Saturday, June 26, 2010

They didn't teach me this in library school...

Working in a public library has it's moments where you discover that all the education in the world didn't prepare you for the realities of working in the public sector.

Saturday, I was on the desk when a patron approached and told me that he thought another patron was having a siezure in the men's restroom. I checked the restroom to discover a man lying on his side in the handicapped stall with his legs quivering.

Being resourceful, I promptly called 911, a manager, the on-sight police officer and the front desk, in that order. Yea me! Since it was the third 911 call I've had to place in the 3 years I've been here, I'd like to think that I've got it down.

We're not sure what happened to the man in the restroom - the belief is that there was a fight - since the toilet was knocked off the wall. But my point is that library school with all it's emphasis on theory, doesn't prepare you for dealing with the general public, especially it's transient members. What makes it worse is that library school often has professors who write incredible articles about public libraries that prove they haven't set foot inside one in 20 years. In some cases these same "experts" never worked in a public library, which begs the question, what can they teach me about working in a public library when they don't have any actual experience working in one?

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