You Should Put Up Posters

An old lady offers helpful advice to a librarian (and my readers provide some images of their own)

I’ve got a collaboration with What's Curation? coming up in a couple days, so it feels like a perfect time to share this little observation on life here in Snohomish, where one old lady would like to see a few more rules.

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I was halfway to the hold shelf at the Snohomish Library when I noticed that an older lady had slipped in behind me just before the door closed. She wore gray slacks, a long dusty-rose coat, and sensible shoes. 

My favorite bookmark—it always goes in my top-priority book.

I found my book. It had a paper slip marked “PEND, T D” sticking out the edge. As clear as day I heard the older lady say to the librarian:

“This book has been dog-eared but I didn’t do it.”

She held out the book to show the librarian the folded page.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said the librarian. She tried to sound accommodating, helpful.

“I want to make sure I’m not charged for it. I didn’t dog-ear the book,” said the lady.

“It’s okay ma’am,” the librarian said. “We don’t charge for that.”

“People shouldn’t dog-ear books,” the lady stated.

“I guess we wish they wouldn’t,” the librarian agreed, “and most people don’t.”

“There should be a rule against dog-earring books.”

“I think there’s … well, I think most people know this and …,” the librarian faltered.

“I don’t see any posters about it.”

“Posters?” The librarian was confused.

“I don’t see any posters telling people that they shouldn’t dog-ear the pages in books. If you had posters, people would know. I think you should put up posters.” Her voice stayed very level, matter-of-fact; there was no heat, but she made sure she was heard. I heard her.

“Ah, I see,” the librarian nodded. She wanted to be helpful, that was her job, but I could see she also felt a little trapped. “You could share that idea in the suggestion box … see, we have a suggestion box over there?” She pointed over to her right, over near the book drop and the photocopier. She smiled.

“I have another suggestion,” said the old lady. “You should provide bookmarks. If you provided bookmarks people would not dog-ear the books.” She stood there, waiting for a reply.

I looked down at the hold slip extending out from my book and I walked out the library, laughing to myself.

BONUS PICs (read the comments section to know why):

Reader Graham Strong volunteered this poster; it is not an official Sno-Isle Libraries poster:

Reader Mark R DeLong sent this pic of his reading labyrinth: