[Publib] Re: You know your a rural librarian in Kansas when ...

[Chris (CE)]

Dear Colleagues,

Today we have been playing this game on the Kansas librarians' listserv.

Below are the ones we have collected.

Chris

Kansas additions

… UPS delivers to your home because the library is closed.

… you’re stopped at the Casey’s in a near-by town and asked if you have 
such and such book.
- Diane Bott, Bison Community Library, Bison, KS

… you have a newborn baby goat in your office at the library because it 
was rejected by its mother, and you are bottle feeding it.

… you are late to work because you had to drop animals off at the sale 
barn.

… you need to leave early to take your kids and their livestock to the 
4-H weigh in.

… you come to work with chicken poop somewhere on your person.
- Shelly Huelsman

… a patron had to pay for a damaged book because it fell in the sheep dip.
- Susan Moyer

… you stay open when the electricity is out because people will be in 
for books to read until the power is back on.

… it doesn’t surprise you when the reason for power outage is because a 
combine took out a telephone pole.

… the book is dirty “because I was reading it in the field while I was 
waiting on . . .” makes perfect sense to you.

… you suggest checking the trucks and tractors for that missing 
audiobook CD.
- Mary Hester, Barton County Community College Library, Great Bend, KS

… your first reference question is from a 4-H member asking how long to 
leave a rooster with hens before what he wants to happen happens
- Melanie Miller, Hays Public Library, Hays, KS

… the regular library person forgot it was her day to work, so an 8th 
grader who volunteers on Saturdays went looking for a key to open the 
library and run it.
- Kim, Sabetha, Kansas

… the state library consultant is asked to run the library for a few 
minutes because the librarian is the only one on duty and a patron 
called needing help canning beans.
- Roy Bird, State Library of Kansas, Topeka, KS

… staff members know the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of the 
kid checking out books.

… a dog wanders into the library and you call the owner.

… staff members can walk to any store downtown during their break.

… patrons bring you vegetables from their gardens.
- Roger Carswell, Southeast Kansas Library System, Iola, KS

… you are late to work because the railroad crossing was blocked by 
railroad cars moving forward and back again while switching to the grain 
elevator tracks (this can take 20 minutes or more!).
- Judy Burgess, Abilene Public Library, Abilene, KS

… patrons use your car as a bookdrop, within a 60 mile radius of the 
library.
- Eunice

... you are late for work and kids knock on your front door and ask you 
why you are not at the library.
- Barbara Langston, Courtland and Formoso Libraries, Courtland and 
Formoso, KS

... people run out to their cars and return books to you while you are 
in the grocery store.

... you find book donations on your home front porch.

... patrons ask you to bring books they have on hold to meetings and 
baseball games.

... patrons come to your house when the library is closed and ask to 
check out a book because they don't have anything to read.
- Alice Smith, Carbondale City Library, Carbondale, KS 66414

… you slow down on my way to the library for a parade of field mice 
running across a gravel road. There were about 15 to 20 of them.
- Wendy Morlan, Pleasanton Lincoln PL, Pleasanton, KS