Unapreciated and Unimportant- Ranting!

I'm home alone again, but I'm not setting traps for any unwary burglars, which is probably a good thing. Steve has gone out for dinner tonight with SFL and it simply isn't possible for me to get into London in time to go with them any more, because of where I am. It's a shame, as the one time I was able to go I had a great time. Ah well. Tomorrow I'm home alone again as he's off to see a Jimi Hendrix tribute with Paul and Lesley and again my late night means I can't go to that either. Hey ho, just one of those things. It still feels like he's barely been here for the past couple of weeks though. Awww!

I get my own back next week though as I'm off out for a curry next Tuesday night with various people from work for Janet and Jo's leaving do. That should be good, especially as they have a Lennon and McCartney theme night going on. Part of the insane week we've got- what with Gaz coming to stay and a trip to see In The Cage on Thursday with Ant and then a trip to Gaz's for the weekend too. I'm really looking forward to that, because, as ever, we've left it far too long between visits (almost a year!) and you know as well as I do, that that is far too long!

It's been a pretty ordinary week really. We had a community day at Great Hollands yesterday and successfully promoted the library all morning in the cold, well Pat did anyway. Heard the rumour that our director wants to shut down the three small libraries in the Borough- IE my two and Harmans Water, which won't be popular at all (certainly not with the Deputy Mayor who says she is fighting the plans every step of the way!) and makes me wonder what makes these people tick... still in many ways we're a very lucky authority, being one of the few not to have had any public libraries closed at all, and long may it remain so.

It's very difficult to quantify what we do, as much of our service passes under the radar- how to quantify the conversations you have with borrowers about the books they've read, the time you spend with kids helping them find information, the time you talk to the older people who come in and hear about their families and stuff? These are all important parts of my job and yet they pass unnoticed and don't seem to be important, and yet they form the basis of community engagement and interaction which is at the core of public library services I reckon. Sometimes I feel the core of what we do isn't appreciated at all, when all that seems to be deemed important is numbers of issues, number of issues and numbers in general. Sometimes, if I stop and think about it, it gets me down because it shouldn't be like this, but our customers never seem to be the focus of anything that comes down from above. I do know that they are the central part of my working life and that's why I'll try and do what I can to keep them happy and keep them coming back. Unappreciated we may be, but I never want my borrowers to feel that they are unappreciated or unimportant in my libraries.

God I'm tired! Rant over!