Well, they are funny in meme form on the Tumblr Librarian Problems! And even when your problems are not so immediately funny in real life, it’s good to know that other library people face the same problems you do – and are laughing at them!
This one made me laugh, because I’ve been had this conversation a million times!
While we usually love it when people take our books, we do have a social contract that asks them to bring those books back.
Usually they do – most patrons do not cause problems, steal books, or behave badly. But the ones who do? They can be out-sized in the hassles they cause us!
As I stated above, The Guinness Book of Records tops the list.
The Bible. I can’t make this stuff up. People believe that the Word of God should be free. I guess people don’t realize the whole point of a library.
Exam Prep Books. You name the exam, the prep book gets stolen. People steal these because they require extensive practice at home, and many times it takes longer than the library check out period allows. The most interesting: law enforcement officers training manuals are among the most commonly stolen exam prep books.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and other racy books/magazines, including art books with nude photos/paintings, Kama Sutra manuals, and erotica novels. This makes a little bit more sense – people are embarrassed to check these types of books out. Believe it or not, people tend to actually rip out pages with sexy illustrations on them and stash them instead of checking out the book.
Art Books. Expensive art books can net a pretty penny when sold on eBay.
Reference Books/Books on University Reading Lists/Textbooks. These are typically expensive to buy, and starving college students need them for much longer than the library check out period allows.
Books About the Abnormal. Paranormal activity. UFOs. Witchcraft. Abortion. Astrology. Nazi-era material. And…Islam?
The Most Stolen Books from Bookstores:
Anything by Charles Bukowski or William S. Burroughs. Book sellers tend to keep books by these authors behind the counter because they get swiped so often.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. If you notice a theme here, Bukowski, Burroughs, and Kerouac books all share, shall I put it bluntly, content of sex and drugs. It seems that those most likely to commit a reckless act (stealing) are also interested in reading about reckless acts.
Graphic Novels. The majority of book thieves are young, white males, and this is what they read.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Which was actually one of the most commonly stolen books long before the movie came out.
Various Selections from Ernest Hemingway, including A Moveable Feast and The Sun Also Rises.
Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day by DavidSedaris. David Sedaris? Really?
The New York Trilogy byPaul Auster. I wouldn’t have thought this was the stuff of the five-finger discount.
Honorable Mentions for Bookstores: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman, The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, anything by Martin Amis.
Lesson Learned: library theft leans more toward the practical than the popular, whereas bookstore theft leans toward the popular.
Lego Librarian rare books at the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University
What do you do?
Are you tired of explaining that library workers do more than “just” checking out books all day? I am!! It’s important too, but we do lots of neat things!
Check out this list of real job titles people are using across the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession – it’s pretty amazing!! When I teach the Foundations class to LIS Master’s degree students, I always have them look at this list to help them think about the range of potential jobs they might look for as they work on their degrees.
Does it give you any ideas about trying for a fun new job, or changing around your job responsibilities?? At CMLE HQ, we are here to help with job hunting, policy/procedure redesign, and other strategies for making your job highly satisfactory for you!
Here are a few samples of jobs that might be not only cool, but just right for you!
We all know that book sizes are important; if you have done any shelving at all, you know that a non-standard book size will throw off your entire shelf. It’s frustrating for shelvers everywhere – but books of different sizes can be fascinating for readers! Our eyes are drawn to things that are different from all the other materials around it, so a non-standard size book may be more likely to get checked out – a great outcome for libraries!
But did you know that there are names for all those different sizes?? I had no idea there were so many different classifications for book sizes! (Of course, we are in the classification profession; so it’s probably not a surprise that we can even break down book sizes so carefully!)
“The following table is adapted from the scale of the American Library Association,[1][13] in which size refers to the dimensions of the cover (trimmed pages will be somewhat smaller, often by about ¼ inch or 5 mm[2]). The words before octavo signify the traditional names for unfolded paper sheet sizes. Other dimensions may exist as well.[12][14]
Libraries do all kinds of interesting things. And the Evanston Public Library has a very unique service for their community: a live camera on a pair of nesting peregrine falcons!
“Peregrine falcons have been nesting at the library since 2004. They occupy the nest (scrape) from March until June each year. There is an Evanston Peregrine Falcon Watch group for posting and sharing news and observations of the Evanston Peregrine Falcons. Scientists from the Field Museum’s Chicago Peregrine Program band the young falcons each year.”
There are two newly-hatched baby falcons in the scrape right now, being sat on by the parents alternately. Pretty soon they will be big enough to stay warm on their own, and the parents will sit on the edge of the ledge where they are nested. Then you will see the parents bring assorted delicacies, including tasty pigeon parts (yum!).
The camera is inside the library’s third floor, and if patrons get too loud you might see the parents flapping and sending threatening looks in the window to shush them! Librarians may not focus on shushing people anymore (and good riddance to that antiquated practice!), but raising baby falcons gives these parents a different perspective.
Evanston is a wonderful library – I’ve visited it several times and even went to the very first falcon banding day! (Baby falcons are banded and given a quick check by staff of Chicago’s Field Museum; it’s so fun!) You can hear about some of their great programs in our podcast episode number four (available on iTunes or other podcast app; or on our website!), where they were our Spotlight Library of the week!
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