My son is developmentally
disabled. He comes home on
weekends where part of our routine is driving to a neighboring town’s public
library. Even though he cannot
read he loves to go through the stacks in the children’s section and pull out
books to take home. The
librarians, both upstairs in the children’s area and at the checkout counter,
are very good with him. We have
been following this weekly ritual for the last few years and the staff has
gotten to know him.
This week’s series of cards takes
note of these helpful and patient individuals. My correspondence was not just directed at the staff at this
one particular library, but at a number of such places as well as a few specific
librarians.
There are actually two different
libraries my son frequents on his weekly visits home—both outside our hometown. We swing by one more often then the
other since it is on the way to “The Cow.” This is his name for the Stew Leonard grocery store not far
from our house. One of their
features, in the middle of the market, is a mechanical cow’s head sticking out
of a barn door. You can press a
button to slowly rotate its head and set-off a loud mooing sound.
I wanted the Director of the
respective institutions to know how accommodating and supportive their staff
has been during our excursions there since I’m sure thank you notes to
employees are not very common. Our
trips are pleasing as opposed to being painful.
As I wrote these two cards, I felt
the need to also send notes to two of our town librarians that, over the years,
have been warmhearted, caring and understanding to all our children (I’m sure
their professionalism extended to all the kids in town, not just our own). My two oldest are out of college, but I
still remember bringing them to the public library for story time, to play, and
take out books to bring home decades earlier. Sometimes I thanked them for their assistance or instructed
my youngsters to do the same. But,
as with many instances in life, I probably didn’t say “thank you” enough or at
the right moment. My short note to
two of them—the Director of the Children’s section at the main branch and one
of the librarians there—was a small way to amend my lack of acknowledging their
time and energy in educating and entertaining my (all) children.
The last two librarians I sent
correspondence to this past week are employed at our institution. Before I go on let me state one
characteristic about our campus, a regional branch of the University of
Connecticut, which highlights a reason for sending notes to these two
individuals. For the most part, our
campus is a very collegial work environment. Many of us are one-person offices with multiple
responsibilities. This is a
combination of happenstance and necessity. The head of our campus library could
easily stay in her first floor setting, but she chooses otherwise and is an
integral part of our administrative team.
Personally, she has aided me in my research, provided material for our
Freshman Year Experience (FYE) curriculum, and indulged me by allowing some of
my more off-beat collections to be exhibited in the library display cases. I wanted her to know my appreciation
and thanks in a more formal (handwritten) manner.
The other librarian, who is now the
Director at a different regional campus, started her tenure at the University
at my campus. She, too, has gone
above and beyond duty in helping me dig up information for my journal article
literature reviews, patiently explained new technologies to me, and helped
establish our FYE program many years ago.
She also was the one who sent me the link to John Kralik’s book, which was
the impetus for me starting my journey.
Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t be
so quick with my thank you? :-)
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