Saturday, October 30, 2010

What is it about shelf reading?

For over a year, the most popular post I have written has been this one.  It is a bit of my waxing poetic about shelf reading, of all things.  This is one of the few posts that draws in random readers from all over the place.  (Not very many readers, but readers nonetheless!)  But why do people look at that post?  It's not like there is a dearth of information about "shelf reading".

So, since I needed to think about this, I got up from my desk and went out to get my thinking in order...shelf reading.  The more I think about this, the more I wonder if people really are just wondering from what sort of insanity I must be suffering.

Looking at some of the Google results for "shelf reading" like this guide to stack management, there is a lot of information out there pertaining to shelf reading.  While most of the info I found is far more informative than my info, none of it makes it sound like more than a necessary evil.  I suppose for that reason, I'm proud of my two cents on the subject, regardless of why others might look at it.  I still believe shelf reading is interesting and fun besides being one of the most useful tasks to undertake in a library.

By the way - I know that people have bad days.  I know too that times are hard, nerves frayed and confidence sapped.  But why the spate of people being rude to our public service staff?  We try hard to please.  We don't ask much of you.  Simple things really:  Be respectful of others using the library.  That includes being patient with the staff and our contracting partners.  We are thinly spread and as a group, not the most highly-compensated.  For the most part we all do what we do because we like the idea of the library, not because we're getting rich.  So by all means, let us know where we need to improve but please be civil.

No comments:

Post a Comment