People and poop...Another Post About Working at the Library

People. Working at the library is not really all about the books. It is about people. The people we work for and the people we work with. Because of this, how the workday will unfold is always unpredictable. Some days are so great I feel guilty for getting paid. Other days more than make up for those days. I think over all it comes out pretty fair.
On a normal work day at our branch we have 9 or 10 full or part-time staff in various positions working. We may also have several volunteers helping out. On a normal day our backroom work goes fairly smoothly, the books get on the shelves in a timely manner, circulation issues that arise at the desk get handled in a professional manner, and the computer questions get answered. Our lunches are taken. A few quirky things happen and we learn something new while helping patrons. We end the day feeling like we have accomplished what our jobs call for and go home feeling satisfied with our day.
There are many days that are not normal. In the last few weeks we have adjusted to a new accounting system, a new system for how books are shared by our various library branches, and a new automated bookdrop. It was a lot to handle all at once. There were a few very messy days while we worked around the installation of the new drop while also trying to adjust to the different work flow caused by the change in how our books move between branches.
An additional challenge to our days is that due to the current economic situation the library system is financially challenged. In the past if an employee needed a day off we were able to fill their shift with an on-call employee. Now, when a co-worker is off, it is not unusual to just have to get the work done short handed. It presents more of a challenge. An example of that challenge is what happened last Friday. Fridays are normally minimally staffed. We are only open for four hours in the afternoon. We have various meetings in the morning and try to get other things done that we cannot do when patrons are in the building. There is just as much work in the backroom as on any other day with fewer staff working. Last Friday our staff consisted of two librarians, one circulation supervisor, one library services assistant, and a half day book shelver. The circulation supervisor was in a meeting all morning. Obviously not the same type of day as when we have 10 staff people working.
Each day we have to work together, deal with personalities and shared duties. It can be a challenge. I have worked in libraries for 13 years. About 8 of those years I worked as a shelver. The other 5 years have been as a library services assistant. As a shelver I worked at 3 different branches, following supervisors I enjoyed working with as they moved from branch to branch. As a library services assistant I have worked at only one library. It has become my home away from home. The staff there my family away from my family. As in any family there are those who get along well, those who tolerate each other, and those that find some difficult to tolerate. We share bad days and we share good days.
While I may not always enjoy working with each of my co-workers the way I would like to, I do always appreciate working with them. As a whole "we complete each other". Personalities aside, there is a weird sort of balance present in our staff. What one person does not know, another does. What one person does well another does not. In the end, there is a sort of balance. An obvious example of this is with our book shelvers. We have one that has worked at the branch for more than 10 years. He does not clear as many carts of books by far as the new teenage shelver we have. Instead he can see what else needs to be done to keep our shelves organized. He shifts books and reorganizes sections. He knows when a section is too full and can help (weed) thin it. He changes the batteries in the clocks and resets them for daylight savings time. We do not have to ask him to do it, he just does it. The teen shelver is fast at getting the books on the shelf. He is observant and will find books out of place, but he rarely shifts books or tidies sections. He does not have the experience needed to be able to assist with (weeding) thinning a section that is too full. Our other two shelvers are kind of "happy mediums" they cannot do all the things the most experienced shelver can do, and are not quite as fast as the teen shelver but do more clean up than he does. There is a valuable balance.
It is the same way with the rest of the staff. I think each spends an occasional day feeling like they are sliding from one end of the teeter-totter to the other trying to maintain the balance. Those are days when you go home especially tired. It is easy to think you have worked harder than "the other guy", but the truth is we are all doing what we need to do to keep the balance. As one of the two full time Library Services Assistants I do less of the general checking in of books than some of the part-time folks do because I have quite a few other duties both assigned and implied that I must do as well. Some of them may feel I have "done less". There are days when I am kept jumping from one challenge to another and can feel that I "have done more". At the end of the day I do know that we have all done exactly what was needed to keep the balance.
Wow, now that was a ramble...
Now let me give you the "poop" on some of the issues we deal with at the library. It is not all about books. As I said at the beginning of this ramble, it is about people. It is also about people who have issues. I bet you would never expect that we have to deal with some of  the things we have to deal with. For example, we have to deal with poop. Yup, librarians have to sometimes deal with poop. There is a company we call if the issue is bigger than the palm of our hand. They do biohazard clean up. Smaller than the palm of your hand, and we can deal with it. There are the poop smeared all over the walls of the bathroom stall issues. There are the poop left sitting on the purse shelf in the bathroom stall issues. There are the poopy handprints on the handicap rails in the toilet stall issue. There is the elderly lady who missed and pooped on the floor and then could not get up off of the toilet because the poop was in the way of her feet issue. Today's issue was the poop in the "S" section of the Picture Book shelves. Yup, one moderate sized, smelly poop partially hidden at the back of the shelf. Bet you didn't think that was part of working at a library, did you? We could also talk about dead squirrels in the bookdrop, or a Cheeto bag full of urine dropped in the bookdrop, or wet pants found in the kids section. In a bizarre way it is kind of interesting what some people will do.  People. Yup....People.

