Tarantula Tales

The last three weeks have been very busy for me, my coworker and our library's pet tarantula Charlotte. We have been going to schools to talk about our Summer Reading program. The theme is all about bugs so we bring Charlotte in, (I wear gloves in case the kids scare her as you can see in the picture above), give ten interesting facts about tarantulas, and then give our spiel about summer reading. The kids have just eaten it up. But there have been some interesting times with Charlotte...

Once I took Charlotte out and put her back in but did not completely close her cage. I thought there was no way for her to escape because she never had before. Then she started creeping up the side of it as I began giving facts about tarantulas. The kids interrupted me and started shouting, "she's getting out!" I said "she can't get out" and continued on with my program. They continued to shout and Charlotte crawled higher up the cage. Then as I wasn't looking she completely crawled right out of her cage a few feet away from some of the children. The room was filled with screams of terrified children. I had to act fast and grab her and put her back in. I bet that was all they talked about in school for the next WEEK.

Another time I took Charlotte out for the kids to see her and she started walking up my arm, she went up and up to my elbow, my shoulder then down my back. The kids were screaming. I couldn't see her down my back to put her back into her cage. I didn't want to push her off and drop her because tarantulas are very fragile. My coworker, who is frightened of spiders had to rescue me because no teachers were even thinking about coming to aid me. She gingerly grabbed Charlotte and put her back in the cage. She was not too thrilled about that.

Finally, one time when we were doing grade level after grade level back to back I reached in to pick up Charlotte and then she reared back and bit me. I was quite surprised, she had never done that before. Luckily I was wearing gloves but she put a nice hole in the leather. I liked telling some of the kids that Charlotte bit me, their eyes would always widen and some would say "No way! You didn't die?"

I told my coworker I don't know what I'm going to do next year for Summer Reading to top holding a tarantula. The only way I can top this is if I jump in there and light myself on fire. Although I don't think that fits with next year's theme.

Graffiti "art" part two

I published in my last post how our graffiti "artists" had not figured out that writing on the door lasts a lot more permanent than on the walls and bathroom fixtures. Apparently either I have more blog readers than I thought or the "artists" have gotten smarter because this afternoon days after I write that blog there was a HUGE gang symbol written on one of the doors. It won't come out of the door no matter how much my manager scrubbed and we might have to get a new door. Bravo guys...your work can now be admired for years by the many hundreds sitting on that toilet seat.

Graffiti "Art"

Yesterday our bathrooms were "decorated" with graffiti two times in a matter of hours. The first time it was gang signs written five times all over the bathroom. What surprises me with this graffiti artists is that they keep putting graffiti on our bathrooms and we keep taking it off but they usually keep putting it on the same places, the walls, mirror etc. Those places it's very easy to take off, just a quite swipe with a spray. Most of them haven't figured out that if you put it on the door it doesn't come completely out. Maybe they don't care if their "art" can be seen for future generations.

The second batch of graffiti yesterday was a spray painted red frog in the other bathroom. (Why they spray painted a red frog I will never know.) I saw a bunch of kids hanging around the bathroom, going in and out and laughing. Whenever I see kids going in and out of the bathroom laughing I know its never a good sign. I have to admit that the frog was rather cute but it didn't belong in the bathroom and the red spray paint did not come completely out. I kicked the laughing kids out of the bathroom but I couldn't prove it was them.

That's one thing about these graffiti "artists." We never can catch them. It's always after the fact. Just once in my library career would I love to walk in the bathroom and catch the kid red-handed. He would look up at me with complete fear in his eyes, looking left and right for a quick escape. Maybe he would try to tuck the marker in his pocket and deny it to my face. Whatever he or she did, catching them would make my day.

