Fincastle Library

Why I like working at the Fincastle Library.

1. It's easy to get to and it pays the bills.
2. It's a beautiful drive through farming country with beautiful churches and well tended cemetaries.
3. I see deer sometimes and a bear once.
4. The town is so cute.
5. The people I work with.
a. Paige. She's a good boss even though she isn't there most of the time. She is also on the bookmobile..more on that later.
b. Rena. We are at the front desk together most of the time. She is funny and caring and laughs at her own jokes and repeats them so I can hear them again, in case I missed it the first time. She knows about genealogy and computers and is happy to share with all who ask.
c. Cathy. She trained me and had a lot of patience and never got frustrated (well, I'm sure she did, but was nice enough to pretend she wasn't). She seems all sweetness and light, but has a core of steel and won't let people walk on her..except family, but we ALL do that!
d. Doris. She is in the back most of the time, but is always willing to cover the front if I have to go on the floor. She takes my suggestions for new books. She allows me two corrections a day on books I find on the shelves that are wrong in some way. She is patient when she explains that it is right and I am wrong! She loves her grandbabies.
e. Jackie. I left her for the last because she is always the last to be noticed! She is the children's librarian and she quietly goes about getting everything ready for the kids with a rather stern look on her face, but lights up when she does the stories and the songs. The kids love Miss Jackie! She lets me fill in when she can't do it, but they prefer Miss Jackie. I'm OK with the stories and the crafts, but not so good with the songs!
f. Marilyn and Talie are there part time and nice, but I don't spend as much time with them.
g. Roy. He is the courier that brings the books from the other libraries for our patrons and delivers ours to others. He always has a funny story. If he tells you a terrible story, you can bet he is making it up.
6. The Bookmobile. Paige is training me to drive it when she or Marilyn can't. It's fun. You get to go all over the county to bring books to people that ordinarily couldn't get to the library on a regular basis. One day I'll write about the old men at Cave Creek and their unreliable pants and being mooned, but let's just say it isn't always boring!
7 . I love the people that come into the library. I love that if someone has had an illness and couldn't get their library books back on time we can take care of their fines. We have a patron who has a terminal illness and her TV no longer picks up channels, so she gets a lot of movies from us. We changed it so she can get as many as she wants and we will not let fines accumulate if she has been in the hospital. I most like learning about my patron's likes and dislikes and suggesting new authors that they might try. I LOVE it when they come back and want everything that author ever wrote. I keep lists for some of them and they ask for the next one and I order that one if we don't have it. I am slowly learning their names and I feel good when I can help them without asking who they are!

So, while I would rather be rich and not need to work, this is a good compromise. I would also like to make a lot more money if I have to get up at the crack of dawn and head out into the world, but I will accept a lower salary to have such a great working environment. Maybe they will be able to have a raise for us county employees NEXT year.