Checking Out

This afternoon I was subbing for the librarian. That only reinforced the notion that the librarian (and her aides) have an overwhelming job. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that people don't bother to think about. In the space of less than an hour, I had to re-shelve books, take old library labels off new acquisitions, pack up old books into boxes, check out books to students, and set up the library for after-school. I am exhausted just talking about it. And that was just the beginner stuff. Ms. Librarian wants to train me how to do everything eventually so I can be, as she called it, "library-sub extraordinaire." After school I basically just had to make sure kids were speaking quietly and not killing each other, and we limited the number of children because it was only the library aide and me in there, and even though there are generally at least four adults in the library, they are all doing other things, not just babysitting. You wouldn't think it, but the library is one crazy place.