A Spoonful of Sugar

Our students workers this summer have had to endure tedious projects and heavy workloads - quite different from the last few summers of leisure and desk watching in staff absences. Oh, sure, they put a few books away, checked out some materials, and pointed the way to the bathrooms in the old building, but basically, it was a cheesecake job.

Not on my watch, they were sorry to learn. These stacks had not been thoroughly cleaned or shelf read in some time, and there were numerous collections that had resisted cataloging or even being shelf listed, not to mention shifting and relabeling and a dozen other hangovers from the move to a whole new place and outlook.

Every morning at the stroke of 8 the sound of the whiny stax vac can be heard laboriously working its way through the B section, sucking up dust, dirt and dead bugs. Yuck. Time for rubber gloves and aprons. Every afternoon, instead of snoozing lightly at the desk while digesting a scrumptious lunch, students had to focus on tiny call numbers and all their idiosyncrasies of order. Library of Congress indeed!

Its hard to keep the big picture of just why we are doing all this in mind when you are weighed down by the drudgery of picky details. Yes, customer service is our goal, making sure students and faculty can in fact actually find the book they want when they want it, and that said book will be in pristine shape. So we add in inventorying for damaged materials and hand lists to the repair librarian. Novel.

Complaints and grumblings had trickled down. They feel unappreciated, singled out for the unpopular jobs. What to do? Of course, tell them how much I appreciate their work, what a stellar job they are doing. Of course, remind them of the big picture. Better yet, invite them all to Panera's for lunch on us.

We excitedly gather at the circulation desk and head outside together to carpool to the Chili Avenue location. Hearts are light and joy beams from faces. We set aside the long hard summer and relax, basking in the glow of good food, good conversation, good friends. Yes, it has been a long hard summer, but nothing a good strawberry poppyseed mandarin orange salad with fruit smoothie on the side can't help.