Lizards in the library (with apologies to Lucy Daniels)

"It's a crocodile! It's a crocodile!" shouted Mr Borrower from the reference department. Ann looked around, and saw that a child had left a toy animal on the floor. It looked like a crocodile, and was lying under the bookshelves.
"No, Mr Borrower, it's just a toy" said Ann kindly. Mr Borrower was always quite excitable. Ann went over and bent down to pick up the toy. And then it blinked.
Ann jumped and gave a little shriek. Mr Borrower said "It's a crocodile! It's a crocodile!"
Ann thought fast, and grabbed an empty box, and put it near the creature, which ran in gratefully.
Luckily for Ann, she knew someone who worked at the vets, so she took the box and showed them.
"That is a bearded dragon" said Mr Harris the vet. "It won't bite you, it's just a baby." It looked like a big baby to Ann, but she thought that maybe someone had it as a pet, and it had got out somehow, and come to the library to keep warm. When she told Dave the caretaker, he thought it was a joke.
Dave came in the following morning, and was putting up some shelves. All of a sudden he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked around, he saw a lizard on the floor. Mr Borrower wasn't there, but if he had been, he would have said "It's a crocodile! It's a crocodile!"
But Dave knew it wasn't a crocodile - he picked it up gently, and took it to the vet, to be reunited with its friend. They will stay with the vet until someone comes to find them, or the vet can find them a new home - a library is no place for a lizard.
But now, when anyone comes into the library, they always look down to see if there are any lizards on the floor.

The first in an occasional series of stories - do you have a library animal story? Squirrels in the Stack? Rabbits in the Reference Library? Lions in lending? Chameleons in the Community Room? Iguanas and Index Cards?
Please let me know.

Snow business like library business...

So the carpet is a disgrace I agree - mud, snow, and grit do not mix well with 80's issue carpet tiles. And yet we are open, and have remained so throughout the bad weather, despite being regarded as "non-essential." Depends who you ask on that score. We do not, granted, supply food or fuel, yet the woman who staggered in on a snowy Wednesday afternoon and spent a grateful half hour in the (relative) warm of the library, choosing books for bed, was awfully pleased we were open. Several people seemed to not realise it was snowing at all, and were startled at the suggestion that we may close early because of a lack of public transport. My local high street bank, which shall remain nameless, but did receive a hefty wad of taxpayers money recently, were shut this morning because of the weather, and when I saw the staff stood outside, I was told that "they need a cup of tea before we open." Hmm. Public money, public responsibility.
So it hasn't been easy, and I'm sorry, Mrs Snodgrass, I don't know when the binmen will collect your recycling, but we are open as usual.

Reviewing the situation

Managed to crawl into work through the ice and snow, and a fog of post-chemo tiredness, to make sure I still have a job and to check my emails, and it seems that as well as all the invites to xmas dinners and parties, and the news that the fax machine at such and such a library was out of order on the 18th of December, I have also had several emails about "the future of the library service." "My views" are wanted!
Scary stuff - apparently this is part of a national review of library services, to "empower, enrich, and inform." So, what are libraries for, and who are they for, and how do we make sure they do what they are supposed to do? Big stuff for a little old librarian to deal with. And yet I do believe we make a difference, and can continue to do so.
So, library folk everywhere - make your voices heard. Talk to your bosses. Email Margaret Hodge at libraryreview@culture.gsi.gov.uk , and speak to your borrowers/members/customers to see what they think. Leave a message on this blog and join the debate.
Shout now or don't complain when they bulldoze your library!

Christmas chemo

Sorry folks - no post for a month and here's why. Chemotherapy. I am being steadily poisoned in the name of good health, and I've barely been able to lift my head off the pillow, let alone wave my fingers across a keyboard. Christmas and New Year in hospital, a lonely cracker and a drip for company...yeah ok, I'm laying it on a bit thick. I have had one or two visitors - even librarians have friends you know. But oh, those lonely hours on the ward. Still trying to find suitable reading matter - am two volumes into Proust. Seems appropriate reading for a hospital, as it was written by a famous hypochondriac obsessed with his bed, although the library copies I have got hold of came blinking into the light as if they had not been read for a very long time indeed! I have got some audio books but I keep falling asleep and struggling to find my place again - some readers have very soporific voices.
So - any recommendations for sickbed reading most welcome.
I would also love to hear from hospital librarians, and hospital information centres - big shout to the Robert Ogden Centre at St James's Leeds.
Please get in touch and I will post when I can.

Waiting for.....Godot?

Waiting. We've all done it. Exam results. Dental receptions. Doctor's surgeries. The new Harry Potter. There are different sorts of waiting - excited, apprehensive, bored. Well, I'm doing the bloody terrified sort at the moment. Test results. Future treatment plans. Like I said - bloody terrified. The sort of waiting where you pick up a book to distract you and have to read each sentence about three times before it sinks in. The sort of waiting where you look at the clock every two hours only to realise that just five minutes have passed.
I've tried thrillers, page turners, bodice rippers, and I'm still waiting. And still the terror lurks. Please tell me the most gripping book there is (and preferably the longest most gripping book there is) and I will try it. I will try anything. (Well, maybe not quite anything. A librarian does have standards, you know.)
People seem to pass time in libraries, but that is not really an option for me - my fingers would start to itch, and I would have to tidy something.
So.

I'm waiting.

In sickness and in health...

Apologies for the lack of post this last couple of weeks, but I have had shocking news, swiftly followed by surgery to remove said shocking news. I will draw a veil over the details, but suffice to say that books and libraries were not at the forefront of my mind, and may not be for a while. And yet, and yet....I did pack a book in my hospital overnight bag, because it did even then seem essential. And I did enter into an eager conversation with a fellow patient who was reading Grisham - "Bloody awful stuff but it gets you through the night" was the verdict. And I was amused to find a hospital library, even though I did not have cause to use it. I would be pleased and interested to hear from any hospital librarians out there - apart from anything else, what state are the books in - I know what your average public library book has stuck on its pages, so I dread to think what a hospital library book may be like. I am not too young to remember when librarians had to be notified of infectious diseases in their borrowers...
Anyway I will endeavour to keep posting as much as possible - any tips for get well reading, or the importance of books at times of crisis, most welcome.

Winter wonderland

Have you noticed, good people, that as the nights draw in, as the days grow colder, the library changes subtly? If you are very lucky, the heating will come on, and work. If you are unlucky, it will come on occasionally, in certain rooms, so the men reading their papers are quietly toasted, while the knitting group upstairs have to huddle around a small electric heater for comfort. I have often thought that if we could harness all the energy produced in our mother and toddler group we could probably power the lights and the kettle all day. (Well maybe not the kettle - our tea and coffee consumption increases to gargantuan proportions during the winter).
It also looks different when those corners, normally illuminated by daylight, are suddenly plunged into four o'clock dark, and look increasingly attractive to the teenagers who hang around the park in the summer, but need somewhere warm for the winter. We also seem to have an increase in tramps, and rather oddly, crosswords that are neglected in the summer months find themselves mysteriously complete in the winter.
And the books - the weighty tomes that are too heavy for summer suitcases disappear off the shelves in the winter. What better time to try Ulysses for the sixth time than a gloomy Tuesday in November when there is nothing on the telly? Some people even like to find out what sort of spider has crept in to their bedroom in the dead of night.
So, libraries are not immune to the winter chill or the evening gloom, but you might just find a haven and a tonic to get you through the season. Or possibly a warm corner to hibernate in.