#i know im overly sensitive to how other people behave and how it relates to me

[lyriumrain]

something people dont talk about is the fact that having a poor experience working at a library can make you not wanna go back to libraries. It's mostly psychological - but not entirely. I can tell when a librarian is annoyed by my presence, i can tell when they're just chin-wagging to each other and ignoring the front desk

for example, had an experience at the city library not long after moving to the city where a book i was returning required an employee to check it immediately because it came with a CD. The employees were standing in a group at the returns desk, chatting away, and I sheepishly approached with the most polite 'excuse me' i could muster, and the lady who I assume was supposed to be working the front desk turned around and gave me an absolutely filthy stink eye, like I was encroaching on her spare time (And no there were no 'desk closed' signs or any indication this was some big important meeting, they were all standing around the little returns desk and no other desk was manned at the time.) She yanked the book away, checked the CD and waved me away to return to the little book club forming around the desk. Things like that make a really awful part of me want to come out and call her a bitch.

but ofc i didn't and i would never. I'd hope someone else would give me grace when I'm acting like that. But sometimes I don't think librarians/library officers even realise they're acting like that/giving off that impression, it's ingrained in a lot libraries around here as a librarians vs clients type deal and it's awful for the atmosphere of the library. But ofc I also have to acknowledge that the "regular" client may not pick up on that and it's purely my experience of working with people like this that sets me off