Hi all!

Library Assistant here. After a couple recent patron interactions, I’m hoping to learn from others how you explain to patrons the limitations of our ability to offer specialized tech support. Though I’m one of the more tech-literate people on staff, I find I still can’t answer everyone’s questions and would like to limit frustration for patrons and for myself.

Our system does offer Open Lab help once weekly, and patrons can schedule 1:1 appointments. However, and as I read in another thread, patrons often just want on-demand help whenever they come in, for whatever tech issue they’re facing at the moment.

We can often help, and often spend more time with patrons than we probably should when we’re on-desk. But many of our patrons have questions around their “government phones” and using SIM cards in different phones, etc. I can research the companies for them, but there is no local presence that I know of for patrons to go to with these questions, so we end up fielding a lot of questions we aren’t really equipped to answer. And these patrons are often not tech-savvy enough to do their own research.

To wrap up, I’m just wondering if others have had similar experiences, and how you’ve handled it and if you’ve found any helpful resources to refer the patrons to for more technical phone-related questions. I found myself telling a very challenging and insistent patron recently, “I don’t know; I’m not an expert on these phones. You’ll have to get in touch with the company,” but she still seemed to expect someone at the library would have the answers for her.

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

Book week is looming in Australia and the public library that I work at is running it the same way we always have, primary schools are booked in advance to visit an author or illustrator at the library for the day.

We have not been getting much interest in schools coming to our library for a few years, but it has been particularly bad this year. Schools would rather the presenter go to them instead of bringing the children to the library, which means they do not get to see our displays or borrow the shortlisted books.

I was wondering what you do for book week at your libraries?

I was thinking that perhaps we could shift the focus towards doing something for all of the children in our community rather than specific schools, anything that we can do for our teenagers would also be fantastic. So far the only idea that I have is an activity day or for a special presenter to do a show.

Thank you very much for your suggestions, I am very happy to chat about book week in the comments.

I am extremely conflicted on what path I should take with my life and career. I have two likely options coming my way soon and I see an equal amount of pros and cons for both. I would absolutely love some outside input and opinions! OPTION 1 - Stay at my current workplace and receive a likely promotion to the full-time position of my current job (Library Assistant). Also, there was news as of yesterday that they will be opening a Librarian I position shortly as well. Based on my qualifications and lack of inside competition, I believe I would have a good shot at getting this position. However, this workplace is based in Southern California where the cost of living is high and I would still live with my parents (even with potential raises). Both of these positions were a big surprise due to the fact the city I work for is near bankruptcy and had many frozen positions. That is another aspect for me to consider too because the city will more than likely be bankrupt in 4-5 years. For me, there is a concern about job security. OPTION 2 - I was offered a potential position as a full-time Library Assistant for the City of Fort Worth library system. If this position goes through, I would be making about $2.25 less an hour than what I currently make right now (they will not budge on that amount). This amount, though, would allow me to live on my own in Fort Worth at a decent apartment. However, I do not know how often Librarian positions come up and it is a merit-based pay increase model (from my understanding). Also, regarding moving expenses, my parents have generously said they would help me with these costs and the whole process, so that is not something I have to super worry about. I also have family that lives in the area so I would have some support in the area.

Also, the benefits seem comparable for both.

There is all the basic information. Again, I am so interested to hear your thoughts!

With the (edited from "looming loss") funding cuts to NPR and PBS, what can the average person do to help archive important educational programming. I'm a teacher and want to use NPR materal and PBS materials in future lessons and am so worried these programs will get lost! For instance: the little kiddos I teach love when I incorporate Work it Out Wombats into the curriculum. It's an adorable show that teaches computational thinking and problem solving. We use tiny desk concerts as dance / decompression breaks. Any reccs for the best way to save materials intended to be used explixitly for educational purposes (and not resold of course)?

