Programming Librarian | 30something bisexual
#Swiftie
obsessed with
#StarWars
,
#TheBadBatch
, audiobooks, and Dr. Pepper | All opinions shared are my own
As your friendly neighborhood librarian, I give you permission to not set a reading goal this year. Read what you want, when you want. Give up on books you don’t enjoy. Don’t put so much pressure on a leisure activity.
Unpopular opinion: I think library directors should have to work one desk shift a week, rotating between service points. Understand your library, your staff, your users, then make policy.
Last week a patron came into the library and checked out an air fryer. She asked if we had somewhere to use it and we said no. So she took it into the bathroom and COOKED A SALMON in it
You know you’re an adult when someone asks for gift ideas and you’re like ugh don’t give me any more stuff. Can you just buy me groceries? Or pay my gas bill? You can clean the inside of my car.
That article about how to make a librarian happy was really rubbing me the wrong way, so I decided to make some changes.
The Best Way to Make a Librarian Happy Is to Use the Library, Not Give Them Cake.
Your local libraries are Going Through It right now. Support them as much as you can. Go to programs. Check out books. Bring us snacks. Tell us how angry you are that anyone would make a bomb threat over us defending your right to read and learn.
Why did she do this? Why did she come to the library with raw salmon? How did the salmon turn out?
I know you have questions and I do not have answers. There is no figuring out the public sometimes.
@TheBlackNerd
Working the night shift in a public library on a particularly quiet night when I look up to see a man pushing a lawnmower into the elevator.
Unpopular opinion: don’t put Big Name Authors on book displays, especially in high traffic areas. That’s prime RA real estate! Use that space to promote something new that needs a little more attention. Your circ will increase!
#librarylife
My library made a permanent change to relax its dress code and, let me tell you, staff are so excited to wear jeans. That’s the kind of thing we need more of during National Library Week.
@RachaelDab
Not to mention children do not have control over their lives! They don’t have money and they don’t have their own transportation. Why are we punishing them for something that’s impossible for them to accomplish for themselves?
When I finished grad school in 2014, I owed $37,140. Now, after 5 years of payments on grad loans & 8 years on undergrad loans—for a total of $5,940 paid—owe $37,660.
Yep. 8 years and $6k later (not counting what I paid before switching to FedLoan), I owe more than when I began.
@pastellistin
@croc_fan
@abbygov
There’s a very good chance you have asthma *because* people smoked around you when you were young. I used to work for a pulmonologist and I wanted to scream at every parent who refused to quit, even when it made their kids sick.
@hotelsdotcom
@StudioMucci
You have the ability to influence the landlord and help this woman keep her home. Your response shows that you are actively choosing to sit by and allow this injustice to happen—all for the sake of a 2 week event. And you’re already losing customers over it.
Do better.
@AguedaPachecOH
Lots! We have a large collection of non-book items for checkout. Great to try something before you buy it or for something you use rarely and don’t have space to store.
I honestly cannot say enough how much respect I have for children’s librarians. So much patience and emotional understanding and a strong desire to help. And so very much creativity. You are doing important work, even if you can’t see the kids right now. Thank you.
@lilithine
@exfatalist
That first one is me. Today I couldn’t find something that had been moved and thought, well, I guess I’m never eating that again.
If you hadn’t guessed already, my library was visited by some “concerned citizens” who checked out all the LGBTQ books they could find to keep anyone else from accessing them. Tuesday and Wednesday were rough, to say the least, but the support from the public has been wonderful.
I somehow got a coworker to read Everyone’s an aliebn by
@jonnysun
, even though she doesn’t read graphics. She came into work yesterday and started excitedly showing me all her favorite pages. 💕
During
#libfaves18
, librarians count down their top 10 favorite books published this year.
Day 10: My
#1
book of the year...the book I won't shut up about...THE GOOD NEIGHBOR: THE LIFE AND WORK OF FRED ROGERS by Maxwell King (with audio read by
@levarburton
!).
@BreoganHackett
@anygafs
In grad school, my professor crossed out every time I wrote the word “they” in a paper and passive-aggressively wrote “he or she” above it. I think some of the papers were submitted electronically, so he printed them in order to do this.
I’m safe, but we have been in a lockdown for over an hour. Suspect with a gun on the university campus across the street. No shots fired. Let staff know not to come in for 5pm shifts until all clear is given.
If you appreciate what your library staff does, TELL THEM. These comments make our day and help drown out all the people who think libraries are useless.
Tell me your pettiest work pet peeve. Nothing big enough to be a real problem, but just gets under your skin.
For me it’s that we have a row of 5 hooks for 3 people to hang coats on and sometimes others hang their coat right next to mine instead of leaving space between.
My nephew told his mom not to wear a tiara at her wedding later this year because it made her “look like a sea witch.” 😂🤣😂
This is why 7 year olds aren’t involved in wedding planning.
I'm happy to hear some directors work service points and closely with their staff, but I suspect it's mostly smaller libraries or out of need, not choice. If you're a director who does this, I'd like to hear about your library size/staff.
