This goes out to all the library creepers!

Ok, I do not work at the Cleveland library, but this video just happened upon my Facebook one day. Since then, I can't help but think of this video when thinking of the creepers at the library. You can watch the whole video in order to get the whole idea of this post, or watch 1 min and 35 seconds in. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYtUTu9H7dE

Wow. I mean, how could you ever show your face in public after that? The last 30 seconds alone are perhaps the most terrifyingly pathetic/hilarious part of the whole ordeal. Don't get me wrong, Mike Cooper is a total pervert creeper, but when his dad goes after Carl Monday-I feel kinda bad for the perv. Only a little bad because he is a creeper jerk. He wouldn't want children around him.You just know he is one of those guys that works a really crappy minimum wage job, lives in his parent's basement, probably watches too many reruns of Star Trek, and actually has to go to the local library to look up porn since his parents "happened" to put up parental blocks on the computer. What also scares me is that he's 23. When I usually think of child predators/creepers I expect them to be older for some reason. I think Cooper already knew he was a loser before he got caught with his hand down his pants.

I wish I could show this to every patron that comes into the library. It should be a tutorial to the library or something. The catch line would be, "Hey, do you not want to end up like this guy? Make sure to find a way to watch porn in the privacy of your home not near the children's section of the library." I think the patrons might be all, "That is so right! I'm gonna watch porn at home, not at the library." Ok, so I seriously doubt they'd think that, but it could happen. Maybe never, but I can dream.

I don't think this adds into the whole, being a librarian is sexy stereotype, but I don't think I should exclude it either. I cannot tell you how many times that me, or another female at work has been sexually harassed. It becomes downright disgusting at times. I know that if you're in the public eye, it's unwanted but expected. That doesn't make it right though. Whether it's a man of middle age calling one of the 17 year old shelvers "sexy little girl", or a geriatric man saying "hot damn" when I bend over in a dress (It was covering everything by the way, I'm not the kind of girl who shows her ta tas every chance she gets). No worries, I'm not stereotyping it to men being the creepers either.

The Woman Who Thinks I Hook on the Weekends Tale

I get really sick with a cold/sinus infection/strep throat, at least once a year. It's kind of a thing that I expect to happen mid-winter. Unfortunately, I developed a sinus infection a mere two weeks ago. I became hoarse and was unable to talk hardly at all. The whole day I practiced being a mime and polishing up my charade skills. It was rather embarrassing, but luckily my co-workers were very understanding and slightly amused by my inability to speak.

I was merely sitting at the desk when a woman walks up. I recognize the woman, usually she is very boisterous, but relatively harmless. The woman starts talking to me despite Sabrina*, a co-worker, checking the woman out. I can only nod and shrug my shoulders. Jade*, my other co-worker, watches the me closely as Sabrina checks the woman out. Jade had been my interpreter for the day. She explained to the woman that I was unable to talk because I was sick.

"Oh, sucking to much **** on the weekends girl?" Said the woman. Jade, Sabrina and I look at each other in utter confusion, all with the same thought. "Did she really just say that?" We all were very obviously uneasy, but we pretended like nothing happened (I tend to give almost everyone a second chance to make not such an *** out of themselves).

"I'll get your hold in the back," said Sabrina.

The woman, turned towards me and says, "All that ****, will do you in. Don'tchya dare swallow," the woman howls. This time she makes a rather telling gesture with her hand and mouth. I was internally freaking out, but was unable to voice my outrage. Jade immediately walks over to my chair.

"I'm gonna go say something to the supervisor," She whispers to me. I can tell she's as shocked and taken aback as I am. I reluctantly agree. I want to tell this woman off myself, but I don't have the voice to yell at her. Jade comes back with the supervisor. Sabrina is checking out the holds to the woman, but steps back when she sees the supervisor.

The supervisor warns the woman that if she misbehaves like that in the library again she will be kicked out immediately, and will possibly be banned.

"I was just playin'," her eyes become rather big and she appears to be panicked. I don't feel much sympathy for her. After all, she did practically call me a hooker.

What I have learned today: To watch porn in the privacy of my own home, that if I become hoarse-call off at work, and that I can be mistaken as a hooker :(

Sincerely,

Your Non-Stereotypical Librarian

*Names have been changed to entitle my co-workers to their privacy

Jerry Spinger ain't got nothing on me

Sometimes I forget that my work place can be like an episode from a trashy talk show. Wednesday, was no exception. Since I work at the circ desk I usually get to see all of the drama. Unlike the kids department, or the reference desk, the circ desk gets a lot of the weird action. It's mainly because we deal with people's accounts/problems and we're located in the front of the library.

The Jerry Springer-esque Tale

The only thing I personally witnessed about the debacle was two African American women yelling at each other. I recognized one of the women with very short hair, but I didn't recognize the other woman that was wearing a red shirt. Luckily, we often have a police officer on duty who is only yards away from the circ desk. Before anything could get too out of hand, the cop was making a beeline for the cat fight that was about to ensue. Immediately, the cop told the woman with the short hair (who had caused problems at work before) that she was banned from the library and that the other woman in the red shirt was banned too.


The lady with the short hair didn't put up much of a fight and muttered that she had to get her kids first before she left. The lady with the red shirt, however, threw a fit at the officer.