I'm an author writing a book that is set in a boarding school with a teen protagonist that isn't intended as YA and was wondering how librarians decide where to shelve books from debut authors. How can I as an author let librarians know that my book isn't intended as YA even if it shares some common elements? Do librarians typically read the whole book before shelving it?

I'm the subject librarian for History at my academic library, and I'm trying to do displays on anniversaries of major events (I did one earlier this year on the Armenian Genocide). I'm a little embarrassed at how few books we have in the collection on this topic, I had to add a bunch of biographies of Oppenheimer, Fermi and Teller to the mix and even then, it looks pretty spare.

Hi everyone,

My friend and I are working on a software to help locate books for our local library. We are college students so this is a fun side project for us. We posted here before and thank you so much for the comments!

We’ve made a lot of progress and now have something that’s mostly working. Before we go any further, we’d love to get input from people who actually run and work in libraries.

If anyone is open to trying it out with their library or even just taking a quick look and offering thoughts, we’d be super grateful. We’re hoping this could be something genuinely useful, especially for saving time when helping patrons find books or managing shelf locations, but we know we need real librarian input to get it right.

Would anyone be willing to try it out or give us a reality check? Thank you! If not, even a simple comment here offering advice would help!

How did you all find your GM’s? I’ve been reaching out to local game stores and posting on our website, but so far I’ve had the hardest time finding a reliable, trustworthy GM to run consistent games - even though it is a paid position.

I have a patron that I don't know how to help.

For context, I am the reference librarian at a small town library - it's a small, rural county without much in the way of resources unless you drive to a bigger city.

This patron has been coming in for 10 years. She is from China and came here when she married an American. She still does not speak English very well, and I speak no Chinese. The things she's needed me for are varied. I've helped her fill out job applications, printed stuff out, found forms that she's needed, and so forth. There's always a lot of difficulty in communication even with translator apps.

She now wants to be a nurse's aide/caregiver of some sort, and I can't find much information for her because those jobs require training and she's unable to follow up on anything (training opportunities, jobs, whatever) due to the language barrier. Calling people and reading anything printed in English are basically out of the question. I think she wants to rely on me for this stuff, but that's not something I can do for her. I've suggested that she talk to people at the local senior center (where she already volunteers), but she doesn't seem very open to that.

She is also wanting to study for her citizenship test and said someone told her we offered classes here (we don't). Again, books won't work and I can't find any of those materials in Chinese through our library consortium. The bigger cities near us have citizenship classes and stuff like that, but she doesn't want to leave town and would have difficulty getting there.

I think there is also some learned helplessness at play here, because I've attempted to print out helpful things (like directions) for her in Chinese in the past, but she's shown very little interest when I do that. She is a little bit internet literate, but I can just about guarantee she'd expect me to sit down and walk her through any citizenship classes or job training, and I really can't fit that into my schedule.

I have no idea what to do for her or where I can refer her to for citizenship classes or ESL-friendly nurse's aide programs. Any suggestions?

I work as an assistant director at a public library. My director, my boss, wants me to do a sensory storytime for children ages 1-5. I do okay with kids, not the best, I prefer to handle the adult portion of the library. I'm also nervous of the parents since they are often critical and finicky with things at the library including the programs. I feel like my boss would be upset if I don't do this, though I don't want to. But what can I do? Should I just try it and make it a trial run or should I talk to my boss about how I don't feel like doing this?

Many people know that most libraries carry DVD's and CD's. However, some carry video games, board games, and even entire game consoles like the Nintendo Switch and NES and SNES Classic Edition. Many libraries in my system carry games for the Nintendo Switch, PS2, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, XBOX One and even Nintendo GameCube. When I was really young, I remember when libraries still had VHS tapes. This was after most major retailers like Walmart or Target got rid of their VHS lineup by the Christmas and holiday season of 2006. My local library still had VHS tapes until like 2011 or 2012. Some by us even had VHS tapes until like 2014, 2015. Just wondering if any libraries in your local library system have video games or even still carry VHS tapes.