If anyone ever wanted a library book cart in their home, Walmart has a pretty good selection online that are quite affordable. I know at least one of you has considered this.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. New Allie Brosh book. Please skip Amazon and buy Indie! My favorite indie bookshop will ship nationwide, if you don’t have one near you.
@ib505a
@pastellistin
@croc_fan
@abbygov
Unfortunately, smoking outdoors doesn’t completely protect the child, because the smoke lingers on their clothes/hair/skin and the child still ends up inhaling it, albeit in smaller doses. (This is the part where smokers tuned out the doctors)
@MsPinkBehavior
@gigglefritz_
@prairiegirl7980
@Jo_BootsBoots
If students and teachers are both doing work outside of school hours, there’s too much work. It’s not healthy for either group and also requires free labor from teachers, who already don’t get paid enough.
No library should have their Twitter set to private. They did wrong and deserve to be called out on it. Delete the tweet, but don’t completely shut down communication. It is a public institution; it can’t be private.
@BettyRuthRyan
@DoctorMacArthur
Imagine being in the bathroom when something slowly comes out of the sink drain, grabs the shower curtain, and tries to take it back down the drain.
I can now share my news publicly: I will be starting a new job in December which will be more program-focused and be a leadership (but not management) role.
Librarian on Saturday told me the teens at her library have been raving about my bullet journal program and telling her how cool I am all month! And they’ve been looking forward to my programs! Ah! I’m going to be thinking about this for awhile ⭐️
Sometimes library programming is just looking at all of your leftover art supplies and creating something that kind of maybe fits the theme of an upcoming event.
@StarCouncils
It’s not, though. Ashla was the original name for the character before it was changed to Ahsoka. And as another commenter already mentioned, Ashla refers to the light side of the Force.
Multiple staff trying to identify an author. Patron said it was a male romance author, first name might be Robert, last name started with L and they died last year.
It was Ivan Doig.
Today I had to ask my male coworker to call back a patron and explain the information I gave her last night was correct, because she insisted the male librarian would find something I couldn’t. Misogyny is alive and well in Illinois.
Some reminders in honor of
#AutismAwarenessDay
1. Autism Speaks is trash. Support ASAN instead.
2. The puzzle piece is offensive to many autistic people
3. Do NOT “light it up blue.” Choose
#RedInstead
4. Autism doesn’t need to be “cured.”
Libraries, do you want to try to become anti-racist or at least more inclusive? One place to start would be to look at the pictures you’re including in your newsletters. Count the number of faces, then count how many aren’t white. Now fix that ratio.
#librarylife
Something my MLIS never prepared me for: booking and running a program on a topic that brings up painful memories but that I need to be in the room for because there’s a very high possibility an attendee will start a political argument. Programming isn’t as easy as it seems.
Overdrive: We’re going to embargo Blackstone audiobooks so your patrons can’t get the new Patterson immediately.
Hoopla: We’re going to introduce new pay structures to stress your already too tight budgets.
Kanopy: Hold my beer
In the last week, two of my sisters have gotten engaged. That means it must be time to start my wacky romcom. Now, do I put out an ad for a wedding date or pay someone to pose as my partner? Or do I fall in love with someone in the wedding party of the first one?
Before I leave for work, I want to stress that I’m talking about *public* libraries here. I’m not going to pretend I know enough about academic or special libraries to form an opinion.
Friday is my library’s in service when I’ll finally learn the fate of my job and my library, so if you all could randomly remind me throughout the week of bigger things I’ve survived already, that’d be great.
I know it’s time to leave and I’m very excited about my new job. Everything fell together pretty quickly. I will miss many things about my job. I loved that job, I just didn’t feel like the environment was good for me any longer.
New job starts Friday. Hoping for a good change.
I’m hosting a round table on LGBTQ issues Monday night (which was already planned) and a good number of people are coming because they know attendance numbers are a good way to show support for library initiatives.
It’s been awhile since someone made a complaint about a book on display. This time it was...Millenneagram by
@hannahpaasch
? It’s because it uses the F word. And lady, if that’s a problem, you should maybe stay away from the fiction shelves.
I got the nicest phone call from a patron today to thank us for the cooking program we hosted last night. She said it made life feel normal again and she’s been cooking all day! She knows people only really call with a complaint, so she wanted to call with thanks instead 🥰
Got the loveliest call from a patron today, who wanted to tell me personally that my library’s programs are “top of the line best” and she’s so impressed by the lineups I put together and doesn’t know how I find so many great speakers (spoiler: it’s networking).
If you’re a librarian trying to figure out virtual programs (especially for adults) and want someone to run your ideas by or get help figuring how to make them possible, please DM or email me! I want to help!
#librarylife
My amazing dept head (marketing) helped me come up with 2 questions that I’ve started asking of every virtual program I consider:
1. What value does this have for our users?
2. Why should the *library* be the one to do this?
Today a woman came to get help with her tablet and email because she remembered me from a knitting drop-in. Never discount the importance of “nonessential” programs, especially for community outreach.
@blackgirldating
It's not so much about covering the desk as it is understanding the work your employees do and how they interact with the public. The director is often making decisions or changes without having worked those past jobs in 10+ years.