Day 6 - March 13, 2007

TUESDAY - Today, at the Children's Room, started out as calm with me continuing with the cleaning of books. I probably cleaned about 50 books yesterday till my nails were gray with dirt. Scrub as I might using an old toothbrush, there still seem to be some residue left but I must continue on with the gruesome task. In the beginning I sat with Halla and Cecil at the reference desk. At 6pm, I found out that Arpine, Daisy and Evelyn were all working until closing time. With 3 librarians manning the desk, I thought of bailing out early to join some friends for dinner but as it turned out, even with the four of us, it was a very busy night.

I was an extra help with printing out pages for the patrons and as the night progressed, I ended up helping with reference and even came up with a line for a kid writing a poem about inertia. It was so busy that all four of us were out in the stacks most of the time. I had to find books about Paiute Indians, about different states -- New Jersey, Maryland, Oklahoma, a map of colonial Maryland and a book about paleontology for a child interested in fossils and dinosaurs. It felt good that I was able to help them and I actually was able to find the books or information they needed. With my job at the law firm, I rarely interact with the library patrons because I deal mostly with the law library's accounts with vendors. I miss the interaction with library users that I used to do in my previous law firm jobs.

The most obvious difference between my job and this internship are the library users. At the firm, you have to deal with adults who are professionals and for the most part are very careful with their hygiene. In the public setting, you have be patient with naughty kids wanting to make trouble and worse, one has to sometimes steel ones nose with the various odors that would would assail ones senses. I realize that I cannot blame kids who probably ran in the playground all day and then have to do homework in the library after school. Okay, so other than my fear of germs, I fear odors, too. Am I being too fastidious about these things? I am quite sensitive to smells. At work and at home, I am accused of being descended from bats with my acute sense of smell. If something reeks, I could smell it from a mile away. Again, this is another of my quirks I need to tone down to a normal level. The good thing about this internship is that for all that I fear germs and hate yucky odors, I am learning to adapt to a new environment...I am learning to be more patient and tolerant. this kind of change is always a good thing.