When I think about libraries, I usually picture quiet, welcoming rooms filled with rows and rows of titles, and people sitting at tables indulging in the best literature these places have to offer.
I also soft-spoken, grey-haired women with big glasses sitting behind a desk, happy and ready to direct you towards the right section to suit your reading needs.
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But, that’s only because I’ve never worked in one.
As it turns out, librarians deal with annoying customers just like the rest of us.
But rather than simply sit back and put up with being asked the same questions day after day after day , some of these people decide to troll their most headache-inducing patrons in pretty clever ways.
Most recently, librarians have begun putting together some pretty pointed book displays.
As seen in the above picture, one Twitter user shared a photo of their local library where some cheeky librarian has gathered a collection of books that all have one thing in common: the color red. Because as it turns out, people have a really bad habit of asking for help finding a book based solely on its color.
Which really isn’t very helpful at all.
After seeing this viral picture, another person revealed their library adopted a similar means of trolling people.
In this instance, this library has to deal with patrons constantly asking where that one blue book might be. If they can’t remember the title or the author, apparently saying the text’s color is the next best thing.
Some people online shared other infuriating questions that patrons inevitably always come up with.
As this person shared, they’ve been asked to locate books based on such vague descriptors as, “I don’t remember the title, or the author, but it was about a dog?”
Another shared that they have repeatedly dealt with patrons describing a specific book by saying, “‘they were talking about it on [insert tv/radio show here] yesterday.”
Again, super helpful.
Apparently, some librarians and bookstore clerks actually pride themselves on being absolute *pros* at finding books based on color.
This person was somehow able to locate a “book about bishops with a yellow cover”, even though the person asking for it was actually wrong about the color! Talk about next-level detective skills!
Someone else revealed they were able to find a very specific book for a kid who only offered up the fact that their teacher read it to them in class and it was about “Korea splitting in two”.
As it turns out, they meant Berlin, but this skilled librarian was still able to track down the right book!
So what should we take away from these library trolls and incredible book finds?
Well first of all, let’s all agree that librarians are amazing and they’re out here dealing with some of the vaguest, most annoying customers possible.
And I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a librarian lose their cool on someone, even if they’re being entirely unhelpful in their book request.
So let’s make a real effort to appreciate librarians a bit more and maybe research our prospective book-buys better before we hit the library.
