Inside One Library - the Behind the Scenes

Most avid readers (except perhaps those who got stuck with e-books) visited a library at some point in their lives. I remember my mom taking me and my siblings to the library in our hometown and what a joy it was to be surrounded by so many books. There was however, after a while, one thing that bothered me – who were the people who sat behind the counter taking in and giving out our books and was that the only thing they did the whole day? Now that I am working in a library myself, it is a bit of an eye-rolling situation when someone casually remarks how little work we have. It is not completely untrue – our work is light for the most part, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and receiving and checking out books to the public is only one small aspect. So, without giving too much detail, I will give you a glimpse of what librarians and library assistants do when they are not sitting at the counter. First of all, taking in and giving out books are not the only things we do at the counter. We also make membership cards and add new members to the systems. We answer calls and emails, which may include such questions as the availability of books, opening and closing times, and requests for renewal of books for a further period. People also ask us for particular books in person, these we check up on the catalogue (a system containing all the books in the library) and then we show the user where to find it on the shelves. Even with all these things we still do not need to go into the back offices in search of work. At the beginning of each day we pack away books that were returned the previous day. Each book has its own place on the shelf and is not placed randomly (if we did place it randomly – or according to size or colour – it would be impossible to find it again). Fiction books are packed alphabetically according to the surname of the author and then, if the author wrote many books, according to the title of the book. Non-fiction books are packed according to a special number, called a Dewey number, which is placed according to its subject. For instance, if you want to read a book about medicine your best bet will be to look under the number 610 and if you want to read about crime it may be found somewhere under 364. The more specific the book is classified according to all its subjects, the more specific its number will be – some numbers can get really long which takes a bit of concentration packing it away in its correct designated space. Other things we do while walking through the library are helping people find the books they are looking for, teaching people how the library works and where to look for specific books and making sure the rules of the library are followed. Despite being a public space, there are various rules. Some of these are that students are only allowed to study at the study tables and not at the children's tables or somewhere on the floor and, you are not allowed to have a cell phone conversation (we library workers have long been lovers of silence and a quiet atmosphere ever since libraries were built). At last in the office. We add new books to the system (or ask the cataloguers to do it for us – but we still need to send them the details of the book such as its title, author, ISBN number [the barcode number on the back of the book], and so forth), we decide which donations to keep and which to sell or send to other libraries (yes, we do accept donations of any kind – books, magazines, DVD’s, even PC and console games – please do donate to your library), when we sell books we use the money to buy new books. We also fix some books which we think will still be read for some time and discard some books which we think are too old now and are being read less and less. We also have reading groups, arts and crafts for children, and story hour. All these are just a drop in the bucket of work we do. Please continue to support your library, and please continue to read – we love all kinds of readers. If you have any questions, let me know and I will write another blog explaining and answering your queries. Enjoy reading