March 9, 2010: @ the library
What’s missing? Every year, the library staff performs the discouraging task of completely removing from the catalog books that have been so long overdue that we have given up hope of ever having them return. These withdrawn books and items stay on a person’s library card until the bill is settled, but often we just don’t see the delinquent borrowers again. These days, such scofflaws are referred to a library collection agency that promises to gently and respectfully encourage folks to return the property to the library. We’ve had pretty good results, and thousands of dollars of missing library books have found their way home thanks to the persuasion of Unique Management, but the items being withdrawn now predate our relationship with that company.
There is a dreary predictability to the books that are withdrawn, a heady mix of religious books and witchcraft, ASVAB and other test preparation materials, books on mental illness, alcoholism, and other medical topics, parenthood, death and dying. Often, the books being withdrawn were themselves replacements for a previous loss. It sometimes feels like bailing out a boat with a leaky bucket. This kind of housework makes for a clean catalog, though, so that when you look to see if we have a book, you don’t find many items listed as “long overdue, lost.” We’ll spend some time figuring out which books can and should be replaced, and try to start with a cleaner slate.
More discouraging yet is the recent loss of the train pieces that go with the Thomas the Tank Engine train set in the children’s department. Even in hard financial times, what sort of villain steals children’s toys from the public library? You have to wonder. If they could see the look in the eyes of the three or four year old boy who came up to the front desk after story time this morning, saying, “Please, ma’am, where’s the train?,” a scene straight out of Charles Dickens, could they stand it?
We’ll run an amnesty week in April during National Library Week. I’ll be hoping for the return of the train.