Just Another Day At The Desk....

When you work with the public, in a public place, you run into all kinds of people and find all kinds of strange things. Working in a public library is no different. Our patrons run the gamut from adorable preschoolers to the elderly, and everyone in between.

Sometimes these patrons leave behind some strange or gross things. I have found feces, urine, vials of growth hormone, and marijuana, just to name a few.  Co-workers have found dirty diapers or cups of bourbon stuck in the shelves. And of course there are the ubiquitous food wrappers, pieces of food, drinks, and used tissues.

The other day when I was working the children's desk, the condom fairy paid another visit. It had been awhile since the last visit, when a patron approached me to report that someone was dropping condoms down on him from the level above. Fearing the worst, I went over to investigate and was greatly relieved to find an unused, unopened condom on the floor. I reported it to the manager and security, but by that point the culprit was long gone and I doubt they felt it was worth reviewing security footage. I'm just very thankful it was an unused one!

This time, the condom fairy left a whole packet of condoms on the service desk, along with information about getting tested for HIV. I had no idea who left it, or when. I had been at or near the desk almost the whole time, and there weren't that many people around, so I would think I would have noticed. I'm not sure if a patron had accidentally left it behind, or if this was someone's idea of public health advocacy and they were sneaking around leaving them at random places. So I just let the branch manager know that someone might be distributing condoms inside the library and disposed of them.  

Definitely one of the stranger things to find in the children's department, but certainly not the most disgusting. Thankfully, the rest of the shift was relatively uneventful, just some shelving, helping patrons find books for summer reading, and pulling *10* pages worth of items for holds or transfers.