Damaged Goods
The Libraries and Librarians subreddit is THE place people go for library advice, now that Yahoo! Answers has lost its spot as the hotbed of bad questions and worse-er answers.
How are there 9 answers to this question? What could possibly remain to be said after, I don’t know, 5 responses?
Reddit seems to be at least slightly, marginally better than Yahoo! Answers when it comes to finding good info, probably due to the fact that there’s SOME attempt at moderation, and there’s a type of question I see come up a lot when it comes to non-library people asking library questions.
from Reddit:
book hurt by tornado...
Hello, my family are regulars at our library.. They know me and my oldest son by name because we are always checking out books multiple times a week... We have always returned every item on time and in same condition we rented it...
Well a tornado went down our street last week and a tree/branch went through the window.. Before the warning went off my oldest was reading in his bed and we honestly didn’t think much about anything other than get everyone to the safe room.
After the tornado passed and I am assessing the damage I realize his book had gotten wet with rain, it may have bits of glass shatters from the window but I cannot see them..
Our library had been down for a short bit for the tornado and this is their 2nd full day open.. The book is due back and I don’t know what to do.. I tried to dry it out but i really don’t know if it worked.. I feel ashamed and scared to bring this book back.. I am scared we will get in trouble or owe money (typically wouldn’t be an issue but our savings are tied to repairs atm so its kinda stressful idea).. I am scared we will not be allowed to borrow anymore and I just feel like maybe I should have thought to pack up all the library books and put them in the safe room... I thought this after of course..
so I am asking here.. what do I do? I’m also autistic and have never been in this situation so i genuinely don’t even know what to say... I feel really guilty about this :[ I am also worried its rented from to our library from another library (Idk if that makes sense its something my son does a lot)
EDIT: Thank you everyone for your comments! I feel prepared to bring in the book and explain my situation, I will also add it to our insurance claim because even if they waive the fee, I still want to pay for it since it was ruined in my possession. Thank you again!
What do you do when you damage a library book? How should you handle the situation?
BTW, it’s VERY cute to call this “hurting” a book.
Priorities
First of all, when stuff like this happens, we get it.
If you had a wildfire in your area, good chance your library dealt with some problems, and several other library users may have also had books at home. You’re not going to be the only one who brings in a damaged item, and I think most decent libraries are going to cut people a break.
But more than that, we get it, even when it’s not a community-wide thing.
Most of us have dealt with a car accident on some level, and maybe a book got damaged or left on the roadside somewhere. Or maybe you knew it was in the back seat, and now you have no fucking idea where it ended up after your car rolled over a couple times.
This is the time to remember that librarians are actual human people. We get sick, we take care of loved ones going through tough times, and our humanity is like yours. Well, slightly better than yours. C’mon, at the very least, that Masters degree should be good for making the occasional intellectual superiority joke.
Whenever someone brought in a halfway decent sob story, I did what I could to give them a pass. Because I can think to times when someone gave me just a little bit of grace in a tough time, and it can make all the difference.
How Librarians Relate to the Collection
Look, I don’t want you to hurt books, but, it happens, and we’re not precious about it.
I don’t mean to sound jaded and awful, but it’s not like you’re borrowing a book from my personal collection.
As a librarian, I like books a lot, but it’s not a personal attack when one gets damaged. We certainly don’t prefer that books are damaged, but this is real life. Things happen. SHIT happens! If a library book being damaged is the worst outcome of a disaster, you got off lucky.
People have this image of librarians, that we know where all the books in the collection are at any given moment, that the day your book ticks into overdue territory, we know about it. That we probably have a wall of Polaroids featuring people with outstanding overdues.
We don’t do those things.
One of the plus/minus things about automation is that it has depersonalized aspects of library service. Might be a bad thing in terms of my ability to recommend books you might like, just on sight, but it’s a good thing in that I don’t have to make it a personal crusade to get the books back from you when they’re overdue. I don’t even really need to think about that. I just let the machine do my dirty work.
What to Do, In Order
I want to just lay this all out so it’s in your brain should something unfortunate happen.
The goal here is basically to give you a good shot at getting the fines waived, even if you encounter a librarian who is being kind of an asshole (or, as likely if not moreso, an organization that kind of forces library staff into the role of Asshole).
I can’t guarantee you won’t have to pay for a book, but here’s what I would suggest to maximize your chances:
First, if there’s theft, fire, whatever, get the books on the insurance claim, police report, whatever documentation is created. You may or may not need it, but it makes it incredibly easy to waive a fine if you can show us that your car was broken into in an attempt to get at your collection of Quiet Riot cassettes. Joke’s on you, thief, that cassette has been jammed in the tape player of this 2000 Corolla for like 7 years now. You’d be doing me a favor if you managed to take it out and abscond with it. Not a major favor, Metal Health is an extremely underrated album.
Next, contact the library. If possible, go in. Tell them your story. Just give the person at the desk the opportunity to potentially say, “Okay, we’ll just waive that.” That’s what I always did. If you have the material, bring it with you, but put it in a large plastic bag if you can (if it was exposed to water, better to not let it touch anything else). If there are potentially shards of glass or something like that in it, please warn the staff before they touch the material so that they don’t get cut or end up with glass shards on a desktop.
If the person at the desk stares or asks something like, “What would you like to do?” don’t be shy about saying, “I’d like to see if you’d consider waiving the fine.”
If that doesn’t work, I think it’s okay to politely say something along the lines of, “Is there someone I can make my case to and potentially have these charges waived?” Be very careful how you say this, be incredibly polite, you don’t want “Let me speak to your manager” energy, but it’s completely reasonable to ask. A lot of times, whoever’s working at the desk has a limited ability to waive large fines, but they have a very high level of ability to bring out someone who can waive the fine-y-est of fines.
As you talk to this next person, start with the same story. And if you’re in a tough financial moment, TELL THEM. It’s okay to say, “Normally I’d like to just pay for this and have it done, but this has been a really expensive time due to the disaster, so that’s going to be tough for me right now.”
If You STILL Have To Pay
If you want, talk to the library board. Tell them your story. Tell them that you think it’s wrong that you were made to pay for something that was damaged through no fault of your own.
My recommendation, though, is that you pay and move on with your life. Don’t stop using the library, don’t vote down the library when they look for a tax increase.
As an analogy, we’ve all had a shitty Wendy’s trip. One shitty Wendy’s trip shouldn’t turn you off of Wendy’s forever. Think of all the joy you’ll miss out on, all the Double Stacks. THE DOUBLE STACKS!
Likewise, by not using/helping the library, you’ll mostly be missing out on your own opportunities for enjoyment.
A Message to Library Staffs
My dudes, let’s cut people a break.
Are some people full of shit when it comes to their sob stories? Of course. But…are some people going through a time? Yeah. Yeah, they are.
Look, if someone is willing to lie about a relative being in the hospital just to get out of a library fine, you’re not going to be the person who finally makes them see the error of their ways and encourages them to change their ways. More likely, you’re going to briefly enter this insane person’s personal hell, which they’ll take you on a tour of, and you’ll get spit out the other side with, at the very least, your day ruined.
More than that, consider what’s more valuable: Getting recouped for this item, or:
Your time
Your energy
This person’s good vibes towards the library next time a vote comes up
This person’s continued use of the library
Because the truth is, when you work in a library, you have to love books, but you have to love readers even more.