An Interesting Encounter

As I was leaving my school a couple of days ago (yes, I'm still here...thank you, summer school) I was stopped on the sidewalk.

"Honey...honey...sweetie, can you help me?" a disheveled woman in her early-to-mid fifties (wearing what appeared to be her pajamas) pleaded in an out-of-breath voice.

I'm no dummy.

I live in Chicago. I work in one of it's poorest neighborhoods. I'm used to people holding up signs on expressway exits and placing old Styrofoam coffee cups on the pavement in an effort to collect money from compassionate strangers. But to be approached by an actual speaking person (with no sign or cup to be seen), was a new experience.

I resisted the urge to keep walking, and (protectively clutching my bag with both hands) I stopped.

"Oh thanks honey...thanks honey. What does it say right there?" she asked me holding up a small gas station receipt and pointing to the words CUSTOMER COPY written at the bottom.

After answering the woman's simple question, (and silently thinking an accomplice is going to jump out and attack me any second) the woman then asks, "What does that mean?"

With a death grip on my bag and my eyes scanning every perimeter, I quickly explain, "It means that it's your copy, you get to keep it."

"Oh, okay...and what are those circle things right there?" the woman says pointing to the zeros that are part of a long credit-card-type of number.

This time she must have gotten notice of the slightly irritated tone in my voice, because she apologized and completely surprised me with an admission:

"I can't read honey."

I had never heard those words from anyone that far beyond their school-aged years before.

It turned out that she didn't have any money left on her Link (Illinois' welfare system) account card. The receipt was the result of her trying to buy something at the gas station and her card getting rejected. She had no idea why she didn't have any money to buy food, and because she couldn't read, she didn't understand the proof either.

She never did ask me for money. All she wanted was my help. I felt horrible for all of those visions I had about this harmless and confused woman trying to hurt me in some way.

She was the one who was truly hurting.

How is it that this woman (who didn't appear to speak any other language than English) in her fifties did not know how to read even the simplest text? What had happened in her life that left her void of the ability to do the very thing that I advocate, promote, and teach on a daily basis?

Those of us fortunate enough to read this might want to judge her. That's why she's on welfare, wearing pajamas at 4:00 in the afternoon, and wandering around asking strangers for help.

But don't.

Just remember her and be reminded of the power that reading can provide.

And maybe pick up a book and celebrate the gift you've been given.

Book Spotlight

Due to my "accidental" career, I am exposed to an exasperating amount of juvenile and young adult fiction and nonfiction books.

Obviously, right? That probably was assumed without mentioning.

I thought it would be a nice idea to share this knowledge with a (hopefully) larger audience. Because, let's face it, this information doesn't really do me any good beyond the walls of my school library. It's comparable to my savant-like intellect of all things celebrity.

So occasionally--no less than once a month but hopefully more often than that--I will post my review/stamp of approval/support for a particular work of fiction or nonfiction.

Reading these books to your children, to yourself, purchasing them for your school library, giving them as gifts, or checking them out from your public library would be just dandy!

Do I sound like LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow?
"Take a look, it's in a book..."

I apologize for putting that theme song into your brain.

Don't hold it against the books. They need your support.

Stay tuned for the first spotlight...

Summer...No Longer a Vacation

 So here I am in the last week of my third year as a school librarian. With only a classroom-size number of students to still retrieve books from, I'm feeling pretty good. I haven't completely abandoned my search and rescue efforts, but I am demoting myself from General to Captain, and putting faith in my soldiers that they will complete their duties.

Summer vacation is right around the corner!

Or is it?

No, unfortunately not (insert sad violin music here).

This librarian will be spending her summer...in school.

The whole concept of summer school is foreign to me. I never attended it while I was a student, and (until this year...sniff, cry, sniff) I never taught it as a teacher. But when I was informed that if I elected not to embrace this new opportunity, another librarian would be assigned to MY LIBRARY for the summer program, I immediately took inventory of the situation. That's another person checking out books, re-shelving books, and using all of the technology.

To be more accurate, in my mind, it went a little something like this:

"That's another person messing up my circulation system, not re-shelving my books, and doing only God knows what to all of my technology."

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

There was no debate. In order to maintain my sanity, I had to ignore the inner whispers of freedom and finally be caught by the summer school trap.

It won't be so bad.

I do get a whole week and three days off before the new school year starts!

The Overdues

It's the week before the last week of school. 

Ahhh....let's just reflect on that for moment. 

For students it means getting in all of those last-effort assignments. For teachers it means finalizing grades and cleaning out the classroom. For school librarians, it means morphing into a search and rescue agent.

THE MISSION

Recover overdue library books from students. 

BEWARE: The original dates of checkout may frighten you, 

and you may return to the library empty handed.

It's not as if my search and rescue abilities are lying dormant throughout the school year. I employ them quite often in fact. There's just something about the end of the year (and the truth that if I don't act now, those books will never see another circulation) that brings out my inner German Shepherd.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So here I am, sitting at my desk after the final bell on Friday (yes, FRIDAY) waiting to see if any of my targets actually run home to retrieve their long-lost books.

I hope they do.

Because this agent would much rather be getting a manicure.

Never Saw it Coming

I am a school librarian...accidentally. 

Because everyone who goes to college to become a television news reporter and actually lands one of the few on-air jobs, has an epiphany after September 11th, quits their job, moves to Chicago, works upscale retail while modeling and freelancing in makeup design, finally decides on a career, spends thousands on grad school, earns a teaching certificate, and survives two years teaching third grade, becomes a school librarian right?

Or is it just me?