Woman Shares 28 Things She’s Learned About The General Public While Working At The Library And People Love Her Insights
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There’s something almost magical about libraries. Maybe it’s the silence or the incredible amount of knowledge, but the place certainly has a special vibe. And most of us spend too little time there to get to the bottom of it. Luckily, a librarian from Scotland named Mel (@grumpwitch) has decided to lift the veil off of these secrets, sharing some of the industry insights that she has learned on the job. (Facebook cover image: charlotte henard)
Image credits: Robert Gray
However, becoming a librarian wasn’t something she had planned. “I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years but I became quite unwell about five years ago and had to leave my product design engineering role and course,” Mel told Bored Panda. “I was gutted but I knew that recovery would take a while. I’ve always been a bookworm so I started looking for jobs in libraries and other environments to do part-time while I recovered.”
For the last two and a half years, Mel has been a library assistant and she hasn’t looked back ever since. “I love it so much that I hope I can keep working in libraries permanently.”
“I was waiting for the kettle to boil while I made dinner one evening and I’d been chatting with my colleague about the strange and random things we’d learned in this job,” she said. “So I started tweeting them out without any sort of thought about order or structure, just as they came to my head. I figured a few of my fellow library assistants would relate. If I’d known how big it would become, I’d have proofread them first!”
Image credits: grumpwitch
All things considered, Mel remains an optimist when it comes to the fate of libraries. She does, however, believe that some changes need to happen. “I think libraries need to be advertised. The world is so commercial and every brand is vying for people’s attention, especially on new technology that I think libraries miss out on being part of the conversation. They’re sometimes seen as a relic of the past and very few people realize just how much they do. We need advertising campaigns and reminders that libraries are still here.”
But there are obstacles libraries must overcome before they start investing in a brighter future. “Budget cuts are definitely the biggest threat,” Mel said. “Local councils and other bodies are having to stretch smaller budgets thinner and thinner and unfortunately, libraries often take the hit. It’s all the little things we need to do but can’t, like fix a broken piece of equipment or run classes with better materials that make us lose library users. If a printer stops working, people go somewhere else to print. If the children’s activities at a sports center are more involved because there are more staff on hand, people will take their children there instead.”
Luckily, there are thoughtful and dedicated people like Mel who, I believe, are the assets libraries need to treasure most.
People were really surprised to learn all of these things
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Thank the stars for librarys! #1 "can't read a regular clock" That is sad. But I know several 20-30ish folks that can't read cursive writing. That's even sadder.
I live in U.S, am under 20, and can both write/read in cursive and read analog clocks.
You guys give us old farts hope that all is not lost yet!
Me as well! We had to learn to read clocks in kindergarten and to read/write cursive in second grade. Both are useful skills that I still haven't forgotten!
Me too
Me too!!
Good for you! I mean it heartfelt! I can still read Fraktur script and Sütterlin script...which makes me a freak in the eyes of people my age 😂 For all non-German, this is Sütterlin http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Lese/Sutterlin11.htm And this is Fraktur https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur Oh, forgot to mention the reason: I am a book addict and my mom would only allow me 1visit at the library every week, kids could only get 10 books at once. So I was hungry for more stuff to read and my grandparents had lots of books...but only in Fraktur and some in Sütterlin. It was NOT because I felt a burning desire to learn about different scripts.
My sister (who is nine) can read an analog clock but doesn't know cursive :(
What kind of school did you attend? All my nephews etal can read clocks and "joined up writing" but they all went to Friends Schools.
Same but I’m a little younger and only have a hard time with spelling
Good to hear!
I struggle with clocks, I have dyspraxia. I'm sure a lot of people struggle for the same reason. I'm 35, my mum specifically bought me a digital watch when I was little as I couldn't read a regular clock. If I stop and think about it I can do it but doesn't come automatically. And as a result I find it difficult to also teach my children to read a non digital clock, but it's nothing to do with my generational age.
I dont understand the problem with cursive because... if you write a lot, you'll end up with cursive anyway. I'm bilingual, German and Greek. In German you learn cursive from the start, while in Greek not. At 25 today, I write in cursive both in Latin and Greek because it's so much quicker, even if my cursive in Greek is not 'official' as the Latin letters that I was taught as a child. *shrugs*
I think cursive is an American thing(?), we learn how to join letters in the UK but I've never cursive...
Nope, I live in Germany and here every student learns cursive in school before their 10th birthday.
I think cursive is actually the same thing as what we call 'joined up writing' in the UK.
Depends on primary and county - I was taught some strange cursive variant at my primary in Middlesex in 2014 yet my friends in Flintshire learnt it in Year 2 (1st grade for any foreigners reading). Luckily I have taught myself cursive.
Cursive IS a British thing. In Canada, we started to learn cursive in Grade 1.
Join letters? That's not cursive?
We learnt cursive in primary school (eons ago). It's a lost art, like calligraphy, with the use of technology nowadays. Disheartening.
No it’s international I learned it in the 2nd grade
If you drive a Chrysler Sebring, you need to read analogue. They actually put an analogue clock in the dash and no digital. My nieces were looking at the radio station number trying to figure out what time it was! To their surprise they had a pop quiz in telling time.
My grandpa in Malaysia learned cursive from the British colonisers and my mum learned it on her own/ from her dad. Today they no longer teach cursive in schools. Yu eould be the odd one out if you did. Most cursive writers today are homeschoolers,like my family, literally HOMEschoolers, not any of that private centre shit. It's really sad
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
“Libraries” yikes.
