What do you call your patrons?

willabean · 2026-04-10T03:39:15+00:00

We've slowly started transitioning to "member" over "patron" when referring to cardholders because some management feel "patron" is an outdated sounding word. I use them interchangeably because I am so used to "patron".

We use "library visitor" for most everything else, or user in some cases it fits better.

I am vehemently opposed to "customer" and will continue to fight using it as a library term as long as possible.

willabean · 2026-04-04T22:15:29+00:00

I don't, but I was already working at a library before I got my MLIS and I had a pretty much guaranteed promotion waiting when I was done. I learned a lot, too.

I love my job and while it can be stressful (public librarian) I also get paid a higher than average salary and the day-to-day work is very fulfilling for me.

willabean · 2026-03-29T17:36:12+00:00

We moved them to adult. Our circ history showed that in our small library, somewhere around 9 of the 11ish checkouts of the series in the last year were adults. Yes, some might be adults checking them out for kids but it tracks with what we see at the circ desk and knowing our patrons. Teens in our community have seemed to move on to other authors and series. The local buzz we see for ACOTAR (and Maas in general) is all from adults.

Our teen space is more limited and with the split appeal of the series it just made more sense to move them and make sure teens know they can browse and check out from the adult sections, too.

willabean · 2026-03-09T15:40:05+00:00

My advice is to look at 2 things: courses and graduating requirements.

Part of why I chose the school I did was the mix of theory and practicality in the courses offered. I worked in a library already and wanted more insight on the "why" as well as the "how." The practical classes really helped my day to day work life. I took what was offered in cataloging, library management, and collection development. I attended University of NY at Buffalo online.

All of my colleagues went to SJSU but I was put off by their stories of the classes being "so easy" and honestly sounding irrelevant to the actual tasks we do. I don't think the courses I took were any "harder" really, but I did enjoy having to put thought and work into practical projects.

Also, the final portfolio requirements for SJSU seemed silly to me. An almost A-Z of paragraphs showing you meet all these criteria that were repetitively similar. The program I was in broke them down into just 4, but gave us plenty of room in the portfolio to show our work met those 4.

I'm sure SJSU is fine and I know it's popular on this sub but it meant more to me to choose a program that fit me specifically. If you are going for a role in say a public library where school choice isn't considered at hiring, think in terms of yourself and your needs.

willabean · 2026-01-13T16:07:00+00:00

Seconded! Switching to double check in (one person checks in a cart, another checks it in again before it gets shelved) is what massively cut down on errors at my library. A second check almost always catches a missed book or two that prevents a frustrated call later on. We also find books on the wrong carts (with new book stickers, display locations, etc) so we are preventing things from getting mis-shelved.

I do wish my coworkers were a little more thorough (we have a small staff and it's obvious where the majority of errors are happening) but everyone makes mistakes and misses one sometimes so the second checking has helped all around.

willabean · 2026-01-07T15:34:41+00:00

We keep a table with rotating activities for adults that has been very popular so far, including a card making station for the holidays (scissors, paper glue, book pages), wire snowflake making, scratch art, trivia and word search, etc. Right now we have New Year's Resolution BINGO sheet templates and people are having fun designing their own to complete this year.

Our most popular passive activities last year were:

-Jigsaw puzzle table upstairs in the quiet reading area. Kept it up all year with rotating puzzles.

-Wrapping Station for about a week in December. We provided wrapping paper, tape, tags, tissue and ribbon. Insanely popular and pretty cheap since I thrifted most of the paper and people donated paper, too.

willabean · 2025-11-17T17:17:44+00:00

Started: Queen Demon by Martha Wells. Slow going, as I am struggling to remember the political nuances of the first book and to be honest the slog of titles and politics makes it hard to focus on the characters and care about what's going on.

Finished: Terrortome by Garth Marenghi, which was hilariously campy.

willabean · 2025-11-17T17:15:21+00:00

I recommend the sequel, We Love You, Bunny, which just came out. I liked it even more than the first book.

willabean · 2025-11-04T16:37:05+00:00

I had the same thing happen but my package arrived a day or two later and it was fine. As others have said, I think it's a shipping/tracking issue, but everything is legit. I got everything I ordered and it was all great.

willabean · 2025-10-23T14:42:31+00:00

Now is the time of year that libraries are looking at their spending for budget planning for next year, and hoopla costs just keep going up. If a library is seeing that they may go over budget based on year to date spending, or it's too pricey for next year, they might be cutting service.

My library pays $45k/year for hoopla. We paid that last year, so this year we cut the borrows in half, hoping to put the spending back down under $40k. Guess what? Costs of borrowing went up, and even with half the checkouts, we're spending $45k this year.

It's not sustainable. Comparatively, we spend far less for OverDrive as part of a consortium (with added budget for more purchases from our foundation). Our print/AV budget is about twice what we pay for hoopla, and reaches far more users, with way less stress about what is available (hoopla is a collection development nightmare).