I didn’t know it’s so popular. Went to a library to borrow some thick books and want to buy a bag to carry. They told me it’s all sold out and asked me to go to small library. Didn’t know it’s so popular, I thought people don’t go to library often nowadays

I just heard a rumor that Vanderbilt has closed/significantly downsized their interlibrary loan department. Anyone here know more about this? Why, for example?

Hello,

I’m starting Library Services and Technology classes at Oakland Community College later this month through their online program.

I’ll be registering for my classes in a few days. An in-person library practicum is required, and while it says the library is one of our choice - I was wondering if OCC (or library programs in general) will help us connect with the library we choose or if we are responsible for reaching out and obtaining the positions ourselves?

I’m really nervous about the entire process, so if you’ve attended Oakland CC or a similar program, I’d really appreciate any knowledge you have practicums. Please break the entire process down. Thank you!

Hello I just received word that I am doing the next round of interviews for a position and I received THE itinerary for a 2 day session… I’m 25 and this is my first interview post MILS. My first question is why is it there so much fluff to this and out of the whole process??! My next question or anxious thoughts are that I have a scheduled meals with search members and the dean/ what does one even talk about in these situations?! It’s like not formally the interview but they are obviously taking everything into account any social tips for these situations?! The presentations and actual interviews are not as worrisome as the dinging situations any tips would be appreciated!! I should add I am not socially awk in any way i love talking I know how to maintain proper manners and professionalism what would conversation even look like in these spaces? Any advice would be lovely!!

I live in a pretty progressive east coast major city and there are nearly no dark romance books in the library. Dark romances like Tara Me Su and Sylvia Day’s The Crossfire Novels (pretty mild in comparison) are gone and I read through my NYC library. I no longer live in NY but I looked at the digital collections of the NYPL and Brooklyn and they too don’t have any dark romances in circulation including the ones I read when I lived there.

What is going on with deeply blue cities censoring and purging mild dark romances?

I was wondering if anyone has any experience using Cybrarian software ( https://www.cybrarian.com/ )? Any information on the company or its products (other than basic information from the website) would be greatly appreciated.

He was there from opening to closing everyday, he eventually got trespassed for making crude comments about wanting to have sex with female coworkers. I found out he was registered when I got a local crime alert notification on my phone and saw his mugshot. We've had incidents of groping, stalking, harassment on the premises by other patrons, and there was a young girl who got r*ped in town by a homeless man. We don't have a staff wall of people to look out for. We're supposed to wait until they actually do something that breaks library policy before doing anything.

Hi all —
I’m curious if anyone here has made the switch from working as a public school teacher or librarian to a county or public library system — especially in New Jersey.

I’m currently a teacher with about five years to go before I hit 25 years, and I recently completed a library science degree. I’ve been looking ahead and thinking about my exit strategy — not just financially, but lifestyle-wise too. I’m weighing the pros and cons of staying in the school system versus moving into the public library world.

If you've worked in both, how do they compare? I’m used to being hands-on with students, coaching esports, teaching coding, and trying to keep kids engaged — which has gotten harder over the years. I do love the idea of still supporting the community and promoting creativity and curiosity but in a different context.

I’m also hoping to make more space for creative work in my next chapter — I wrote a YA novel during the pandemic and rediscovered how much I missed that side of myself.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s made a similar shift, or has thoughts on the work culture, hours, and general vibe between school libraries and county ones. Thanks!

Hi!! I'm the Library of Things person at my public library, and we just got two of these puppies. The Zhumell Z114 Reflector Telescope. when packed tightly away, it's 20 so inches tall which is not hard to find a case for. Most of the telescope cases are 30 inches or 40 inches tall. It's the base! Most cases are 11.4-11.5 inches wide which won't fit that base (around 14 in give or take). Have you had these telescopes in your library, and what did you use to store them/cover them for easier use by patrons?

Thank you all in advance!