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…
While looking at Match.com profiles recently, I was struck by how many men not only describe themselves as “adventurous” but are seeking women who are also adventurous. I’m not adventurous. Not even a little. I’m…
The seventeenth of April is on the horizon, and librarians all over the country are bracing themselves for the sea of patrons who are about to surge, tsunami-like, into our workplaces, demanding tax forms. Over…
If you work in a library, you work with book carts, so naturally you give them nicknames. You could call your faithful book cart Bumpy, Squeaky, Rusty or Tipsy. But surely you can do better…
At the library where I work, we have an incredibly challenging patron whose imperious demands, unpleasant attitude and relentless sense of entitlement annoy and depress us all so much that we’ve nicknamed her “Sunshine.” (Never…
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…
After graciously coping with a library patron who began screaming at me when I told him there was a fine on his card, I logged onto my favorite Librarian Facebook hangout and asked: Have you…
I work at the circulation desk at a public library. I recently had a dream in which one of our most challenging patrons apologized for being such a nuisance, then meekly paid all her fines.…
Last week a patron at the suburban library where I work spent five minutes telling a colleague all about why (and exactly how) she should use a water pic. This inspired me to log onto…
The art of storytelling is alive and well, which is something you soon learn when you work at a public library. I’m not talking about the stories in the books. I’m talking about the excuses…
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