I was a librarian for the last decade or so of my working life. I can't match the 'overdue' stories, but I do remember a lady who sheepishly explained that she had come in to pay for a book that had been destroyed. It was a dog training book, and evidently not a very good one, because Fluffy had shredded it. :)

Sorry I can't share the optimism so often expressed as to the future of the profession--IMO, Al's internet changed the reference librarian's job for the worse. We're no longer asked to guide people to good info; we're asked to help them get on the web so they can take their chances with info posted by everybody and anybody. Oh, well. Someday civilization will collapse under its own weight, the lights will go out in New York, and we will start over.

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