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owlectomyThe library where I work is open from 1:00 to 8:00 two days a week. Most of the libraries in the system work that way; we need to have SOME late hours during the week (not nearly enough for a lot of people who work in Manhattan) but we don't have the staffing to be open in the mornings and nights.
So what happens is that people will try to open the door in the morning, and find it closed, and keep pulling it and banging it for a minute. And then the door handle comes off from all that banging and we have to have it fixed. (Really!)
And everybody is really annoyed when this happens, because it makes a lot of noise, and we have our hours posted on the door in two different places, but: you cannot blame people for expecting that a library will be open from 10:00 or so every weekday. That is how retail works, that is how government offices work, that is how people expect the world to work. And the majority of casual library users are not going to even think to look up in advance to make sure that we're going to be open on any given weekday morning.
My supervisor said, "If I was going to the library I would know to bring a canvas bag with me," and that's what the world looks like to a librarian (although I sure do forget to bring my canvas bag to the grocery store all the time.) But if you go to the store and you buy something, you expect to get a bag to carry your stuff in. It's not a terrible assumption to think that the library's going to give you a bag. (Unfortunately, books are heavy and have sharp corners; you need thicker plastic bags if you're going to give out bags, and they're not cheap.)
We can't afford to just cater to the relatively small percentage of people who come to the library often enough to memorize our hours, and know they have to bring their own bags with them. And we can't say "Wow, how do people not know how the library works???" as if there aren't people who only come in once a year, of every couple of years. I don't want them to get the message, "You should already know the rules." I want them to get the message, "Hey, maybe this is easy enough that you could come here a little more often?"
So what happens is that people will try to open the door in the morning, and find it closed, and keep pulling it and banging it for a minute. And then the door handle comes off from all that banging and we have to have it fixed. (Really!)
And everybody is really annoyed when this happens, because it makes a lot of noise, and we have our hours posted on the door in two different places, but: you cannot blame people for expecting that a library will be open from 10:00 or so every weekday. That is how retail works, that is how government offices work, that is how people expect the world to work. And the majority of casual library users are not going to even think to look up in advance to make sure that we're going to be open on any given weekday morning.
My supervisor said, "If I was going to the library I would know to bring a canvas bag with me," and that's what the world looks like to a librarian (although I sure do forget to bring my canvas bag to the grocery store all the time.) But if you go to the store and you buy something, you expect to get a bag to carry your stuff in. It's not a terrible assumption to think that the library's going to give you a bag. (Unfortunately, books are heavy and have sharp corners; you need thicker plastic bags if you're going to give out bags, and they're not cheap.)
We can't afford to just cater to the relatively small percentage of people who come to the library often enough to memorize our hours, and know they have to bring their own bags with them. And we can't say "Wow, how do people not know how the library works???" as if there aren't people who only come in once a year, of every couple of years. I don't want them to get the message, "You should already know the rules." I want them to get the message, "Hey, maybe this is easy enough that you could come here a little more often?"