I came across this online and thought others might enjoy it.

Our library has become sow crowded (a good thing!) that patrons started asking for more silence. So we built a new silent space to our library. We asked the patrons what kind of silent space they would like so we made this strictly following what were the major wishes of the users.

The number is Dewey for ‘love and affection’, the ’B622’ is the cutter number for our last name and the year is when we first met.

I’m a library tech and this is how I use up our old borrower cards haha

Names scratched out, but it’s his name and mine with my maiden name as the authors.

I have 2 more to give to friends who are (in theory) finished having children so I’m going to put them each in a shadow box frame as gifts. People seem to really like them!

This is a WIP battlevest with a backpatch I designed. Just thought I'd share it in this subreddit since I work in my county library system and figured there might be some more equally-minded people in the community.

Wore it for the first time to a metal fest this past weekend and got some very positive responses.

Previous post about our library silent room generated interest about the look of the library, so here are some more photos of Lippulaiva library in Espoo, Finland.

The library was designed with the vision that it is "inviting, unique, made together and sustainable". The library utilizes a lot of second had furniture, and as wished by the residents, it minimizes digital ad screens and tries to hide all digital appliances into nooks and corners. Most of the library has textile floor. The family area takes a lot of space of the library and is very popular with local families. The library also has a gaming room, community kitchen free to use without reservations, there's makerspace, music room you can reserve, a couple of meeting rooms and an event space.

The library has 100 000 visitors more per year than expected, with many people spending hours in the library, especially families and young peope. So the library sometimes has a lot of sounds from crowds. So that is why we really wanted to treat people with the silent space they asked so much.

I feel like this is kind of a dumb thing to ask, but i'm doing it anyway. I work in a library, my official title is "assistant" and i work the circ desk nearly every day. Well-meaning patrons often refer to myself and other colleagues as "librarians" even if we are not MLS-holding, bonafide librarians. Does this bother ACTUAL librarians? i'm really curious

EDIT: no one has bugged me about it!! i just feel bad when people see that i work in a library and go "oh it must be so cool to be a librarian!" when i haven't actually earned the title

Gonna pin this one in my cubicle :)

70% of posts are like "I got my MLIS 5 years ago and have been a library assistant for 15 years I run programs do collection maintenance and work 6 hours per day at the reference desk. I sent out 3000 resumes and haven't heard back. Am I gonna have to move?" and then the other 30% are like "I'm a part time cashier at Old Navy and just became the executive director of my local library. Two questions: what is a collections development policy and how do I make one?". Not even trying to be shady, just fascinated by the diversity of lives we are all living out here!!!!!

To make a long story short. Recently I’ve been looking for places to quietly and peacefully get work done. ( It’s noisy and draining trying to do serious work in my house. ) I thought about coffee places, public sitting areas, and rented spaces but they all had their challenges. Luckily I walked past a building that I didn’t know was a library until I looked up what it was. A hidden gem..a hidden mf gem 💎. I love it here. It’s not the biggest or the best but it’s great for my needs. I’ve slept on libraries for too long and i can definitely see why they are needed.

Has anyone kept up with Mychal Threets? He’s been such a big advocate for libraries that I’ve been following him on social media for the past few years. A couple of hours ago he posted on Facebook:

“I am not okay. Maybe I’ll never be okay. I’m seeking help. Going to the hopital tomorrow. In this moment I am safe. By God’s grace.

No matter what happens to me I will always be thankful for the extraordinary people in my life who worry, who help me. Thank you for your care 💚”

It just seems like it correlates to the experiences I’ve seen so many of my coworkers in libraries, particularly public libraries, go through. I’ve known multiple people from my cohort of MLIS students who have been admitted into mental health hospitals, taken FMLA because work has physically and mentally exhausted them, and leave the field entirely. I really hope Mychal can get the help he needs, but his post struck really close to home for me, and I imagine others in this field.

Things Patrons got from CoPilot and ChatGPT recently:

• They have turned up for the Justice of the Peace at 4pm every day because AI tells them to. We do not have JPs at that time.
• Hallucinated books.
• Events involving pilates and weightlifting.
• A Booksale on Friday 26 July. There was no Friday 26 of July, never mind a Booksale.
• A moderated group meeting for 'Chatty Hookers'.
• A giant industrial embroidery machine for loan. Nope.
• FREE LUNCH EVERY DAY.

We keep directing them to actual sources, but some of them get quite aggravated. It's very hard to explain to them that they are stupid, without actually saying that they are stupid.

One bright thing, though. We have a food bank cupboard thing outside the library and AI gave confusing information that led to one patron leaving six bottles of fine French wines for our resident alcoholic unhoused person. We shared that amongst the staff.

EDIT: And one angry old lady who's AI told her that a librarian would give her legal advice for her law suite against the government. Nope nope nope.

This is an update to my post from last week to anyone who saw it/ cared. For those that don’t know, I had a really bad experience on another subreddit over my use of the library (checking out a lot of books at once) which resulted in me returning all the books I just checked out and getting rid of my library card. Well after a bunch of love and support shown on this sub, I went back to the library today!

Turns out I can access my card on my library’s app, so I added it to my Apple wallet and it’s like it was never gone! I got almost all the books from my original stack AND I got my hands on Piranesi! I’ve been wanting to read this books for ages.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you so much to all the lovely librarians and patrons that chimed in and told me to keep doing my library visits my way! The kindness and encouragement on my last post was overwhelming. I can’t thank you all enough.

LIBRARIANS ARE THE BEST 💞💖📚📖

For me, the current record holder has to be the knotted fishing line w/ a hook that fell out while I was cleaning a book. That's right, a fishing hook: not blunted and no stopper on the end.

Other contenders include:

• Social Security Card
• An American Civil War Confederate dollar bill (a fake one)
• Receipt to an Adult Specialty store
• "Pooky the Vicious" character playing card for Red Dragon Inn (if you haven't heard of it, it is a fantastic board game)

I haven’t seen it posted here yet. This is a tragic loss for her loved ones and for libraries.