What Would You (or Dewey) Do? JEOPARDY

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS CHECKED OUT: PARENTS PESKY PATRONS TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS - OH MY! STAFFLY WOES

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS Without notice, three school groups come to your program that you’ve planned for only 20 kids.

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS A mother blames you for her not registering with her own address and thus does not get notified that registration is full on an event.

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS You are planning a program for 500 people and you have no budget.

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS You plan a program and only ONE patron shows up. Just. One.

PROGRAMS, PROGRAMS, & MORE PROGRAMS You plan a program and community members very vocally and publicly protest the theme/name/target audience

CHECKED OUT: PARENTS You have a parent at baby story time that is never engaged with his/her child, and repeatedly spends most of his/her time on the phone.

CHECKED OUT: PARENTS A child in story time gets on a table in the back of the room and jumps up and down while mom sits and ignores him as she visits with her friend. (You are alone; no other staff support nearby.) The table collapses before you can jump up to prevent it.

CHECKED OUT: PARENTS Parents are visiting during story time in voices loud enough that you have to raise your voice to read the story and keep the children’s attention.

CHECKED OUT: PARENTS A toddler climbs the bookshelves and pushes oversized books off the shelves from behind—3 shelves up. It is loud and everyone hears, but mom sits visiting in a corner and ignores child. You bring the child to tell the parent the situation and your concern for their safety. She glares at you and refuses to speak to you or acknowledge you. When she leaves later, she is in a snit and makes rude comments as she walks out.

CHECKED OUT: PARENTS A parent has been on the internet for a few hours. Their toddler has been in the stroller the whole time and is now cranky, smelly, and LOUD. All the parent does is absently say, “Shhh!” every so often.

PESKY PATRONS- 200 The library loses power/has a broken furnace/has a possible gas leak and the decision is made to close early, but a man refuses to leave.

PESKY PATRONS- 400 A patron rants at you for over ½ an hour about a $0.20 late fee which they felt they should not have received, despite your waiving the fee and apologizing repeatedly.

PESKY PATRONS- 600 You have a dad with a screaming child who is trying to calm them down while gathering books to check out, getting his laptop, and rounding up 2 other children. He is not being very successful and the tantrum is escalating.

PESKY PATRONS- 800 A set of sibling children take the wheely computer chairs and are racing them up and down the aisles. The parents are ignoring them because they’re too busy checking their Facebook accounts.

PESKY PATRONS You catch a patron committing a lewd act in the library.

TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS – OH MY! You have a teen who comes to watch YouTube videos and is laughing—loud enough to disturb patrons nearby. A patron complains to you about the noise.

TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS – OH MY! A toddler pulls a table onto himself and fractures his leg.

TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS – OH MY! A teen starts dancing on one of your tables and two of the table legs break. The teen is okay, but the table is irreparable.

TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS – OH MY! A special needs child is left in the library on his own for hours at a time. He has had a cough for months that sounds like whooping cough, and soon is starting to gasp and wheeze so the entire library hears him and starts to threaten to call child services or the health department.

TODDLERS, CHILDREN, & TEENAGERS – OH MY! A teen confides in you that he/she has An eating disorder/ Has depression/ Has been cutting

STAFFLY WOES A superior makes derogatory comments about your lack of education/schooling/degree.

STAFFLY WOES You have a co-worker who does not pull his/her share of the work and leaves all of the undesirable parts of the job you share to you. You have to work with this person for the foreseeable future and do not want to alienate him/her.

STAFFLY WOES A fellow staff member is angry at you and is giving you the silent treatment. You have no idea what you have done because he/she won’t speak to you.

STAFFLY WOES A patron complains that you do not have enough staff.

STAFFLY WOES Your Children’s Librarian has lost her voice and your story time volunteer for the day has called in with a sick child.