Let's have a little photographic tour!
1)This is what I see for over 7 hours of the work day. Every now and then, things conspire to get me out of my paper cage, but this is pretty much it.
2) When circ clerks or anyone else who is trying to get my attention from the doorway leading to the public area, this is what I see. Do you see that tiny dark sliver of color center and below the lights? Not the dark splotch sitting on the server cabinet, to the left of that. That's the top of the doorway. When I first started weeding through the donations, I tried to keep a clear sight-line so I could see people coming and going in case any of them needed to get my attention lickity split. With all the donations received since that time, a sight-line is no longer feasible.
3) Up next is what I would see if I was to look a little behind and to the right, which is where the book keeper is situated. See where the BWI tower is? On the other side is supposed to be an open space in the partition for her and I to converse through when money questions and issues are discussed. Usually.
4) This is looking from the kitchen to the staff entrance. Two boxes thick of donations. All slated for the book sale coming up next week. All keeping me isolated from the rest of the building. That little box sitting on the floor? Old ratty-tatty paperback donations that are now slated to be recycled. Hopefully into some product that doesn't encourage packrats to hoard them for 30 years before giving them to people who still don't know what to do with it.
5) This is looking from the direction of the circulation desk. See that bookshelf hiding behind it all, between the two windows? When I'm standing up, my head is as high as the binders sitting on top of the shelf. When I sit down: poof! Where'd I go?
6) This last photo is the back of the wall that makes the background to my monitor-viewing experience. In other words, instead of seeing a blank white surrounding, I see a multi-colored and multi-fonted wall of cardboard packaging. The door to the left is the fire exit from the staff area, and so I work harder to keep this path clear, which leads to build up on the length-wise portion.
So. About donations. I think it's nice that people would rather give their used property a chance to be useful again as opposed to just pitching them outright without a thought as to their condition. But there are always exceptions to the rule, so let's observe a few:1) The donator who gives libraries everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! We've gotten old faded plastic toy sets in these boxes - stuff that probably sat on a toy store shelf no less than 30 years ago. And they are always missing pieces.
2) The donator who gives libraries nothing but old musty discolored books. Thanks patron. What we really need for our collection is to start a section of musty books. Maybe we'll shimmy in between the sections of mildewy books and smelly books.
3) The donator who gives libraries oodles and oodles of childrens books - all at least 15 years old and more than 'gently' used. I'm talking about sharp creases across the covers, a whole crayola box's worth of crayon drawings between the pages, and even portions of pages torn right out of the book.
I kind of want to create a whole new section of library books for these people, solely for their browsing pleasure. It will consist of a pile of wet books heaped in a corner of the bottom storage closet.
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