I return to being THE LIBRARY KEEPER

Ride that motorcycle to work, stopping for fuel and checking the cut off valve before going on down the road. Walk to the dock, past the police looking for lurkers, possible rapists or strange fools in the community. Ride the ferry, catching up with my co-workers on the mail status, where I been and where they be... Get the piles of distribution, open the library, turn everything on, and get out of the street clothes for the work day.

First get the returned books out of the return boxes, find some library clerks - find I have lost one to the HOLE! Seems he wanted to argue about good time, now it is all bad time and the library is one clerk short. No, two clerks short, the other one is doing his computer classes. I get a call from the Mailroom and take my two man crew to pick up the six bins of mail that piled up during my vacation. Six full bins and two book boxes. So we start processing; returned books, requested books, newspapers and serials. I start opening email accounts, and ILL packages and print off information that I don't have time to read, and the paperwork for the ILLs to process. The trash is removed and the shuffling books and CDs continues, and the piles don't seem to get smaller, but they must be getting smaller. I have some reports to print out, some email to answer, and my piles aren't getting smaller fast enough.

Break for lunch, one trip to the Mailroom for me and the outgoing, and pick up of one bin of incoming. Pickle, sandwich, apple and grapes! Good to eat and look at more work in my nearest future, as soon as lunch is over.

The third worker reports and I put him on shelving, he doesn't like it but it is four book carts full of opportunity now and another book cart won't help. All the people that can think of a reason to come to the library do, special favors is what the more important than everyone else want. I have enough to do, that I don't do any special favors and upset the self centered a bit. Has to do with taking care of themselves which they aren't. I am trying to select reading material for those in the HOLE, as close to what they requested as I can get, there are too many hardback books and only paperback go to the Hole. I am a failure, I don't finish, the shift sergeant sends an escort to move the books and I am not ready. Tomorrow morning it will be done.

Suddenly the day is over and the final recall is made and the patrons and the crew leave me to shut it all down and lock up. About sixteen CDs, a pile of magazines to process, one outgoing ILL, and the thoughts that tomorrow I had better work hard on the reports to get them done. It will be Friday, my clean up day, making ready for the following work week.

I do know that they like the library open and me back, but they wouldn't pay for it. The best things in life are free, or have no monetary value.