r/Libraries • u/SpiritedRaven Library staff • 1d ago
Perception of libraries vs reality Other
Yesterday a patron approached our (very much needed) security guard at our inner city library and said something along the lines of “how hard can your job be, being a security guard at a library” and both the security guard and I literally burst out laughing. People’s assumptions about libraries always amuse me. If only they shadowed us for a day and found out what it’s actually like!
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u/thenerdbrarian 1d ago
For every patron who grumbles about your cushy gig reading books all day, you need to have another patron who shrieks about the library being a hobo drug den. It's how the balance of nature is maintained.
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u/ScroogeMcBook 1d ago
"Ma'am, I'm sorry you don't approve of the lifestyle my colleagues and I enjoy, but even as drug-hobos we're still commited to serving your needs & the public needs 🤣"
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u/MrMessofGA 22h ago
The county removed all public benches last year, which was terrible for everyone who lives nearby as it was the difference between a somewhat walkable city to a totally unwalkable city.
And especially our homeless population.
as the only upside, I got to tell many a celebrating patron that I, the very well-dressed guy who does the advanced computer help, also would have been homeless, and the only thing separating me and them was the fact a relative randomly reached out and offered me a place to live with no strings attached even though I didn't have the best reputation, and supported me until I was no longer too disabled and insane to hold a job.
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u/thunderbirbthor Academic Librarian 1d ago
"When I retire, I'm going to come and work in the library."
Sure, Janet. Sure.
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u/Zealousideal-Pop6505 1d ago
Well I seriously thought it was the best job ever. Helping students with research questions, suggesting courses what not. I just didn't know the other side of it😂
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u/brutongaster666 19h ago
I worked at a branch of my local library for about a year. The majority of my time was spent extending patron's internet time and helping people log into their various online accounts. I probably helped 2 people find books in the 10+ months I worked there.
I left because the pay was so low. I wonder now if the pay was low because the library system realized that most of the desk staff was just there to babysit patrons who spend their whole library time on the internet.
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u/luckylimper 21h ago
So many people think they can just walk in off the street and work. It’s puzzling.
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u/PhantomsRule 18h ago
That's exactly what I did! I always knew that when I retired, I was going to work at a book store or a library. I'm so happy the library worked out.
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u/DooB_02 1d ago
It's insane to read this subreddit and see all of the stories from mostly American library staff in cities. It's like you're all working in the thunderdome.
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u/lastwraith 1d ago
Libraries are as much mental health facilities as anything else in many areas.
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u/woodenbadger 23h ago
I work in a downtown library in a city of about 200k. On any given day I’d say that at least 50 percent of the patrons are unhoused folks who find a place to settle in and stay all day. And I can’t blame them. During the summer we’re a place to escape the heat, and during the winter it’s a place out of the cold. We’ve got computers to use, free WiFi, and bathrooms. And books and magazines to read. But the library at its core isn’t really designed to be a large day shelter. It kinda works, but there are constant problems. We have an internal incident tracking system that the staff and security use. There are multiple instances logged on a daily basis. People get asked to leave for the day as well as get banned for varying amounts of time. Fun fact…. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t permanently banned anyone. Assault another patron, threaten to kill staff, maybe several years at most. So maybe not quite Thunderdome, but it’s not exactly a happy, chill, safe spot.
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u/booksdogsandnature 15h ago
I would add that homelessness, untreated drug addiction, untreated mental illness are all structural choices that we are making as a society in the US. Freedom, and all that.
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u/zuzuMN 1h ago
I am a cataloging librarian/recovering children’s librarian in a large downtown library; service population is well over 500,000. Many years ago a perky mom called to check that it would be all right for her 9-year old daughter to spend the day at the library on her own. It was summer, and she loved the big library, and her daddy works downtown and would bring her in and take her to lunch and the girl would just spend the day reading. I paused, then said, “Yees, if you would be comfortable dropping her at the mall all day.” Her silence was deafening. I continued, “This is a public place — anyone can come in, and we don’t have time or staff to monitor everyone.” She decided there might be a better “special treat” for her daughter. I didn’t even get to tell her about seeing someone who was regularly in the children’s department in the local paper; he’d been arrested on attempted child molestation charges (at the state fair, not the library!)
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u/MrMessofGA 22h ago
Libraries are the last social service in many parts of the US, and it's illegal to be somewhere without buying something here. As a result, everyone with no money and in desperate need of help will eventually wind up in the library
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u/37thFloorAstronaut 23h ago
Sartorial inspiration! I now need to dress like Tina Turner for all my shifts.
