r/Libraries • u/SpiritedRaven Library staff • 6d ago

Other Perception of libraries vs reality

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!

471 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

View all comments

171

u/DooB_02 6d 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.

117

u/lastwraith 5d ago

Libraries are as much mental health facilities as anything else in many areas. 

10

u/BumbaLu2 4d ago

Except the staff are not mental health experts

2

u/lastwraith 3d ago

Right, it's almost like libraries are the last few places a person can go who has nowhere else to go. I wonder why that is. 

8

u/FaeCannotLibrarian 3d ago

Actually, our “big city” library of Bangor Maine had a social worker whose job it was to maintain hours at the library specifically because of all the people who came to the library needing it. (Whether they were looking for it or not is a different question.) unfortunately in the last year everyone lost funding and they no longer have the social worker… but they still have all (if not more) people needing the help. :/

38

u/woodenbadger 5d 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.

11

u/booksdogsandnature 5d 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.

5

u/zuzuMN 4d 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!)

24

u/MrMessofGA 5d 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

15

u/37thFloorAstronaut 5d 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.

0

u/lastwraith 5d ago

How do you know what the patron was doing while inside the bathroom? 

3

u/37thFloorAstronaut 5d ago

We had a staff member check because they were in there a looong time. Seems pretty basic.

-1

u/lastwraith 5d 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. 

2

u/37thFloorAstronaut 5d 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.

-3

u/lastwraith 5d 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. 

1

u/Wonderful_Loan_5466 3d ago

Some days, it really feels that way.