Tonight I was back at work at the library. There have been several days in a row where I wasn’t scheduled to work. Odds are that will never happen again, so I enjoyed the time away and had some trepidation about heading back.  But the most wonderful thing happened. As soon as I stepped inside the library again I was glad to be back. That’s never happened with any of my previous employment…the feeling of being home after being away.

And tonight the librarian I was working with showed me how he orders books; in fact I got to spend some of the evening ordering children’s picture books and junior fiction. How fun is that!  Though I have to say I need to learn more about junior fiction.  I read descriptions and tried not to only pick the stuff that I would have been interested in back when I was a tween.  Heck, back when I was a tween they didn’t even HAVE the word tween!

The other fun thing that happened is that I got to give a 5 year old his very own library card!  It was his birthday, and his mom  had promised him that when he turned 5 he got his own card.  So we got him his card and he grinned from ear to ear.  Can’t beat an evening shared with a 5 year old and his new library card.

A man came in who had been be let go from his construction job today.  You could see the tension around his eyes.  He wanted to get on the computers to look for work.  He said he had a library card once a long time ago but didn’t know where it was.  I told him the repacement fee for a card was $2.00 and he paused before he said OK.  I did the paperwork, got him the card and used my “professional judgement” to waive the fee.  $2.00 is a lot to a guy down on his luck, panicked about where to find work.  He got his wallet out and was pulling what looked like the last two paper bills out of it when I told him no charge.  He was beyond grateful.  I hope he finds work soon.  And I hope he comes back to the library often.

Library work.  Does a body good.