Come See the Librarian in her Natural Habitat

I don't often talk specifically about my work because I live in fear of someone tracking down my blog go 'AH-HA' and I lose my job, can't find another and have to live with my parents forever.

I am temporarily revoking that anxitey today because my job provides great material. As you may have surmised (or probably just flat out know since the two and half people who read this blog actually know me), I work in A Very Small Library that is not public. I will amend to this that my patrons are..special. They do not suffer from severe retardation, but many of them are somewhat learning disabled. This leads to all kinds of fun moments.

In the Very Small Library (VLS from now on, my office sits in one corner. It is nearly entirely glass from four feet above the floor on up. I assume this design was chosen so that the librarian could keep an eye on the patrons, but generally makes me feel like an exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. Especially at feeding time. The door is to the left of me and I face slightly away from it. I am constantly taken off guard by knocking. Unfortunately there is literally no way to rearrange the furniture.

A combination of my patrons abilities and this glass office leads to moments like this one. I am sitting at my computer, mostly zoned out and a patron knocks...not on my door, but on the glass in front me. Which means he walked behind the reference desk and is staring down at me. He then gestures for me to come help him at a computer.

When I can around, I asked him gently to never do that again and he looked completely confused. I realized that it had not even occurred to him to check to see if I had a door.

My continual frustration with my patrons is not that they aren't smart. I like a lot of them, some well below the average intelligence range. It's the lack of simple social niceties that bothers me.

Ooooh...gotta go it's feeding time and I smell chocolate!

Catch you on the flipside,
CGL