Wannable Library Thug

[Daphne]

This is my first post!

I am a reference assistant at busy public library branch in a major city. Today I had some wannabe thug loser tell me "hey, you're a beautiful lady. You shouldn't be so serious all the time." Ummm...yeah....okay. He hits on any woman between the ages of 18 and 80. I have witnessed him do it, and I've complained about him. He clearly makes women feel uncomfortable. Twenty minutes later, he comes up as I'm pulling items to be sent to other branches and wants to know why I am a librarian. I go completely deadpan on him and reply that I am a reference assistant because I like the work. He then has the nerve to tell me that I shouldn't be a librarian because librarians only make $8 an hour. I love having people make assumptions about how much I make, especially when they are absurdly incorrect. I gleefully inform him that I actually make $16 an hour and will start of at $22 an hour once my master's degree is finished. Then I leave to finish my work.

People are so irritating sometimes.

[Dark Knight]

Why do I get the sickening feeling that his next line would have been something along the lines of how you could make so much more starring in his next "feature film?"

This kind of thing really creeps me out... and I've never even had it done to me!

[Tigress]

I had one person proposition me via Email about how I could make "a lot" of money as a "fitness model" for his production company. I would make $50/hour and only had to work 2 hours a week! What a deal!

But I would have to fly up to PA on my own money, provide my own workout clothes, etc. And he wouldn't give me any details aside from how I could make "so much money modeling" for him. I don't know why I didn't jump at my big chance.

[Daphne]

I wouldn't have been surprised had that been his next line. He doesn't work; he spends all of his time at the library looking at Internet porn. I just hate having to deal with skeevy guys like him. It's already hard enough being only 23 and having a professional position. It makes me feel about an inch tall when idiots like him hit on me. Even though it's not my fault, I feel like it makes me look bad in front of my co-workers.

[Dark Knight]

I don't know how things are in your neck of the woods, but I know where I live the library has a very firm set of rules about certain Internet habits... maybe you could make use of similar rules to have him banned?

[Spiffy McMoron]

Twenty minutes later, he comes up as I'm pulling items to be sent to other branches and wants to know why I am a librarian.

I like the silence, and books weigh less than coffins. Now off.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I wouldn't have been surprised had that been his next line. He doesn't work; he spends all of his time at the library looking at Internet porn.

Doesn't your library have filters on the computers to block porn?

Not that I know from experience, before anybody asks. I know there were filters on the computers in high school and I would expect them to be on computers in a public library where children could use them.

[Rapscallion]

I've never come up against those filters, but as far as I understand it they're generally pretty naff. The colour-based ones tend to block pictures of sand dunes and baby faces (non-caucasian porn gets through happily), whereas the name-based ones can block other things you need, such as Willy Whitelaw's speeches (British politician), anti cock fighting legislation etc (the tendency to mis-spell words in the porn industry means that they're never going to block it all). After that, you're down to blacklisting sites, but new sites are springing up all the time.

Rapscallion

[tollbaby]

I am a reference assistant at busy public library branch in a major city.

That's what I did at my coop term for my Library and Information Technician diploma I miss it SOOOOOO much. (sadly, I can't make enough to support a family of 3 on the salary) Good luck on completing your masters, and welcome!

[Ackee]

OT

Sorry, this is slightly off topic, Daphne, do you do your course part time?

P.S. When you get qualified try not to work for a public library you will only get more weirdos like that

[BookstoreEscapee]

I had one person proposition me via Email about how I could make "a lot" of money as a "fitness model" for his production company. I would make $50/hour and only had to work 2 hours a week! What a deal!

Wow, a whole $100 a week! Sign me up!

I like the silence, and books weigh less than coffins.

Random Trivia: A coffin is the wider-at-the-top, narrower-at-the-bottom wooden box you generally see in old horror movies (think Dracula); the rectangular, curved-lid box we see at modern funerals is a casket. (I saw one of those "how they make it" shows on the Discovery Channel or somewhere late one night.)

[Daphne]

Sorry, this is slightly off topic, Daphne, do you do your course part time?

P.S. When you get qualified try not to work for a public library you will only get more weirdos like that

Hi Cesii,

I do my course part-time in an online cohort, which means you meet face to face as a class twice a year for a week at a time. The rest is done online.

I love the research aspect of reference work so after I finish my master's, I am hoping to work for a news agency, tv station, or film studio. I am also interested in getting a second subject master's and working at a university library.

As for the Internet porn someone mentioned above, my library district does not use filters in the adult area of the library. There are privacy screens, but it's pretty easy to tell when someone is looking at porn. The funny thing is that my work computer is filtered, though. I tried to find information about how a patron would go about ordering an older issue of Playboy, and I discovered that I was blocked from the site! The irony.

[Daphne]

Update: The idiot in my OP finally got trespassed for a year. He threatened to kill a teen volunteer and when he was trespassed, he refused to leave. The cops were called, and it turned out a warrant was out on him. I am so sick of working in such a dangerous environment.

[BusyBee]

"hey, you're a beautiful lady. You shouldn't be so serious all the time."

This sounds so familiar. Why can't I look braindead or sleepy without people telling me stuff like that. Or, the most annoying phrase in existance, "Aww c'mon, SMILE!!"

Anyhoo!

How'd you get started in the library, may I ask? I'm trying to get a new job, in a bookstore or library or something like that, and it seems like a lot of places won't even look at me. Is there a super duper librarian secret password I need to incant?

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Update: The idiot in my OP finally got trespassed for a year. He threatened to kill a teen volunteer and when he was trespassed, he refused to leave. The cops were called, and it turned out a warrant was out on him. I am so sick of working in such a dangerous environment.

You know there are people working at 7/11 reading this line and going "AW COME ON!!!"

But seriously now, these kinda people are genuinely dangerous. It's not cuz you don't have a till to rob means only happy people go in the library. Good thing he was apprehended. Keep 911 on speed dial if he comes back.