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silveradeptI've been sitting on this one for a while, which is good - most of the people here are courteous, kind, and considerate of their fellows and the staff here. So here's another short list of tips for library users, based on some of the more interesting things that have been done here.
More Tips for Library Users, compiled over the course of some amount of time while I have been working here:
1) We Have Something For You. Regardless of what it is you want to read, we have it or we can get it.
1b) We Can Answer Your Question. I have all the answers - some just take longer to find, may require collaboration across staff members, disciplines, and/or academics, or have not yet resolved definitively.
2) Parents: Your children will read what they want to read. My advice is that if you have concerns about issues raised in those readings, that you talk things out with your children about them and listen to what they have to say. The less of a forbidden fruit you make certain subjects, the less likely it is that your teens will be sneaking behind your back to find out about them.
3) For the Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake, if you are sick, really sick, please stay home. I really don't want to have to listen to you sniffle and cough and sneeze while you sit at one of the tables near me. It makes me fear that I'm going to get sick. And a sick librarian is not what you want. Sick librarians are cranky.
4) "This Is A Library" is a meaningless phrase when applied to the noise level around you. The library is a social place, and so the ambient noise level from users and staff may be more than you like. We do have a quiet area if you must have silence. We're sorry that it doesn't have tables to do work on at the moment at this branch, but we're currently in a limited space. If and when the new building is built, the problem should resolve.
4b) Librarians, like other people, get excited when discussing things - and some librarians happen to be able to project more in their normal voices. Nowhere in that statement are you given the right to approach the librarian(s) and talk to them like they were rowdy children in need of discipline.
5) Please, exercise caution with regard to your belongings in the library. We cannot vouch for the intentions, motives, or inclinations of anyone other than library staff.
6) As a municipal/state government employee, working somewhere that has adopted several of the American Library Association's statements on intellectual freedom, I believe in a particular interpretation of the First Amendment - thus, no matter how many times you say it, I am unlikely to agree with any statement where you say that Jews are lacking because they are not Christians. I will help you find pictures for your booklet. (Further hilarity - on the date this particular paragraph was written, the featured article for Wikipedia was "Religious Debates over Harry Potter". Complete with a page out of a Chick Tract.)
6b) As a colleague notes, this also applies to statements that one minority group is inferior to the majority or to another minority.
7) Honking your horn outside your destination as a way of telling someone that you are here is in poor taste. If it were done outside a private residence, you've only offended a couple people. Outside the library, you've probably offended a lot more people.
7b) Continuing to honk your horn afterward because the person you were seeking did not immediately appear at the door is in poorer taste. I assure you, we heard you the first time.
8) Once again, garbage in, garbage out. I'll do my best to find something interesting for you to read/write your report on, but if you don't tell me what you like or who you're interested in, only a page requirement, I'm going to probably give you a lot of books you don't like before I find one you do.
9) The statement "We did not come to the library so you could play games" is a little saddening. Because, in a few years, that may be exactly what they're doing. The library is flexible and multifaceted.
10) That said, please do not attempt to circumvent the library's rules and policies on Internet access. For one, if minors get access to unfiltered computing, it is violation of CIPA. Even if we think that CIPA is third only to the PATRIOT Act and Standardized Testing as the Worst. Thing. Ever., we still have to abide by it. For another, using someone else's library card to extend your own access past the one hour you get for your own violates the spirit of access, really. While there may not be explicit policy in place, it's not something that should be encouraged.
11) We're just as frustrated as you are that the new building is taking so long to build. Perhaps even more so, because the new building will probably solve a lot of the problems we're experiencing at this location.
More Tips for Library Users, compiled over the course of some amount of time while I have been working here:
1) We Have Something For You. Regardless of what it is you want to read, we have it or we can get it.
1b) We Can Answer Your Question. I have all the answers - some just take longer to find, may require collaboration across staff members, disciplines, and/or academics, or have not yet resolved definitively.
2) Parents: Your children will read what they want to read. My advice is that if you have concerns about issues raised in those readings, that you talk things out with your children about them and listen to what they have to say. The less of a forbidden fruit you make certain subjects, the less likely it is that your teens will be sneaking behind your back to find out about them.
3) For the Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake, if you are sick, really sick, please stay home. I really don't want to have to listen to you sniffle and cough and sneeze while you sit at one of the tables near me. It makes me fear that I'm going to get sick. And a sick librarian is not what you want. Sick librarians are cranky.
4) "This Is A Library" is a meaningless phrase when applied to the noise level around you. The library is a social place, and so the ambient noise level from users and staff may be more than you like. We do have a quiet area if you must have silence. We're sorry that it doesn't have tables to do work on at the moment at this branch, but we're currently in a limited space. If and when the new building is built, the problem should resolve.
4b) Librarians, like other people, get excited when discussing things - and some librarians happen to be able to project more in their normal voices. Nowhere in that statement are you given the right to approach the librarian(s) and talk to them like they were rowdy children in need of discipline.
5) Please, exercise caution with regard to your belongings in the library. We cannot vouch for the intentions, motives, or inclinations of anyone other than library staff.
6) As a municipal/state government employee, working somewhere that has adopted several of the American Library Association's statements on intellectual freedom, I believe in a particular interpretation of the First Amendment - thus, no matter how many times you say it, I am unlikely to agree with any statement where you say that Jews are lacking because they are not Christians. I will help you find pictures for your booklet. (Further hilarity - on the date this particular paragraph was written, the featured article for Wikipedia was "Religious Debates over Harry Potter". Complete with a page out of a Chick Tract.)
6b) As a colleague notes, this also applies to statements that one minority group is inferior to the majority or to another minority.
7) Honking your horn outside your destination as a way of telling someone that you are here is in poor taste. If it were done outside a private residence, you've only offended a couple people. Outside the library, you've probably offended a lot more people.
7b) Continuing to honk your horn afterward because the person you were seeking did not immediately appear at the door is in poorer taste. I assure you, we heard you the first time.
8) Once again, garbage in, garbage out. I'll do my best to find something interesting for you to read/write your report on, but if you don't tell me what you like or who you're interested in, only a page requirement, I'm going to probably give you a lot of books you don't like before I find one you do.
9) The statement "We did not come to the library so you could play games" is a little saddening. Because, in a few years, that may be exactly what they're doing. The library is flexible and multifaceted.
10) That said, please do not attempt to circumvent the library's rules and policies on Internet access. For one, if minors get access to unfiltered computing, it is violation of CIPA. Even if we think that CIPA is third only to the PATRIOT Act and Standardized Testing as the Worst. Thing. Ever., we still have to abide by it. For another, using someone else's library card to extend your own access past the one hour you get for your own violates the spirit of access, really. While there may not be explicit policy in place, it's not something that should be encouraged.
11) We're just as frustrated as you are that the new building is taking so long to build. Perhaps even more so, because the new building will probably solve a lot of the problems we're experiencing at this location.
