All the Small Things

Over the past week or so, my department has been going on one of our semi-annual binges where we clean and organize everything in the office. J, my fabulous assistant, actually does a lot of cleaning and organizing on a regular basis, but every few months she goes through the dozens of boxes that we have in the office, puts all of the craft supplies, prizes, random papers, leftover books, and assorted junk into some type of logical order, and labels everything. During her mad cleaning spree this time, J discovered that for some unknown reason, we have no fewer than 5 "lost and found" boxes, including one that was clearly left from last winter (it contains coats and gloves). We've been having a lot of fun digging through them.

My staff members are often surprised by the things that they find in the lost and found box, asking themselves how our customers can be so careless. I am also surprised by the bizarre things that wind up in the box, but for two reasons. Although you'd think I would be immune to the carelessness of teens, I still do not understand how one forgets a winter coat when it's below freezing, a single shoe, or an ipod. The second reason I am surprised is that in order for something to get in the lost and found box, a member of my staff has to pick it up, put a label with the date on it, carry it into the office, and put it in the designated area.

What we've found so far....

Several textbooks.
A single shoe.
Several pieces of jewelry.
3 winter coats.
A pair of pantyhose.
The aforementioned ipod.
A rose made from duct tape (this one is pretty cool, actually, and I'm going to keep it on my desk).
A garage door opener.
Several sets of keys.
A cat teaser.
Half a pack of gum.
2 cell phones.
Various types of sporting equipment.
A switchblade.
An opened bar of soap.
A bikini top.
$52 in cash.
Several uncashed paychecks.

We still have three boxes to go, so I'm sure there will be more random objects as the week continues.

Cast of Characters

Meet the strange and wonderful folks who work with the Snarky Librarian. Right now I'm using initials to identify them; but I may come up with fun nicknames later.

J - My assistant. J is an artist who hasn't decided what she wants to do with her life; in the mean time she's beautifying the teen area with her fabulous displays and decorations.

KS - Another staff member who splits her time between the teen area and the Children's department.

KL - Currently works only on Saturdays as he is student teaching, so you probably won't hear much about him.

A - Nearly 18, A has served as a volunteer and staff person for nearly 5 years. She's graduating this year, filling me with both joy for her and sadness for me.

C - Another teen staffer who has served as volunteer and staff member for 5 years. He is the current co-president of the teen advisory board (TAB) as well as working in the teen department.

E - Serves as co-president of TAB along with C. Highly intelligent and deeply strange, he is often misunderstood when his goofiness is mistaken for lack of responsibility and immaturity.

P - The head of youth services, and thus my boss. She has worked in library-land for over 30 years.

This list will almost certainly get added to, but these 7 people are the ones who spend nearly all of their time at the library and therefore interact with me, our customers, and each other the most often.