The Hazards of Working in a Library

Part of my new job involves supervising the library for a couple of periods a day. That means helping kids with homework, checking books in and out, and keeping the peace. It is not that exciting unless the students need help; most of the time they do not, although one of the classes has way too many students in it and they would rather throw things at each other than do work. A few weeks ago our librarian resigned. Until they hire someone to replace her, I am filling most of the time slots. It is nice to be working more, but there are more than a few problems associated with me working 5 hours a day in a room full of books.

First off, there is the temptation problem. I am constantly faced with the choice to teach or get lost in a book: unfortunately for the students and the people who are paying me, reading often wins.

Second, there is the boredom problem. While one or two periods have students that need a lot of supervision, most of the periods are host to members of the AP English club who ask me to proofread their essays once in a while but don't need me on a daily basis. And not having anything to do, encourages problem A.

Third, since when has anyone thought I would be good at crowd control? When things get crazy, you try telling three teenage boys to quiet down and respond in a strong but controlled manner when they tell you to "stop getting all up in my grill." (What does that really mean anyway?)

Fourth, what are we letting kids read these days? I have taken the liberty of pulling some of the books off the shelves, because there are quite a few that are just not appropriate for youth. We've got books that I would be embarrased to read. I'm kind of disappointed in authors of teenage books right now.

And finally, reading during the day leads to me being caught up in some novel or another and just wanting to find the ending out; which means that I have lost a lot of sleep to words on the page. The internal struggle within me at night goes something like this:
You should put that down and give in to sleep - you are really tired and have to do this all over again tomorrow.
But there's only 200 pages left and you could just skim through it and find out what happens.
You are terrible at skimming and so tired! Be responsible and put it down.
Just 10 more minutes...
Its been an hour already.

Hopefully by the end of the week we will have hired someone and I will be back to spending two hours in there a day. Trust me, it will be better for all involved.