The old librarian in my town had a photographic memory. I moved to Georgia in 2003 and move back in 2011 and when I walked into the library, she greeted me by name like I hadn't even been gone. She even remembered the last book I borrowed before I moved away because she saved it for me when it came out. It was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and I got to read it the very day it came out because the library had ordered 10 copies.
That's very sweet. Reminds me of Mr. Ollivander's photographic memory of people and their wands :)
I miss books. Y'know. Solid objects. Not community meeting spaces, children's playtime spaces, computers for internet spaces... Local library system sold off something like 10,000 books from its various branches to make room for non-books, and it now smells more like a Starbucks than a library. I really miss books....
A lot of public libraries in the US rely on federal funding which rewards libraries with more computers. Voice your complaint to the library in writing. Don't feel like you're just one person. What the community says matters and does influence how we allocate funds.
Libraries still have plenty of books, and can get you just about any one in the world by borrowing it from other libraries. If you don't like the newer aspects of libraries, think about this: If they had not expanded their offerings, they might well have been shut down. People complained about funding "book warehouses," and updating to include the high-tech and community-spaces aspects has kept many libraries afloat.
Thank the stars for librarys! #1 "can't read a regular clock" That is sad. But I know several 20-30ish folks that can't read cursive writing. That's even sadder.
I live in U.S, am under 20, and can both write/read in cursive and read analog clocks.
You guys give us old farts hope that all is not lost yet!
Me as well! We had to learn to read clocks in kindergarten and to read/write cursive in second grade. Both are useful skills that I still haven't forgotten!
Me too
Me too!!
Good for you! I mean it heartfelt! I can still read Fraktur script and Sütterlin script...which makes me a freak in the eyes of people my age 😂 For all non-German, this is Sütterlin http://www.suetterlinschrift.de/Lese/Sutterlin11.htm And this is Fraktur https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur Oh, forgot to mention the reason: I am a book addict and my mom would only allow me 1visit at the library every week, kids could only get 10 books at once. So I was hungry for more stuff to read and my grandparents had lots of books...but only in Fraktur and some in Sütterlin. It was NOT because I felt a burning desire to learn about different scripts.
My sister (who is nine) can read an analog clock but doesn't know cursive :(
What kind of school did you attend? All my nephews etal can read clocks and "joined up writing" but they all went to Friends Schools.
Same but I’m a little younger and only have a hard time with spelling
Good to hear!
I struggle with clocks, I have dyspraxia. I'm sure a lot of people struggle for the same reason. I'm 35, my mum specifically bought me a digital watch when I was little as I couldn't read a regular clock. If I stop and think about it I can do it but doesn't come automatically. And as a result I find it difficult to also teach my children to read a non digital clock, but it's nothing to do with my generational age.
I dont understand the problem with cursive because... if you write a lot, you'll end up with cursive anyway. I'm bilingual, German and Greek. In German you learn cursive from the start, while in Greek not. At 25 today, I write in cursive both in Latin and Greek because it's so much quicker, even if my cursive in Greek is not 'official' as the Latin letters that I was taught as a child. *shrugs*
I think cursive is an American thing(?), we learn how to join letters in the UK but I've never cursive...
Nope, I live in Germany and here every student learns cursive in school before their 10th birthday.
I think cursive is actually the same thing as what we call 'joined up writing' in the UK.
Depends on primary and county - I was taught some strange cursive variant at my primary in Middlesex in 2014 yet my friends in Flintshire learnt it in Year 2 (1st grade for any foreigners reading). Luckily I have taught myself cursive.
Cursive IS a British thing. In Canada, we started to learn cursive in Grade 1.
Join letters? That's not cursive?
We learnt cursive in primary school (eons ago). It's a lost art, like calligraphy, with the use of technology nowadays. Disheartening.
No it’s international I learned it in the 2nd grade
If you drive a Chrysler Sebring, you need to read analogue. They actually put an analogue clock in the dash and no digital. My nieces were looking at the radio station number trying to figure out what time it was! To their surprise they had a pop quiz in telling time.
My grandpa in Malaysia learned cursive from the British colonisers and my mum learned it on her own/ from her dad. Today they no longer teach cursive in schools. Yu eould be the odd one out if you did. Most cursive writers today are homeschoolers,like my family, literally HOMEschoolers, not any of that private centre shit. It's really sad
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
“Libraries” yikes.
The old librarian in my town had a photographic memory. I moved to Georgia in 2003 and move back in 2011 and when I walked into the library, she greeted me by name like I hadn't even been gone. She even remembered the last book I borrowed before I moved away because she saved it for me when it came out. It was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and I got to read it the very day it came out because the library had ordered 10 copies.
That's very sweet. Reminds me of Mr. Ollivander's photographic memory of people and their wands :)
I miss books. Y'know. Solid objects. Not community meeting spaces, children's playtime spaces, computers for internet spaces... Local library system sold off something like 10,000 books from its various branches to make room for non-books, and it now smells more like a Starbucks than a library. I really miss books....
A lot of public libraries in the US rely on federal funding which rewards libraries with more computers. Voice your complaint to the library in writing. Don't feel like you're just one person. What the community says matters and does influence how we allocate funds.
Libraries still have plenty of books, and can get you just about any one in the world by borrowing it from other libraries. If you don't like the newer aspects of libraries, think about this: If they had not expanded their offerings, they might well have been shut down. People complained about funding "book warehouses," and updating to include the high-tech and community-spaces aspects has kept many libraries afloat.