As anyone who works with the public knows, there are a lot of weird people out there. And, if you don't know, working at a library does not involve reading all day and working in a quiet environment. Seriously, if you ever say that in an interview at a library, they'll laugh. You may not see it when you're there, but once you're gone, they'll look at each other and have a good hard laugh.

Public library work (when you're not a librarian), it's mostly helping people who need to use computers because they know that what they need is on the Internet. Books, wtf? It doesn't matter that they've never used a computer before and can't click the mouse without taking their hand off of it and poking at the buttons with their fingers. They know that what they need is on there and they're going to find it, usually with me standing behind them because I refuse to do things like that for people unless they're old and stuff.

I think that it's important for us to tell people how to do things instead of doing those things for them because the next time they visit the library, they'll expect us to do their work. I curse parents who do their children's homework and I feel dirty that I've helped them find information on obscure topics once I find out that they're looking for things for their kids.

Speaking of which, the number of people who think nothing of cursing in public places amazes me. It's the important businessman who stood by the circulation desk and cursed me out while proclaiming that he wished all of fucking St. Charles Parish would have gotten destroyed by Katrina after I told him that he really couldn't use our fax machine. It was nice to see that everyone in the library was staring at me when he left. It's the guy who thinks aliens are coming because his dreams tell the future and he's seen what happens, and man, we ain't seen shit yet. It's the woman who didn't want all of that shit even though she hit print and knew that it was going to be four pages.

Library work fucking rocks.