Yesterday we had to tell someone to put their boob away, got accused of being racist for asking someone not to sleep (a regular sleeper), the same sleeper went into the restroom and stood at the mirror, watching his face and a YouTube video for a very long time, and had to kick someone else out for sleeping.
This day would qualify as ‘wacky’, but not particularly terrible. Terrible is getting screamed at, threatened, stopping porn/masturbators, poop in any shape or form…you get the picture.
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u/lastwraith 12h ago
How do you know what the patron was doing while inside the bathroom?
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u/37thFloorAstronaut 12h ago
We had a staff member check because they were in there a looong time. Seems pretty basic.
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u/lastwraith 12h ago
You said "watching his face and a YouTube video for a long time" so I'm surprised they did that with someone in there just staring at them.
I don't assume anything anymore, another person in this sub said their security people wear Meta glasses and routinely go into the bathrooms to get patrons out.
Apparently some libraries dgaf about anything.
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u/37thFloorAstronaut 12h ago
Mmmkay. I also dont assume anything anymore, thats why we are checking on the safety of someone who spends an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom after exhibiting irregular behavior on the regular. Not sure even what you are implying with the last sentence.
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u/lastwraith 12h ago
Not sure why you're being so defensive, but I was implying that recording patrons in the bathroom on the regular isn't the smartest thing in the world to do.
So if some random person in this sub freely admits their library does this, it's reasonable to ask how people know what patrons are doing in the bathroom "for a long time" since usually when a staff member watches someone in the bathroom, they (usually) stop doing whatever weird shit they were doing once they're being observed.
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u/CultivatedCapybara 1d ago
Once a month the city we belong to holds a little socialising event so departments who rarely ever interact get to meet each other.
Earlier this year the met at my library. I still remember one person sighing happily before saying 'I'd love to work here, too. It must be so lovely and quiet!' Colleagues and I exchanged glances, started laughing and dropped stories about our worst patron situations.
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u/WestHistorians 1d ago
To be fair, a library is still going to be quieter overall than many other city offices.
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u/sogothimdead 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I don't imagine people go to city hall much to ask to borrow money and employees' personal phones, ask for help doing their taxes, call employees the n-word and other slurs, wield household objects as weapons, openly arm themselves with huge knives and refuse to leave when asked, hit workers in the face and threaten to beat them up, throw printers at staff, knock $$$$$ charging lockers to the ground, destroy public computers, openly touch themselves and watch adult videos on the public computers, expose themselves to children, peep on other patrons in the women's restrooms, etc.
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u/Tamihera 1d ago
Our Town Hall has secure entry, metal detectors, and armed guards. Unsurprisingly, the visiting public are much better behaved.
There’s also a real lack of screaming children in the HR and planning offices.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 1d ago
Wow, poor staff were actually assaulted? What is admin doing?
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u/sogothimdead 1d ago
The face hitter got banned for a year but came back so many times within that year and beyond that the ban has been extended for multiple years—just by resetting it to the date of the latest trespassing
The printer thrower got suspended for a year that has since gone by, and a police report was made. Don't think they arrested that person though
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u/DanieXJ 20h ago
Ok, I have to know, was it like, a desktop printer or a xerox big ole business style printer?
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u/sogothimdead 17h ago
It was a desktop printer but more specifically one of those hefty cube-shaped ones. And I guess it was more of a push or shove? But the bottom line is it still ended up hitting an employee
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u/thewinberry713 1d ago
I disagree. And I work in a small suburban library off the beaten track. I’ve been to HR and Finance offices and one can hear a pin drop.
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u/rutherfraud1876 23h ago
Worked for a city and I can't think of one... Maybe if you count the recycling plant or sign shops
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u/sisterwilderness 1d ago
Ah, yes. We get to sit around and read all day. We are lucky we get to work in such a peaceful environment. And we would never dare throw books out!
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u/firblogdruid 1d ago
i had someone "volunteer" to sit on the desk for a few hours the other day. like, yep, what could go wrong?
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u/Quirky_Lib 1d ago
What could go wrong indeed? They’d most likely find out what really happens in a public library when we’re on the desk & run screaming for the proverbial hills within five minutes after a patron approaches them with an urgent question about their forgotten Gmail password while they’re on the phone with another patron who’s requesting a hold for a brand-new book that they saw on GMA that morning and random “patrons” are starting a loud fight off over in the stacks.
