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kathy_tt

Library Tales

kathy_t
6 years ago

In the Funny, Unusual and/or Quirky Book Titles thread, I was amused by Ann's post: "You are so good to shelve books without getting paid. It was my pet hate when I worked in libraries. When I set a community library up in a developing suburb, I provided a Returns Shelf and hoped people would take books from there to save me having to sort and shelve them. Some people preferred to browse that shelf for inspiration. Fine with me!"

I always thought I'd like to shelve books. (Librarian is my "career path not taken.") But since volunteering, I've had several people react similarly to Annpan. Shelving is not a glamorous or particularly easy job. In fact, on my first day, I was surprised to learn how physical the task is. I often need to shove heavy volumes "down the line" or relocate books to make room for the one I'm shelving.

And my goodness, do you have any idea how low you must squat to place a book on one of those floor-level shelves? I've already started a campaign to tell all my friends that if they think they need one of those books from the bottom shelf, they should browse a little higher because there is probably a book up there that will do just as well.

I know a number of RPers are former librarians or library workers. I wonder if you have some tales to tell that might surprise or amuse the rest of us?

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