Sorry.
Despite this, I have my first library job and this was my first day on it. Approximately two weeks ago I was interviewed and offered the job as a reference librarian in the Adult Services department for a county public library in rural North Carolina.
Admittedly I was anxious about the first day at the new job which I dealt with by obsessing over which cardigan to wear (gray with flowers, pink with flowers, hot pink,green, turquoise, dark raspberry...) and painting my toenails (OPI's Absolutely Alice because nothing says I am prepared to deal with the public like bright blue glitter polish). All this angst was a bit unnecessary as I spent the day reading policy manuals and guidelines, filling out paper work and touring the library.
Still, there were a number of things I learned from my coworkers and patrons about life in the public library that day:
- There's a neat online database our library has that shows you the order of books in a series. Helpful for all those obsessive compulsive readers who must read the series in order (like, um, me).
- I am to watch out for two types of patrons: persons with less than perfect dental hygiene who wish to marry me and a man who wants some legal documents typed up for him (not to worry, he knows how to sign the judge's name himself)
- If you need to bury your dead, they must be six feet underground wrapped in a sheet. (Don't worry if the hospital won't release the body directly to you. It can be sent to a funeral home and then turned over to you for burial.)
- Color prints cost more. (Half price for employees --- same deal with FOL book sales)
- The 3 and a half inch floppy disc drive can fit $2.50 in quarters. (They also can be retrieved easily by simply tipping the tower.)