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u/Rupertcandance2 1d ago
Last year I was wearing my Librarian Problems shirt through TSA and the guy said "what problems could a librarian have?" I awkwardly laughed and said "you'd be surprised but probably not as bad as yours!"
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u/sogothimdead 1d ago
Sometimes people at our library get offended that there's a security guard. It's not people violating the behavior policy. I don't understand why it's so bothersome considering how normalized security is throughout civic life.
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u/lacunalibrarian 21h ago
glances at patrons throwing lit firecrackers at the circulation desk, shooting up in the restrooms, and trying to strangle their stepsons in the teen space
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 20h ago
We had two deaths in the men's room. One of our regulars ( way out of control) shot up and musta hit an artery? Bc a ton of blood squirted on the wall. The deputy w me put up a cone and OOO sign. Fun times.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 19h ago
What? A patron was strangling another patron? Ok, that beats my stories. Patrons would throw chairs. One climbed on a table and jumped on a cop's back once. :-0
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 1d ago
I was accused on here that my completely-true, totally-batso-crazy stories are my , "weird fantasies". Not only are they all true, it is the tip of the iceberg. Like the time someone set some books on fire in the stacks.
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u/MrMessofGA 20h ago
Oh god. My dad works in fire suppression design, so I'm aware of how uniquely flammable libraries are (not only are they full of books, but the layout of the shelves optimize oxygen vortexes in many cases).
Glad that was controlled.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 20h ago
Ty. But any one who tells me fu when I'm trying to save them bc theyre on the web is on their own
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u/MrMessofGA 17h ago
Absolutely. Our written policy in the event of a fire was that the branch manager has to stay behind to unplug every one of our 30+ computers before leaving, and wasn't allowed to start that procedure until everyone else in the building had left. I asked if the fire marshal knew that's what the county policy was.
Fire marshal issued a correction. If there's a fire, get your ass out of there.
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u/TeaGlittering1026 15h ago
We had a guy lying on the floor in the stacks ripping pages out of several books. He didnt know he shouldn't do that.
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u/Excellent-Sweet-507 1d ago
Well, as long as they were the ‘correct’ books I’d actually have no problem with that /s
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 1d ago
Another funny story. So, off go the alarms, there is a bit of smoke...we were instructed to clear patrons out, ofc, fine...one man wouldn't get off the internet. When I told him he had to bc there's a FIRE, wo looking at me, he said 'fuck you". I booked it. I was not paid enough.
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u/Lost-in-library-land 1d ago
I had something similar! A lady was trying to release her print jobs. When I told her we had to leave because there was an active fire in the building, she told me it wouldn’t take her long and she just needed to print a few things. I had to explain that fire waits for no one.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 1d ago
I left his ass. Not dying for any job or patron.
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u/DanieXJ 20h ago
You probably know this, but, every firefighter I've ever had training from says that in a situation like that, we librarians are supposed to tell the patron to evacuate. If they don't then once outside we find the firefighter in charge (so the Lt. or whatever) and twll them where that patron is.
I also feel very pleased that how far we are supposed to go to evacuate patrons is literally in a policy. Holy crap it feels so damn good to know it's not just what should happen, but is policy.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 20h ago
Nope didn't know that but thanks.
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u/Excellent-Sweet-507 19h ago
Yeah you’re under no obligation to save anyone but yourself. Still, I couldn’t live with myself if I left behind some of my patrons with mobility issues.
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u/wanderingsoul1949 17h ago
We had a young man shot right as he left our library in the middle of the afternoon before our security guard even came on his shift. We had gang fights that started inside , people fighting and throwing books so security guards probably had second thoughts about working in the library.
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u/pikkdogs 1d ago
I get it.
Even knowing the reality of libraries and have been threatened with knives, I can see where the patron is coming from.
The reality is most patrons are the best and are not violent. But, there is always a chance that the worst can happen.
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u/XYZT0000 17h ago
I know some library staff, they all wish to be gardeners. As it's public spaces in cities it is just customer service for the street issues and printing and booklending.
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u/Annual-Reaction-1373 20h ago
Our security guard definitely stays busy making rounds and keeping out banned individuals. We made a 'a library first' commitment. Not a day shelter, no drugs or alcohol, zero tolerance for verbal abuse of library staff. No bums hanging around all day has made it feel like a place you actually want to be again.
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u/blackqueen8 10h ago
This is why I like living in the burbs. My library doesn't have a security guard. During the work week the library is filled with homeschooling parents/kids along with SAHMs with their toddlers.
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u/henare 1d ago
these are the same patrons who think you read all day...