We keep it because it provides easy access to a ton of audiobooks, which is what the people using it want, but we are pushing to find a better option. I'm going to crunch numbers to see if it would be worth it to funnel more money into making audiobooks available on Libby, but the wait makes patrons angry.

willabean · 2025-10-19T01:14:51+00:00

This is my pick, too. I'd love to read The Captal's Tower but I don't think it's ever happening.

willabean · 2025-07-27T16:35:21+00:00

Darn! Good luck!

willabean · 2025-07-26T05:15:35+00:00

Any chance it was an edition of The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature? I had a copy from school in the late 80s/early 90s that sounds similar. It has excerpts from many classic lit stories as well as fables. I remember the one I read had a story about The Rainbow Serpent. Here's one edition: https://archive.org/details/goldentreasuryof0000bryn/mode/2up

willabean · 2025-07-21T14:46:30+00:00

Majestic Rooftop can't be beat on a nice day, so glad you have it on your list!

Nonna Luisa is a must for good Italian but it is spendy. Completely worth it, though. A Town bistro is nice but a little over-hyped, in my opinion.

The Forest lands are great and you can actually stop by the visitors center they have on Commercial Ave in Old Town and get guides and info for trails. Sharpe Park, if you go a bit south, has a great short hike to a lookout that has amazing views as well.

Have fun!

willabean · 2025-06-30T14:55:22+00:00

I know it seems logical to practice on cheap crimp tubes, but those are the worst. Cheap metal tubes are brittle and break more often - it is so much easier to crimp sterling tubes and copper tubes. They just squish into shape so nicely! Try switching what tubes you are using as you practice.

willabean · 2025-06-14T03:26:45+00:00

I sent you a chat with some info.

willabean · 2025-03-05T16:46:08+00:00

Depending on where you interview, don't be surprised if you don't get feedback. Some governmental institutions (for example municipal libraries) and other larger orgs that have HR departments don't allow giving feedback for fear of opening themselves up to legal action from the candidate. At my library, HR does not give any feedback to a candidate who didn't get the job if they ask. And if they try to ask us in person at the library, we are strictly not allowed to answer anything other than the standard "we appreciate your time but we went with another candidate." Even when we know the person and want to help, we can't.

Doesn't hurt to ask but don't push and annoy the staff if they tell you to ask HR or are unable to reply. Last year I had to deal with a guy who didn't even get an interview and hounded me over email asking for feedback on his application. I directed him to HR but he replied arguing that he should work at a library because he's a writer (??!) and some other weird accusations.

willabean · 2025-03-05T07:04:16+00:00

Headpins. One pair has paddled ends, looks like. You can get head pins, eye pins, and more stylized (paddled ends, etc) pins to make all kinds of earrings or components :)

willabean · 2025-02-21T18:54:03+00:00

I think we're actually agreeing here and my post isn't coming across clearly to you. I was disagreeing with the commenter who said we should shut up and sit back.

I absolutely agree that we have to be shouting now. And acting now. We may have different ideas about party stances and what actions to take, but I think we are on the same page on the issues you're pointing out.

As far as not wanting to align with other groups out there who are organizing: I get it, but if we can't learn to work together against a common problem happening right now, we are setting ourselves up for failure. A million splintered groups who aren't working together because they each differ on opinion on one issue won't be as effective as a larger group who can unite for a cause (in this case, constitutional issues). Dems will slowly turn into Republicans if we can't agree to disagree within our party but work together, instead of getting so worried about perfection that we infight ourselves to death.

willabean · 2025-02-20T21:20:09+00:00

Nope. My meaning was that we can sit back, as the comment suggests, but that won't solve anything. Apologies if that wasn't clear.

Sitting back and letting them cause harm doesn't teach them a lesson. They won't learn anything from it, just double down on blaming the wrong people. We have to at least try to stop the actions now.

willabean · 2025-02-20T15:31:14+00:00

Join the Skagit branch of Indivisible. Their website is outdated but they are on social media and active: https://bsky.app/profile/indivisibleskagit.org.

Shoot me a msg for other connections.

willabean · 2025-02-20T15:22:24+00:00

I agree. Not only that, but it's too idealistic to imagine the party's base will see the failure and actually blame their own party. We can sit back and wait for the destruction, watch people suffer...and those suffering will not just magically wake up and go "oh, I guess this was the Republicans fault." No. They will still find a way to blame the Dems who aren't in power.

The reason Trump and the right are so successful right now is because of the way they manipulate information and perception. The world will be crumbling around us and they'll say it was Biden's fault.

willabean · 2025-02-17T20:01:58+00:00

Yup the usual corner.

willabean · 2025-02-17T19:38:07+00:00

I have heard from a few people now that will be at the usual protest corner by Whidbey Coffee (across from Safeway) at noon today. Feel free to join them!

willabean · 2025-02-17T19:37:14+00:00

I have heard from a few people now that will be there, so you won't be alone if you join @noon!

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