The Hummingbird

This is about to be a real rambling ramble. You have been warned.


Today I was licked by a hummingbird.
I held it in my hand and that felt like a miracle... and then it licked me.
I had never given any thought to a hummingbird having a tongue. The tongue is very thin, long, and dark. The hummingbird has such a long beak and then the tongue extends out beyond its beak by what seemed like about 3/4 of an inch.
And it tickles a bit.

At work today a hummingbird flew around inside the library for about two hours. It did not stop and rest during this time. It flew in a panic from one end of the library to the other. It first flew by close to the ceiling then the next pass would be right over our heads as the little bird searched for a way out of the building. It flew back and forth ceaselessly, letting out a small intermittent cry that tore at ones heart. Leaving the doors open did not help. Our lobby is somewhat dark and I don't think the bird could see that past the lobby was freedom.
My supervisor is a kind person and had put in a request for someone to come out and try to catch the bird. We then worried that they would not arrive in time to save the fragile bird. We had decided to try to make a net out of a bag to try to catch the little guy. We gathered the supplies in the back room and went back into the library looking for the tiny bird. We could hear its cry but could not see it at first. When I did not see it flying around, I looked around the top of the bookshelves knowing that it might have reached the point where it could no longer fly. I found it on top of a shelf perched on some books. I climbed upon a step-stool and then just picked the hummingbird up by cupping my hands around it. As I did I noticed its long beak and wondered how it was going to feel to be pecked as I felt sure I would be. And then ...nothing. My hands were not completely closed together and I could see the tiny bird sitting still in my hands as I walked quickly across the library to the front doors. The wings were open and it just sat in my hands, unmoving.

We reached the front door and I opened my hands. He sat in my cupped right palm with his wings spread. I expected him to fly off. Then...he licked me. Just one quick taste. He licked my finger.

It didn't weigh more than a breath. It didn't fly off, it just sat there. The poor creature was so tired and scared. I looked around for some sort of flowering plant. Near the door some Society Garlic was blooming. I knelt next to the plant with my hand extended and waited for the bird to step or fly out of my hand. When it continued to sit I held it near one of the blooms and it immediately stuck its beak into one of the flowers.  I could tell it was using that same tongue I had felt to try to find the nectar in the bloom. I moved my hand around the cluster of flowers and it stuck its beak into first this bloom and then the next. Then it stopped and finally folded its wings. I just knelt there and looked at that delicate bit of life in awe. It moved forward in my hand to taste the next flower. I gently prodded it with my left hand to nudge it off to freedom. It took flight for just a moment still sampling the lavender blooms, then to my surprise it settled back onto my still outreached hand.
I sat a moment thinking of how I had hoped I had not frightened it too much. I had wished I could convey that I wanted to help it not hurt it. In that moment I felt I had my answer. 

It felt like I was witnessing a miracle. With that beautiful, soft, incredibly tiny, iridescent, downy little creature in my hand, I felt so very grateful.

I moved away from the front door of the library to find a similar plant further away from the foot traffic that the front door encouraged. As I walked I kept my palm open and extended with the bird sitting unrestrained upon it. It let out another small cry as I walked. I settled in the quieter area and did the same thing again, letting it sample the blooms in front of it, and then nudged it off onto the plant.

That is where I left it. I sat there a bit and watched it. It seemed okay, it ducked its beak into a couple of blossoms and then just rested there. I went out about an hour later and it was gone. I hope it is okay. I trust that it is okay.

Tonight as I write about this simple little thing I feel as I did when I was a child and held a butterfly or a ladybug for the first time. Life is such a miracle. Life is so very fragile. Not just for hummingbirds but, for all living beings.
What a gift, to be licked by a hummingbird.