The Good Part of Being an Outreach Librarian

The library Outreach department serves the margins of society - small rural communities, schools with young children, and assisted living facilities for the aged and infirm. In a previous post, I discussed a major system shock due to some of the patrons I meet. I think it's time now for a more uplifting commentary.

I drive one of these! Just imagine there's a library logo on the side. Image credit

My primary duties will be driving a Sprinter van to various assisted living facilities ranging from independent housing communities to nursing homes. In the back of the van, there is shelving filled with large-print books and a book cart loaded with more of the same along with a selection of DVDs and Audiobook CDs. On the back, the van has a lift gate for the book cart.

Each stop involves rolling the cart onto the lift gate, lowering it to the ground, strapping on between 1 and 3 bags filled with items people placed on hold for delivery, and carrying in a mobile checkout tablet or laptop along with a barcode scanner. This is all brought into the main lobby or recreation room of the facility, and I set up camp for 30-60 minutes. During this time, stacks of items are delivered to people, requests for the next visit's deliveries are discussed, books are checked out from the cart selection, previously-borrowed items are checked in, and numerous overlapping and intertwining conversations occur.

Depending on the facility, there could be people still as sharp as a tack, mentally disabled due to any number of causes, or almost completely catatonic. The first group is fun to work with. The second group is a crap shoot. The third doesn't even care that I am there. I have already covered the difficulties of the middle and last groups in the above-linked previous post, so I want to mention the fun aspects of the first and middle categories today.

As the new guy, I have a bit of a challenge in becoming accepted by people who have built relationships with the other outreach librarians, especially since I am a guy who is replacing their favorite lady librarian, but either a well-placed wisecrack or an astute book suggestion can quickly break the ice. Once they know I'm a librarian who has some idea what they might like and a desire to help them find new books, they loosen up and are eager to chat about this and that while browsing the cart and requesting other titles.

Many of these patrons are women in their 80s, and one stop has a regular patron who recently celebrated her 102nd birthday! A few are amusingly flirtations in a charmingly antiquated way, a few are crotchety in a charmingly antiquated way, and of course there are a couple who are crotchety in a not-at-all charming way, but they are all eager readers and all like to twitter amongst one another about their latest literary finds. Naturally, many of these women tend to gravitate toward romance novels and "Cozy Mysteries," but there are a few who want very non-stereotypical titles too.

There aren't as many aged male readers, but I suspect this may be due to the decreased odds of men reaching such ages in the first place. The men tend to prefer westerns, thrillers, and non-fiction history. I suspect some of these gentlemen are rather disappointed at not having a lady librarian to flirt with anymore, but they also seem to enjoy having someone they believe will have a better grasp of "guy stuff," too.

For a closing thought today, I would like to suggest anyone reading this take some time to visit a local elder care center of some kind and try to get to know the residents. Talk to the manager or programming coordinator to see whether they'd like volunteers and donations. If you play an instrument, bring it along and play a few old-time tunes. Most facilities already have a piano somewhere. Bring some good books for their in-house libraries. If you have a hobby, see if you could offer to lead a craft program. Take action to bring these people into the community, especially if they cannot easily go out into the community from their residence. Make new friends, and get the perspectives of people who have seen a lot more years than you have. And, of course, support your local library!