People You Might Meet At The Library

There was a woman who would come to the library and stand in front of the drinking fountain. She would turn on the water and watch it as it came up out of the fountain. That's all she did. She would stand there and watch the water run for several minutes, and then she would leave. She never drank the water. She didn't check out any items. She just watched the water and then left.

We never found out who this was, and he was never caught in the act, but there was a man who would come to the library and relieve himself in various places in the library: in a small metal trash can at the end of one of the stacks, on the wall near the audio-visual rack, on the floor behind where the newspapers were stored. We never knew where he would strike next. It was most unpleasant to be the one to discover where the newest wet spot on the carpet was.

There was a man who came in with the palest skin I've ever seen. He had big dark circles under his eyes; long, straight black hair; and wore only black clothing, head to toe. He never spoke. He would nod his head to acknowledge that he had been spoken to but otherwise never said a word. He would just hand us his library card and the books he wanted to check out when he was ready to leave.

This woman would come once a week to the audio listening lab at the university library. She would request nothing but Cat Stevens' music. She would sit and listen through the head phones to Cat Stevens' songs for several hours and then go home. (Cat Stevens is now known as Yusuf Islam, but this was in the late 70's before Stevens changed his name.) Therefore, she eventually was dubbed "Mrs. Cat Stevens" by the library staff.

Someone (we assumed was a man) would visit the men's restroom. However, instead of using the provided facilities, this person would defecate on the floor in one corner of the men's bathroom. This man (similar to Mr. I.P. Freely above) was never identified or caught in the act. There was some speculation that the Mad Pooper and Mr. Freely were one and the same person, but this was never proved. We, who worked at the circulation and reference desks, were very glad that we didn't have Joe the Janitor's job.

This older lady would come to the library quite frequently. She would wander around among the book shelves for a short while and then go to the desk to chat with the librarians. None of us knew her personally outside the library, but she knew the names of everyone who worked there. She would talk to whomever would listen to her for about half an hour or so, and then she would leave. She never checked out anything, to my knowledge. She was just a lonely soul in search of a friendly face.

For a while, there were repeated incidences reported of a man exposing himself to patrons and to librarians back in the nonfiction section of the book stacks. He was eventually apprehended by authorities.

This patron was a librarian's worse nightmare. She checked books and other materials out of the library frequently. Unfortunately, many of these items never returned. Others were returned late. Still others would return with pop spilled on them or the edges chewed by the family dog. She was in constant battle with the overdue lady (The overdue lady was the librarian who sent out overdue notices to patrons, and who also would eventually have to report overly delinquent patrons to the collection agency).

Homeless Harry was a homeless man, obviously. He actually was one of the nicest patrons we had. He was always very polite and caused no trouble to anyone. He had no library card (it is necessary to show proof of address at most, if not all, libraries to obtain a card). He would just come and sit at one of the tables and read for hours, not disturbing anyone. He did have an unfortunate odor about him because of his circumstances. Some tried to help him, to have Social Services lend him a hand to get a fresh start in life. He refused help though. He preferred to live the life he had chosen on the streets.

These children were named by the library staff after the characters in the series of books written by Gertrude Chandler Warner. The children in the books were orphans who had to fend for themselves by living in an old abandoned boxcar. The kids who came to the library were not orphans but were dropped off at the library and left to fend for themselves. In other words, their parents used the library as their own personal babysitting service of sorts. Fortunately, these kids were well behaved, but we often worried about their safety when they were left unsupervised by their parents. This especially worried us, considering some of the other regular patrons that we had.

The Clique Chics was a group of about 5 or 6 teenage girls who would come to the library after school presumably to do their homework. Very little homework was done, but there was lots of gossip and gum popping and girlie giggling.