"Why can't I come back!?!? It's not my fault! She started everything!" She shrieked. I know the officer that was talking to both women and knew that he didn't put up with any b.s., so if this woman wanted to rumble-she was messing with the wrong cop.


"Ma'am, this is not Jerry Springer. We do not put up with this sort of crap here. I recognize you. We've had trouble with you before. I want to talk to you outside so you won't disrupt anymore of the patrons." The cop talked to the woman as if she was a frightened child. I knew he had handled instances like this often, so I wasn't surprised by his tone at all. Not to mention that this lady was starting to remind me of a side character from "Jersey Shore", combined with a dating contestant from "Flavor of Love".


I was wondering if this was going to be a smack down or a put down. Usually, I witness one of two things happening when a cop at work gets involved in a scuffle. Either


1) The person backs down and basically plays possum and lets the cop escort them out=Put down.


2) The person feels the need to defend their honor and starts to stupidly argue with the cop=Smack down
"She's the one who smacked my computer! She started it, I'm just the one who she decided to pick on. I'm innocent! It was her not me!" The woman in the red shirt professed, while crying and pleading to the officer.


Oh, no. I have a feeling this is going to be a smack down. I don't know what to do when this sort of thing happens. I automatically go into "watch this like a train wreck despite wanting to look away" zone. The cop, meanwhile, knows what to do. He escorts the woman out of the building, while she is practically kicking and screaming that none of this is her fault.


Later, a woman working the reference desk received a call from the lady in the red shirt. Apparently, she was not a happy camper, and took it out on an innocent bystander. I really don't get why people complain to the wrong person. Wouldn't you want to bitch out the person that kicked you out in the first place and not a random innocent?


On the same night I was just coming back from break when I heard that a fight had happened outside the library. At first, I thought for sure it was the two women, but I was wrong. Apparently, two guys (which I later found out were cousins) were beating the absolute crap out of each other. So much so, that there was a lot of blood and a street observer was the one to get the officer on duty at work. Later on, the officer had to clean the blood off his handcuffs because things got that serious.


Yep, just another day at the lame ol' library. Nothing crazy ever happens here. Nope.


Sincerely,
Your Non-Stereotypical Librarian

My first very bitter post

When a man asks what my occupation is, I always hesitate. It's because I know that they will react one of two ways: The first reaction, which is not the most popular reaction, is their face scrunches up while they look rather disgusted, “Why do you work at a library?” they’ll say. Or when I tell them that the library I work at is fairly busy daily they say, “How could a library be busy?” I forget that some people don't take advantage of their public library on a daily basis. It makes me sad that they know how amazing libraries can be.

The second reaction, which is the one I most often receive, is the man raising both of his eyebrows and smiling while  asking, “Oh so you’re a librarian?” I suppose it’s a natural association for most men. Most librarians are thought of as sexually repressed women who have grown tired of being proper and need to “let their hair down”. I know why men think this way; there are too many pornographic movies that show female librarians as hot, large breasted women. It’s very misleading. I find it funny that a library could be thought of as sexy, or a place that contains throngs of sexually repressed female librarians.

I have worked in the same county for almost six and a half years now, and from my personal experience I know that libraries can be one of the most disgusting and dustiest places possibly in the whole world.  Libraries in general, are a germophobs nightmare.  Imagine how many books have been sneezed on, coughed on, not to mention possibly peed or puked on. Believe it or not, I have had books/items like this come across the circulation desk too many times.

 Think about how many men use the library for their “other needs”.  I can’t tell you how many times I have caught a man getting his jollies at one of the library computers. There’s a couple of tell tale signs that there’s a man peeping at porn. 1) The computer screen is tilted at an angle towards him. 2) They keep looking around their surroundings before they glue their eyes back to their screen. 3) Also the most obvious sign, a man having his hand on or down the front of his pants.

 I first started to work at the library when I was 16, I thought it would be a simple and peaceful job in which I would love and never want to leave. While I do love my job (for the most part), it has never been quiet or easy. I work at a rather atypical library, or at least it seems abnormal when I compare it to the quiet and calm atmosphere of any of the other libraries I have been to. When I say the library is atypical, I mean that a lot of freaky things happen here.

My First Patron Story: The Tale of Deodorant Boy

I was on the phone with a patron when I saw a guy blatantly lurking at me while he was leaning over the checkout counter. He looked around my age, but I could still tell that he was in high school and had no idea I was in my early twenties (A thing you should know about me is that I still get mistaken for a high schooler because I apparently have a baby face). I could not talk to him while I was on the phone so he began to become antsy and looked through the backpack he was carrying.

When he took a deodorant stick out of his bag I thought nothing of it. Then Deodorant Boy started to put the deodorant on, right in front of me. I’m not sure if I expressed my revulsion, but he winked at me before he parted the circ desk. Deodorant Boy left me completely confused, and him smelling piney fresh. It was one of those moments in my job that I cannot tell what I’m more disgusted by, the fact that he thought it was okay, or the fact that this isn't the weirdest occurrence I've seen at my job.

I have so many stories to tell everyone because I am a librarian. However the most honest story I have to tell, being a librarian isn’t sexy. Even though I own a pair of black framed glasses and put my hair up in a bun occasionally, I’m never going to strip tease to a “bow chicka wow wow” song on the circ desk.

Sincerely,Your Non-Stereotypical Librarian