VIP (In Honor of Sharon)

Since we're discussing important behind-the-scenes library people, let's talk about pages. In a library setting, pages are shelvers, not a knight-in-training, and not those thin white things between covers of a book that cause a pretty painful cut if they slide across your skin at just the right angle. Pages are the people you've probably seen lurking among the stacks(1), cart in tow, loaded down with books or movies, and rocking out to whatever's current on their listening device of choice. Pages are essential to keeping our library running smoothly. At the circulation desk(2), the library assistants(3) check in all the material you return; then they put the material on shelves behind the circulation desk, where they wait to be put in their proper location out in the stacks so you can find them. This is where the pages come in. They wander back into the circulation department, find a shelf that's overflowing with library material, and load it onto a cart. Then they put the cart in order based on the call numbers(4) of the material, haul it out into the stacks, and put it back in its proper location.

Sometimes, when no pages are scheduled to work on the weekend, you should take a look in the circ office and see what happens when there's no one around to put away the material you return--there can be piles and piles of books on the floor because there's no one around to put them away. Then you can't find any of the material you're looking for because it's all piled up in the circ office! Then you ask for it and the library assistants dig around through the piles and hopefully find what it is you're looking for. If they can't, they'll probably ask you if you would like to place the item on hold, but placing holds is for another blog post. Maybe next time.... But for now, we sure love our pages! I bet they'd appreciate a "Thank you!" next time you see one lurking (I use "lurking" in the most affectionate way) in the stacks....

(1) Stacks--Library-speak for bookshelves.
(2)Circulation Desk--Check-out Desk; "circ" for short
(3)Library Assistants--Check-out Desk employees; almost every employee in the library works at the check-out desk at least once during their work week.
(4)Call Numbers--at MPL, we use the Dewey Decimal System, which was created by Melvil Dewey in 1876. These are the numbers or letters written on the spine of library material that we use to organize all the material in the library.