Thankful Today

I was working at my desk recently and a young boy about age 5 approached  and asked a question. I answered him and he walked away. A few minutes later he returned with another question and a comment about something on my desk. I answered his question again and we talked for a minute. He walked away again. A few minutes passed and he was back with another question. This kept up for some time. The boy's dad came over and shooed him away from my desk apologizing. I told him that I didn't mind. He son was inquisitive and polite. He said "Well, I don't know how you'll ever manage to get anything done if you have to stop and answer all of his questions."  I told this dad, "Actually that is my job. So I am always glad to stop whatever I am doing and talk." We recently had a customer service training here at our library and one of the things that we talked about at the meeting was the fact that patrons are never interrupting our work, they are our work! If it weren't for them we wouldn't have jobs.

I am thankful today for all of the children and their parents who come to the library to check out books, to play with our puzzles and games, or to attend a Story Time class.

I am thankful to the city for funding to keep the library up and running.

I am thankful to work with our citizens, to help and teach so many kids in our community.

I am thankful for our beautiful building, challenging as it may be.

I am thankful for wonderful co-workers to work with. They are all committed to doing a great job and being helpful. They are fun and make this job enjoyable.

I am thankful to our Literacy director, whose job it is to quietly work behind the scenes helping people who need a valuable life altering skill.

I am thankful for our Secretary/Bookkeeper who pays our bills, orders our supplies and keeps everything running smoothly.

I am thankful for our Adult fiction librarian who keeps us updated on our favorite fiction series and is our in-house tech guru.

I am thankful for our Reference librarian who answers all types of obscure questions with beautiful kindness and ultimate patience.

I am thankful for our Young Adult librarian who works to help run our summer reading program and covers for me when I need a day off,. She is easy to work with and always keeps us laughing.

I am thankful for our Clerks who run our circulation desk. They deal with the rude, the confused, the difficult and the rest of the patrons everyday. They are the public face of our staff and do a terrific job of  trying to make people happy, even when they have to say no.

I am thankful for the cleaning crew because cleaning public restrooms is just plain hard.

I am thankful for our building maintenance man who comes to fix stuff when it's broke or calls someone who can.

I am thankful for our shelvers who work the hardest, get the least reward and still take pride in doing their jobs well. The way our library functions and looks is largely due to their efforts.

I am thankful for our director whose job it is to champion the library with the mayor and city council.

I am thankful for all the other city workers in all the other departments, they keep our lights on, the streets clear, and our sewers flowing. They provide protection and recreation for us and our citizens.

I am thankful for my husband who is my unofficial library volunteer and gets roped into all sorts of projects. I am thankful to my children who understood that their mom loves her work and did what they needed to do while I was away from home. They turned out to be great adults despite having a working mother. 

 I am thankful to be a librarian. It is what I do and who I am. My thanks to all of you for making me better.

Michele Schumann

Children's Librarian