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."

Stressful Sushi Scenario

This week our library's anime/manga club had a professional sushi chef give a demonstration on how to make sushi and he provided free samples to a large crowd of excited teenagers.

However, getting this event to happen was not an easy task. I live in the "sushi district" of the city so I knew which places to scout out for a chef. I personally visited each restaurant and politely explained the situation and our library's need for a sushi chef. I got a very chilly reception. To even talk to a sushi chef in person was a feat since they were well protected by their staff. I even got a very rude brush off from one server saying "our chefs don't do that." After a few weeks of sending out my card and looking I was feeling down when one of the chefs from a well-regarded restaurant called me back and said he would be happy to do the demonstration. I was ecstatic.

I immediately began advertising for the program and soon I had teenagers asking me almost every day, "when is the sushi chef coming?" When the chef told me he was coming it was two weeks before the event. As the day drew closer I had heard nothing from him. He didn't tell me anything he needed; he didn't ask for directions. I heard nothing. This week I started to get anxious. I called over at the restaurant and was unable to talk to the chef personally; I kept getting nervous. The day of I paced the floor imagining hordes of teenagers with pitchforks chanting "sushi, sushi!" My back up plan was feeble: it consisted of Japanese snacks and DVDs. I knew it would not pacify them.

Then suddenly. He shows up and puts on the most wonderful program with his daughter. They educated the teens on how to use chopsticks, what the ingredients were for, and even taught them some Japanese. I later found out he faxed the library he was coming but no one checks the fax machine and I never received the fax. I hope he agrees to come out next year.

Online Databases vs. the Internet

In our library system, as I'm sure many others, there has been great emphasis on using the library's databases. These libraries pay big bucks for these things and I know they want them used so I understand their concern. Currently in our system we're going through database training in order to know all the myriad numbers of databases out there.

My problem in using these databases is that they just take too long. When you have a patron sitting there waiting for information, sometimes with three screaming kids, what they are most concerned about is how quickly you can get it to them, not how many citations the article has or how many times it has been peer reviewed.

The databases take too long because first I must access them through our library's home page. Then I must select out of many dozens of databases which one to search through. Sometimes the answer isn't easy: is what the customer wants a history question or should I be looking for magazines and newspapers? It is difficult to find the right database. Next, after hopefully finding the right database usually I must hone down my search :select full text, use delimiters, narrow it down by type of resource etc. By the time I get to this point the patron is usually tapping their heels. After all this sometimes I don't even end up with something the patron wants. I have to go through page after page of sources.

Perhaps in academic libraries databases are much more beneficial but in public libraries speed is of the essence and for speed you need the Internet. I have found that a patron is happier with a inferior article that I attained in a minute rather than the superior article I attained in five. Isn't pleasing patrons the most important thing anyways?