Today I read a friend's blog entry about how a fellow library patron chased her into the parking lot to reprimand her for not reshelving the books her toddler had taken off the shelves. She actually felt quite bad about it. She wrote, “I know...libraries are places of quiet where books are treated as objects of reverence...But, if you've ever dealt with an almost 19-month-old, you realize that getting them to comply is sometimes easier said than done. ” I was happy to inform her that librarians actually prefer that patrons leave books on the tables or shelving cart for library employees to reshelve. Not only is it good customer service but it also prevents books from getting lost by being misshelved by well meaning patrons.
A few months ago I did some grant research with another women and we had pulled quite a few books from the shelf. When we decided to call it quits for the day I picked up half the stack and brought it to the shelving cart . She picked up the other half and dashed into the stacks trying to reshelve the books as fast as she could so she could get home on time. It took her a lot to convince her it was OK to leave the books on the shelving cart, even after reminding her that I am a librarian and explaining to her the reasons I mentioned above and adding that it helps give the librarians an idea of which reference books are being utilized. Finally, after it took a while to reshelve only a couple of books, she conceded, but instead of placing the books on the cart she brought them to the librarian with a shamed apology and an explanation about how she had to get home and didn't have time to reshelve the books. She, like my friend, felt terrible about it.
In fact, a lot of patrons seem to have difficulty with this. I feel like as a librarian, I was often approaching patrons who were hastily reshelving books and telling them it was OK to leave the books on the table or shelving cart and that's it is, in fact, preferable that they do so. So many times patrons would put their books on the table and look at me uncomfortably like I was trying to get them into trouble. It just feels so unnatural for people to leave “a mess”, especially in a place that they have been raised to treat as a place of reverence. But to my friend with the 19-month-old, my grant research partner, and all my past and future library patrons, I PROMISE you, it's OK. Librarians are not going to think that you are a bad person if you don't reshelve your library books. Now I wish I could track down that man who chased my friend out of the library and explain that to him.
