livlife
Welcome to Livlife. Where I am living my life out loud, for all to read.
libraryThis actually happened a couple days ago (Friday 8/21 to be precise) and I made a note to blog it as soon as I had the chance. Which is now.
I was working at the public library and a guy comes in and asks for a specific book. A Bible dictionary. I know that we have one, but it is in our reference collection (meaning it cannot be checked out). I explain that to him and then show him the book. It is EXACTLY the book he is looking for. I repeat that he can't check it out but we have a copier if needed. Suddenly, he hears me and gets all upset that he can't check the book out. I explained again and he tells me that the other librarian told me to come here because he could check it out.
Once I got the full story I think it went like something like this: he was at the downtown branch looking for this book. They have it, but in reference. Trying to be helpful, she checked the suburban catalog (we are in the midst of a merger and the catalogs are still separate) and saw that we have a copy. Being new to our catalog she (or he, I don't actually know) missed the fact that this book is marked as reference and sent him to our library. The customer took the bus from downtown to our branch (quite a distance by bus) only to be disappointed. I checked our catalog and found out that of the 20-odd copies we own of this book ONE of them is circulating and it is at the Penn Lake branch. I called them to make sure that this wasn't an error in the catalog (it seemed so odd that only one copy would circulate and that it would live at PL...why not a bigger branch?). They had the book and assured me it would circulate. I had them hold it for the customer.
Then, he needed to know how to get there by bus. This is NOT my area of expertise. I haven't ever been on a city bus (as far as I know) and I have never even looked at a bus schedule. So, between his knowledge of bus schedules and my knowledge of where the library was located, we were going to get him there.
While all of this is going on, my coworker, Rich, was helping some guy track down a book. I didn't hear any of their conversation, but as luck would have it, his book was checked in at...you guessed it, Penn Lake! While my guy and I were headed for the door, still discussing bus schedules and PL library, Rich's customer overheard us and said "excuse me". We turned to him and he said, "are you headed to PL?" My guy said that he was and then Rich's guy said, "so am I, I'll give you a ride if you want." My guy said that he would appreciate it and accepted the ride.
Can you believe that?
I was shocked. I think I still am. In this day and age, to offer a ride to a stranger is completely unheard of. Truly, I think this might be the most quintessential definition of a community library. It is possible that nowhere else on earth would you see this kind of situation come to fruition. Two complete strangers working together to make the best of their library experience. Is that an amazing story or what?
Had it not been so busy (and so late in the day) I'd have blogged about it then and there.
If you didn't find that to be so extraordinary, then I will add this and you can take it as you will. The man that offered the ride was a middle-aged white man. The man who accepted was a young black man.
Maybe, just maybe, the world isn't as bad as they say it is.
I was working at the public library and a guy comes in and asks for a specific book. A Bible dictionary. I know that we have one, but it is in our reference collection (meaning it cannot be checked out). I explain that to him and then show him the book. It is EXACTLY the book he is looking for. I repeat that he can't check it out but we have a copier if needed. Suddenly, he hears me and gets all upset that he can't check the book out. I explained again and he tells me that the other librarian told me to come here because he could check it out.
Once I got the full story I think it went like something like this: he was at the downtown branch looking for this book. They have it, but in reference. Trying to be helpful, she checked the suburban catalog (we are in the midst of a merger and the catalogs are still separate) and saw that we have a copy. Being new to our catalog she (or he, I don't actually know) missed the fact that this book is marked as reference and sent him to our library. The customer took the bus from downtown to our branch (quite a distance by bus) only to be disappointed. I checked our catalog and found out that of the 20-odd copies we own of this book ONE of them is circulating and it is at the Penn Lake branch. I called them to make sure that this wasn't an error in the catalog (it seemed so odd that only one copy would circulate and that it would live at PL...why not a bigger branch?). They had the book and assured me it would circulate. I had them hold it for the customer.
Then, he needed to know how to get there by bus. This is NOT my area of expertise. I haven't ever been on a city bus (as far as I know) and I have never even looked at a bus schedule. So, between his knowledge of bus schedules and my knowledge of where the library was located, we were going to get him there.
While all of this is going on, my coworker, Rich, was helping some guy track down a book. I didn't hear any of their conversation, but as luck would have it, his book was checked in at...you guessed it, Penn Lake! While my guy and I were headed for the door, still discussing bus schedules and PL library, Rich's customer overheard us and said "excuse me". We turned to him and he said, "are you headed to PL?" My guy said that he was and then Rich's guy said, "so am I, I'll give you a ride if you want." My guy said that he would appreciate it and accepted the ride.
Can you believe that?
I was shocked. I think I still am. In this day and age, to offer a ride to a stranger is completely unheard of. Truly, I think this might be the most quintessential definition of a community library. It is possible that nowhere else on earth would you see this kind of situation come to fruition. Two complete strangers working together to make the best of their library experience. Is that an amazing story or what?
Had it not been so busy (and so late in the day) I'd have blogged about it then and there.
If you didn't find that to be so extraordinary, then I will add this and you can take it as you will. The man that offered the ride was a middle-aged white man. The man who accepted was a young black man.
Maybe, just maybe, the world isn't as bad as they say it is.
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