This morning I slept in and then read a book. That is still the best
way to spend a morning. Then I got ready and ate lunch before going
to work.
The first part of my day was spent finishing up my homebound lists,
which I accomplished. I even pulled a few books because I didn't
have any specific ones in mind so I just went to the section I wanted
and browsed until I had enough. I also did other work things like
helped patrons in person, over the phone, and through chat. It was a
fairly constant flow of work during the first part of my shift.
The second part of my shift was slower but I still did things. I
finished watching more usability videos, bringing the total up to 200
for this month. I also cleaned up most of my inbox because that has
been a long time coming. I wasn't off the desk until the end of the
night so that is when I went to pull books for homebound. I didn't
count how many books I pulled but I filled my cart and finished just
in time to start the closing stuff for the night. It was super dead
for the last hour or so of the evening throughout the entire library,
which was nice because I was able to get my work done.
There was one incident tonight which I wasn't a fan of. When I got
back from dinner the other librarian told me she had just talked to a
group of teens down by the front entrance because they were being
loud and horsing around. I think it was the same group that was down
there yesterday being loud and wanting to race each other barefoot.
I put off going down as long as I could but they got progressively
louder and then started throwing out random curse words. So I went
down to talk to them. I'm not a fan of confrontation and that was
probably evident.
I asked them if they were being too loud and one responded by saying
“No, we're just being black citizens.” And I looked at him and
said “Or citizens? And yes, you're being loud.” The first kid
continued being respectful in that patronizing sort of way and the
other was more confrontational and argumentative, blaming the
building rather than their actions. And then half way through the
conversation he stopped arguing and just started staring at me. I
think he might have been trying to be intimidating but he looked more
tired than scary.
I could have handled the situation better. I feel like all my
interactions with kids and teens at the library, outside of the ones
I know from being at the school, involve me coming off as an
authoritarian because I'm having to get on them about not acting like
kids. There isn't really a good place for them to hang out so they
end up in all the places that adults find them annoying. I need to
work on my tactic because I'm not the bad guy and I don't want to
come across that way. I imagine I will have many more opportunities
to practice, so I will get better.
When I got home tonight I watched YouTube videos and got updated on
internet things. Tomorrow I'm going back to work. In the morning
I've got two hours on the desk which will hopefully give me enough
time to checkout all of my homebound books, sort them, and print out
the feedback slips. Hopefully there aren't a lot of patron
interruptions. Then I'll spend my afternoon delivering books in the
hot and humid weather, going into hot homes and nursing homes, with
only brief reprieves in the air conditioned van. It's going to be a
wonderful time. I just need to remember to bring a change of shirt
(and maybe everything but pants) so I can change when I get back and
have cooled down so I'm not completely disgusting when I go out with
my realtor looking at houses after work. Which is the part of my day
I'm looking forward to most. If I can get over being sweaty and
gross.
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