Crossing the line

One thing I have been troubling myself over in recent weeks is what to do when I hear things reported to me by teenagers. Some teenagers in my library confide secret, sometimes dangerous things to me and I don't know what my role is as a librarian. There is no policy at my library for this sort of thing and after hearing about that librarian who got fired for reporting on someone who was looking at child porn it makes me a little nervous about saying anything. Librarian arrested

But the question is, what is the role of a librarian in this matter? I want to help these teens but I don't know if suspensing advice or calling someone is crossing the line. Where is the line exactly? I'm not a trained therapist but these kids talk to me like I am one. I know librarians aren't supposed to give legal advice or tax advice; does this extend to relationship and personal advice too?

I believe if a crime has been committed something needs to be done. But should I look for personal information in the library record to report the crime? Is that crossing the line? When does the a person's right of privacy get pushed out of the way for another person's right? A law enforcement officer can't get into someone's home without a warrant, so should I be looking in someone's personal record at all without law enforcement?

One librarian told me that you have to take each situation into separate consideration. That's probably good advice but it still leaves me with many questions.

Dangerous Felt Mascots

I added some pictures to the slide show on the blog of the felt mascots the teens made in an anime club meeting a couple of months ago. Felt mascots are these cute, handmade stuffed animals that are very popular in Japan. People take them everywhere with them. We made our own in the club meeting and the teens "gothed" theirs out. I have absolutely no sewing ability, I can't even sew on a button so I was relatively helpless in making the mascots. However, I had to keep the semblance of authority and knowledge so when one of the teens would come ask me for help I would study the instructions and pretend I knew what I was doing. The one thing I could do was thread a needle and so this somehow convinced them that I was skilled in sewing. Luckily, a few of the teens knew what they were doing and the mascots turned out very dangerous, and cute.

Pet Tarantula

Last week we got a pet tarantula at our library. It is a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula which you can see pictured above. Our summer reading theme is about bugs so I convinced my manager to let us get a tarantula. It was all donated by a local pet shop and they're giving us free crickets and letting us change out the tarantula if we want to.

I thought we would get more negative reactions about the tarantula at the library. More "ewwwws" and "eeeeks" but instead we got "ah cools" and "wows." The kids really like her a lot. I would have to say they like the tarantula more than the staff. Some of our customer service staff won't go anywhere near the cage.

If any library is looking for a pet I would recommend a tarantula. They don't smell. You feed them once a week and they are very easy to care for. You can even pet and hold them. I've taken her out and let her crawl on my hands (although some people don't recommend doing that.) Tarantulas are not a pet somebody sees everyday so they have a "wow" factor. They have different types and some are more colorful than the rose hairs although rose hairs are very tame and easy going. So why not try a tarantula?

The Art of Name Dropping

Librarians are skilled in the art of name dropping. I went to a conference the other week with librarians from several states. Whenever I was in a group of several librarians I found that one or more of them loved to insert as many names in the conversation as they could. Some examples of this are:

"I heard ______ before, she's (insert descriptor such as 'great' or 'wonderful')."
"I met ________ at (esteemed place you were probably not at) they were (exclamatory phrase.)
"I read ______ before; I think (insert opinion you didn't ask for.)"
"I know _______ we go way back." (Actually the two are minor acquaintances.)

It seems librarians think the more people they know (even if tenuously) the more impressive they are. I'm sure this is not unique to librarians. In the vast network of librarianship where it is often "who you know" rather than "what you know" the need to drop as many names in as possible seems dire for some individuals. But it seems they will mention anybody even if they just shook the other person's hand just to sound a little more important. I just wish they could stand back and listen to themselves and hear how annoying they were sometimes.

Old MacDonald had a...Whoops!

I made a major flub today in my storytime. We were singing Old MacDonald, going through the animals and we reached the rooster/hen. I began singing..."...And on that farm he had a rooster...E-i-e-i-o" "With a cockle-doodle-do0 and a cockle-doodle-doo" then I wasn't thinking and accidentally said, "here a cock, there a cock...everywhere a..." then I caught myself and said "cluck, cluck." The mothers found it very funny but it went entirely over the kids heads. I guess I should have stuck to hens and not to roosters. Hopefully, the preschoolers don't go home singing about Old MacDonald's farm with "here a cock, there a cock, everywhere a cock, cock."