Skip to main content

A quick question for librarians

Are you overdue?
Do you have any books that you've borrowed, from any library, currently past the date they should have been returned?
Are they lurking, looking longingly at the door, seeming like they want to go home, making you feel ashamed?

This week, I have discovered that quite a few of my librarian friends are guilty of keeping books until they're overdue. Yes, they know how to renew online, or on the phone, or in person, but...it doesn't quite happen.

Is this one of the awful, secret truth about librarians? Do we know the rules so well we have a wild disregard for them? Is it one of the rules of Librarian Club? Are you an Overdue Librarian?
Labels:

Comments

Abigail said…
All the time. Half the time I forgot anything was due til it pops up as overdue.
23 March 2010 at 13:40
Unknown said…
The last time I actually borrowed a book from the library I ended up with a crazy amount of overdue fines. Took the books back, still haven't paid the fines......
23 March 2010 at 13:46
Anonymous said…
Just as publicans become alcoholics and doctors junkies, so do librarians accumulate overdues. It's the mixture of high stress and easy access that does it
23 March 2010 at 14:08
Sarah Nicholas said…
Yes, I have overdue books and the shame is acute. I avoid fines from the public library by virtue of having worked there briefly and changed my borrower status to not accrue fines. I delete the fines that appear from my own library. Worst of all, I have one library book from another city that was due back around 1992 - I don't know what to do with it. *sob*
23 March 2010 at 15:21
Grahad said…
my books are always overdue - and worse now I've got kids. Just can't return them on time...
23 March 2010 at 16:41
Anonymous said…
Yes, I've got some that are so overdue I'm too embarassed to return them now!
2 April 2010 at 22:09
Elly said…
So glad to discover that it's not just me! I've been trying really hard recently to make sure I get my public library books back on time (or renew them). Thankfully at work I get a reminder email before they're overdue and can renew them myself.
24 August 2010 at 09:40
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Careering along

When I look around at the activities of information professional groups, it seems that there’s a disparity. There’s quite often a lot of support and funding available for those who’re just starting out in the profession, but a desert of nothingness for those of us who’re “just getting on with it”. If you’re a new professional, you have lots of groups to support you as you progress in your early career, various prize funds available for essay and report writing, access to bursaries for conference attendance, eligibility for awards for being new and enthusiastic. But what do you get when you’re past that bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed first 5 years (5 years seems to be the approximate cut-off point for becoming “established” and no longer new). What happens when you’ve already received a bursary from an organisation earlier in your career and so wouldn’t be eligible for one now, meaning you’re not able to attend events or training? When you’re heavily involved in a project but not at ...
16 comments
Read more

The mysteries of cataloguing

Cataloguing: an arcane art, where each piece of punctuation is significant, and commas and semi colons are all-powerful. Well, they are in "proper" libraries, where in-depth research of esoteric points goes on, and the precise spelling of Christian names, and information such as when a person lived and died can be crucial in pinpointing obscure facts. Here, we have our own catalogue system. It doesn't have a name, but if it did, it would probably be something along the lines of "I need this book NOW, no I don't care about the precise spelling of the authors middle name, or their date of birth." I know, I know, it's not snappy, but it's accurate. Cataloguing demands are different in a commercial law firm: we don't care about much more than what it's about, who wrote, when, and what jurisdiction it covers. And what we really, really care about is "where the hell is it". Law books are amazing: they have the power to move themselves f...
12 comments
Read more

Why do I do this?

By "this", I mean the whole librarian thaaaaang. Woodsiegirl recently blogged on why she became a librarian, and after conversations in the comments section, I thought I'd join in with my own blog post on the topic. As I said on Woodsiegirl's blog, I am one of those odd people who always wanted to be a librarian. My Mum and careers adviser both said it was a daft idea as 1) there'd be no jobs as computers would be doing everything by then (careers advisor) and 2) there's no money in it (Mums advice, herself a lifelong librarian). I actually was surrounded by librarians: Mum worked in libraries her whole career from the local branch library (when I say local, I mean local: 100 yards from my parents house) to the secondary school I went to (although years before I went there). My Aunt worked alongside my Mum for a while before emigrating, and has worked various shifts as cover in the local library since coming back home. So, I kinda grew up in libraries: I would...
4 comments
Read more