Welcome to Library Work!

The week I started working at my suburban Philadelphia library, a scruffy-looking man in his twenties sauntered up to the circulation desk wearing a SHOW ME YOUR BOOBS T shirt. Although we librarians are expected […]
The week I started working at my suburban Philadelphia library, a scruffy-looking man in his twenties sauntered up to the circulation desk wearing a SHOW ME YOUR BOOBS T shirt. Although we librarians are expected […]
Our Bodies our Shelves is my collection of humorous essays about library life. It got terrific reviews, even though you’ve never heard of it. How many terrific reviews? Thirty excellent reviews on Amazon and over […]
One of the joys of working at a library is that we never know what our patrons will ask us next. Here’s a brief sampling of unusual, quirky or offbeat questions that people have recently […]
Part of a librarian’s job is helping people find a book that they’ve read or heard about. But sometimes our patrons get the title wrong. For instance? The woman who came to the library asking […]
A librarian pal recently posted the following question on a Facebook group for librarians: “If there were a sign that prohibited the craziest, oddest or grossest thing that has happened at your library, what would […]
When you work in a library, you soon learn that patrons can make use of some rather unlikely things to mark their places as they read, which they’ll often forget to remove when the books […]
My smart phone has a feature that allows you to scan in your thumb print, after which it will recognize your thumb and unlock itself so you don’t have to enter your password each time […]
By: Janet Golden and Roz Warren Several summers ago, flight attendant Steven Slater, fed up with dealing with the public, cursed, grabbed a beer and slid down the evacuation chute of the JetBlue aircraft that […]
A dead frog A used band-aid A squashed and leaking Ketchup packet. Bedbugs A tampon Toe nail clippings Dozens of baby roaches A slice of bacon Boogers A used Q-Tip A used condom (and it […]
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue just came out, and all over America librarians are flipping through its pages and rolling their eyes. The swimsuit issue, which isn’t actually about swimwear at all, but, is, instead, […]