A Tissue Issue

It's come to yours truly's attention that the Portchester-Rye Brook, NY Public Library will be touching its patrons in a personal way, and I mean very personal.  The library plans to use ad-supported toilet paper in its bathrooms.  In plain English, that means advertisements for various products and services will be printed on the paper you use to wipe your backside.

Has the library funding crisis really come down to this?  According to the library director, the library would save around $1,000 a year on purchasing toilet paper, because institutions that choose to use ad-supported toilet paper get it for free.  It's completely understandable that libraries, which are strapped for cash these days, are looking for breaks wherever they can, but I think it's sad that they have to resort to such advertising in place of community financial support.

And even though the ink used on the toilet paper is soy-based and therefore natural, what happens when you have a library patron who's allergic to soy products?  Will libraries risk lawsuits or will patrons have to tote around their own rolls of toilet paper for their personal use?

If anything, the issue of ad-supported toilet paper should be a wake-up call for communities to do more to support their libraries.  Vote for levies, donate some books, attend library programs, make your voices heard.  I bet if everyone made a $1 donation to their local library, it would make a difference.

Yours from a currently ad-free perch.

Keeping the Library Clean

You expect some workplaces to be a little messy, like hospitals, construction sites, and crime scenes.  I bet, however, that you'd never expect a library to be one of those workplaces that's rather unkempt.  After all, how can a bunch of books in themselves be messy?  They're all neatly ordered on the shelves, right?

Well, the books may be organized in their proper places on the bookcases, but it's what patrons do with the books that make them messy.  You'd be surprised by the condition in which some books get returned to us.  Coffee stains, scribbles, water damage, food, unknown sticky stuff, and sometimes brown stuff that we hope isn't what we think it is.

Besides books, we find other things that are messy in the library.  The tables occasionally have drops of coffee, soda, and whatnot on them.  The pillows in the kids' room sometimes have dribble.  The computer keyboards are full of germs from kids and adults who don't use tissues when they sneeze or cough.  And don't get me started on the computer passes.  It's just a few yards between the desk and the computer lab, yet I'm amazed what people do with the passes during that short journey: putting them in their mouths and getting whatever else on them that we don't want to know about.

I and my library colleagues do our best to keep the library, its materials, and its equipment clean.  We're armed with Clorox Wipes and Swiffer Dusters, and we're not afraid to use them.  It's a HUGE help, though, when our patrons do their their part to take care of the library.  When you check out materials, treat them as if they're your materials because they are that: YOUR materials.  Be careful not to share your delicious lunch with them--books don't like to eat, and they don't like taking baths just because you do.  And please use tissues and sanitizer to help keep equipment clean and prevent others from catching your cold.

If we all take care of the library and do our best to keep it clean, we can all enjoy it and its great materials for a long time to come.

Hard at work sanitizing the perch.