Shelving Away....

I realized today that I won't be shelving at the library very much longer. I'll most likely be quitting this summer. It's kind of sad.

I know I made fun of shelving in my last post, but I really have enjoyed it. The full, heavy carts. The warm, quiet library. The smooth, colorful books. It's all very peaceful, soothing, and relaxing.

I have to admit that I wasn't entirely truthful in that last post. I gave as tip #2 "Only shelve early reader nonfiction if you feel like you don't have enough suffering in your life." But I only know that from hearsay. I've never actually shelved early reader nonfiction - until today.

Yes, I thought it was time to do what I've been avoiding for so long.

So I grabbed the heavy laden cart with a steely resolve in my eye. (What is a steely resolve, actually? Does anyone know?) Anyway, whatever it is I had it in my eye. It itched, like when an eyelash falls out and gets trapped beneath your eyelid. I stood there for ten minutes rubbing at until it finally came out. Then I was bleary eyed and couldn't read any of the numbers.

No, just kidding about the steely resolve bit. I sorted the cart with no mishaps, except that my foot fell asleep from kneeling down and sorting the bottom row of books. The thing about early readers, or any juvenile books, is that the books are a lot thinner, which means there's a lot more of them on every cart.

After I had sorted every book into the correct or mostly correct order, I tenaciously trudged into the children's section with my cumbersome cart. I think the librarian gave me a sympathetic look when she saw me, although it might have been a grateful one.

So I shelved from 289 (Unitarian churches) to 947.08 (Russia after 1885). And it wasn't actually that bad. The shelves were short, so I didn't have to reach up too high. I sat on the floor most of the time and worked from there. The books weren't in the precise order, but they were spaced fairly well apart, which makes it easier to put new books in.

And now I've done it. I have to say, there's no feeling like the one you get when you put the last book away on an enormous cart. It's satisfaction, exhilaration, and freedom, all rolled into one.

I was going to take a picture of the early reader nonfiction section to include with this post, but unfortunately I forgot to. So you'll just have to imagine it.

[insert imaginary picture of early reader nonfiction section here]

On the plus side, I've put in about a hundred hours at the library, so that should be a good reference on my résumé.