My Life in 12-Point Font:

September 8, 2006

I'm here at the library doing this entry, and there's a sign posted on the wall behind the Internet stations that reads:

"One customer at a computer at a time. Thank you."

Since when did library patrons become "customers"? The whole point of a public library is that it is free, no? I am not paying anything to be here -- well, except for my overdue fines, of course, which if I could manage to curtail would easily pay for a cable subscription or a massage at the spa or any number of things, but what can I say, we are a family of disorganized readers -- so I am definitely not a "customer." I am a "patron".

"Patron" just feels more legitimate, somehow, than "customer." A customer is someone who is transacting business with an establishment. I'm not transacting anything. I'm here to make use of the books, other media, and sometimes Internet access that is provided to me by the great public library system of my fine city.

I don't know. Being called a "customer" makes me feel cheap and sordid in this context. I am maybe overthinking this, but I am right that libraries typically call the people that come through the doors "patrons", yes? This is not some bizarre local discrepancy?

Anyway. I am here at the library because the kids are both at preschool and I am at loose ends. Loose ends! Loose ends are such a rare and therefore miraculous thing to be at when you're a parent. I have an unending and never-finished list of stuff that I need to be doing, comprising everything from housecleaning to sewing projects to banking to Enriching The Lives Of My Children. This last item, like a system file on your operating system, is a permanent fixture and cannot ever be deleted. Especially when, as it was over the summer, the kids are with me constantly, so that even when they are playing quietly in the basement play room, or watching a Thomas the Tank Engine video, or doing a jigsaw puzzle, and I nominally have some free time, I am thinking, "I should be doing more for them. I should be enriching their lives. Good parents would come up with some interesting and educational activity and would not just run upstairs to the Internet every time the kids aren't paying attention."

However, this morning I dropped both of them off at 8:30 and didn't have to be back until 11:15, and decided it wasn't worth my while to drive home and back. So I went to Cup O' Joe and had a coffee and a slice of quiche and read the paper, and then came over here to the library to hang out for a bit. The kids are being adequately enriched by their preschool teachers right now, so the pressure is off for these few short hours.

It is delightful and freeing, and yet I miss them. It is like Christmas every day when it is pickup time and I come through the door. They spot me and yell, "Mommy!" and generally either want to give me a big hug or want to show me some cool thing that they were working on in their class. Zeke spent two full days telling me about the interesting "rubber band" work that is new to his classroom this year, and then finally yesterday morning physically dragged me to the shelf where it sat and demonstrated how to lace the rubber bands around the wooden pegs just so. I said, "Wow, Zeke! That's just as interesting as you said it was!" and he beamed at me.

45 delicious and endless minutes until I have to/get to pick them up.

Posted at September 8, 2006 10:14 AM

Loved this entry. Rubber bands!

Posted by: Celia at September 8, 2006 4:52 PM

Unfortunately, it's not a bizarre local discrepancy. Though I don't work in a public library, my impression is that there are many out there that refer to their users as "customers." In my library, we say "patrons" or "library users."

I think the use of "customers" has the potential to create a sense of entitlement in library users, and a sense of desperation in library workers. "We better give these customers what they want or they may go to Barnes and Noble". Certainly we want to be responsive and provide services and resources that are useful and desirable to our community, but you're right, we're not transacting business with you, we're Enriching Your Life!

I wish I could see a picture of the interesting rubber band thing.

Posted by: monica at September 8, 2006 7:39 PM

You know, I am equally miffed at being referred to as a guest at Target. If I am a guest, where is my damned cocktail? Maybe somebody at the library decided that "patron" was sexist. But I definitely don't want to be a library "matron."

And I would like to point out that leaving your kids alone sometimes to solve their own problems is actually a form of enrichment. I know too many children who have no ability to negotiate with other kids because their parents constantly intervene. Give 'em some space and don't feel guilty.

Posted by: Amelia at September 8, 2006 7:42 PM

Interesting that you wrote about the guilt surround the enrichment of your children's lives. As pulled up your website just moments before reading that, I took a second to listen to my kids playing in the living room and thought, "I should be playing with them or doing something with them. I don't do enough with them." A ridiculous thought since I spend 24/7 with them. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has such thoughts!

Posted by: Laura at September 9, 2006 9:22 AM