You may come upon some fairy tale haters

The Story:  Unbeknownst to anyone on library staff, a patron comes in looking for a DVD of a 3 Little Pigs story.  They search it up in the catalog, and as luck would have it, only one of the several versions we have is available at the moment:  the Fairy Tale Theatre version.  As anyone who has seen even a snippet of these movies knows, these are some strange films.  They're technically for children, and not inappropriate, but they take a 5-minute fairy tale and turn it into an hour-long production, which includes some jokes and references that only adults would get.  Honestly, the biggest problem with showing this version of any fairy tale to a young child is that they will get bored.  However, this patron seemed to be incredibly offended that the library would have this available for preschoolers.  What one needs to keep in mind, however, is that it is cataloged as a juvenile non-fiction DVD, which is on the opposite end of the shelving unit from the preschool-aged DVDs.  We actually have them separated.  JJ DVDs for younger children, J DVDs for older children, and J Non-fiction DVDs after that.  This movie was not sitting next to Barney or Caillou.  It is even on the top shelf, where small hands can't reach it accidentally.  The real problem is that all the preschool-geared versions were out at the moment, and the patron never bothered to ask a librarian for help.  Had they done so, we would have recommended that they request a different version from another library, as this one is a little long for four-year olds.

I do appreciate a few things about this patron's complaint, though.  Firstly, it was done so nicely, handwritten, on nice stationary, sealed and dropped off with the DVD in question upon return.  Secondly, they didn't seem to want a confrontation, as they wrote the note and left.  They didn't march in demanding to speak to the person in charge.  We later did look them up and call them, offering to put other versions of the story on hold for them, and explaining that had they asked, we wouldn't have recommended this particular title for a four-year-old.  Thirdly, they didn't foam at the mouth and demand that all traces of this item's existence be removed from the library at once.  They merely thought it should be kept in a section for older children, which, ironically, it already was.

The Lesson/Resources:  Basically, just know your stuff.  Know your collection, categorize it appropriately, and have your policies to fall back on should a real challenge appear.  In that case, ALA has some good resources here, here, and here.  While library school did try to prepare us for dealing with book challenges and the like, they didn't prepare us for the non-challenge that happened here.  "Keep this movie in the section for older children!"  Okay, job's done!

You may have to get your hands dirty...very dirty (Butterfly GardenPart 2)

The Story:  After removing all that gravel, you discover that underneath, from years of heavy gravel and rainwater unabsorbed by plants, there is a hard clay-dust-rock-like substance that is in no way arable land.  Much like a martian landscape, your garden area is barren and incapable of supporting life.  So, off to the local hardware store you go, after measuring the garden and calculating how many square feet of soil you're going to need to buy.  You schedule a delivery of what should be more than enough soil, and when it gets there (three days after the scheduled delivery date), it sits on the sidewalk next to the garden while it rains for a week.  Meanwhile, your actual planting date is looming ever closer, because before you actually dug out the garden space, you've been hosting programs where the children helped prepare the plants (more on that in another post).  And now they're sprouting.

Finally, you get a nice enough day to get out there with a shovel and a garden rake, you put the dirt down, and discover you're still, somehow, a little bit short.  Back to the hardware store for another delivery.  This eventually comes and you cover up the rest of the barren garden bed, just in time for the first sprout planting program with the kids.

The Lesson & Resources:  Be prepared to get your hands seriously dirty and muddy, and bring clothing and shoes you don't care about to change into before you start dumping dirt.  You may wind up doing most of this part yourself due to scheduling, weather, etc.  Allow more time and more resources than you think you actually need, and then allow for more.  You'll always be over-budget and barely on time.  You will, however, eventually end up with a plantable garden, and kids who are excited to do the planting.

Stay tuned for more misadventures in planning a library butterfly garden.

You may have to shovel gravel for multiple hours (Butterfly Garden Part 1)

The Story:  Spring is coming, and you decide it would be a great learning experience for the children to raise butterflies at the library.  Then, you think how great it would be for them to do some good for the planet and build a butterfly garden.  You have the perfect spot in mind:  plenty of sun, nothing growing there now, and it even gets some visibility as people drive by on their way to the book drop.  The only problem is that it is covered in gravel at least three inches thick, on top of a weed barrier cloth, on top of hard-packed clay.  You don't know any of this yet.

Here is the before picture:

So you enlist the help of the custodian, who is the only person on staff accustomed to physical labor, as you know nobody else will volunteer for this task, and you start shoveling.  Of course you have to talk to the boss to get off-desk time for the project and permission to wear ratty jeans while you're working.  Ever try to garden in business casual?  I don't recommend it.

You think this will take a couple of hours.  When you estimated this for the boss, you didn't take into account how dense this gravel was, and you didn't realize how deep it was either.  There's also the task of redistributing the gravel to other beds once you've removed it from this one.  Two or three hours is not enough.

I can't tell you how many hours we spent in total, but it was a lot.  It took multiple sessions of a couple or more hours at a time to get the appropriate amount of gravel cleared away.  I was sore for a day or two after each time, but it was the good soreness that can only come from knowing you've worked physically hard and accomplished something.

The Lesson:  It will always take longer than you think it will.  A bin full of gravel takes two people to lift.  The weather will not cooperate with your availability schedule.  There will be problems that you did not foresee, and you will just have to deal with them.  You've already started this garden project, and it's too late to back out now.

The Resources:  Hopefully you have a few good, sturdy shovels on hand for digging.  In the absence of a wheelbarrow, a low, flat book cart with plastic bins on them makes a good gravel transport.  Having deodorant in your work locker is something you'll be grateful that you already do after a day of shoveling gravel when you have to get presentable again for your shift at the desk.

Stay tuned for more mishaps and adventures in creating a library butterfly garden from scratch.