What a Summer

This month has been marked with both technical and mechanical failure at the library which has been a source of frustration for both staff and customers alike. As a new facility, the AC remained untested until the first hot days of summer. There was no passing with flying colors, more like the stale stuffy air of failure. For 4 days, the staff endured sweltering tropical mugginess until it was clear that we were not able to continue on with ever growing dread and uncomfortableness as the temperatures crept up outside, inside and within us. It was during the initial AC failure that we also experienced a systems failure with our computerized Integrated Library System. Searching, checking out, checking in--essentially everything that we do all day long--suddenly became a frustrating headache for almost 10 days. I walked around in a perpetual state of irritable stickiness. Since library work is rarely quiet desk sitting work but rather pushing heavy carts, lifting heavy boxes, running from one end of the library and back again and again type of work it is easy to become uncomfortable fast. At the end of the first week, with tempers short and fuses quickly burning down, I asked that we close the adult area and leave the rest of the area open since it was in the adult library that the AC had failed. I got permission but when I tried to put the gate down to shut off the adult area, the gate failed. Defeated, we closed the library for 3 days until we could get some fixes, firs the gate and then the AC.

For a few days we thought the fix was holding, my office was a welcoming cool haven. Then we noticed that the areas that were previously comfortable were now quite the opposite. And then Monday morning I walked through the door of my office and into a thick heavy wall of air. All the units were compromised in one manner or another. I shelved one cart of books on Monday morning at 9:30 in the morning with sweat trickling down my brow. The thought of having hundreds of bodies heating up an already uncomfortable space was unbearable. We closed for the day. We are still having problems with one of our AC units--one is down for the count until parts arrive, one has been tinkered with to run until a more permanent fix arrives. For 2 1/2 days we had the adult area shut down with the rest of the library open. I have just reopened the adult area. Temperatures outside have abated leaving the airconditioningless space bearable if movement is limited. The staff will work the area in a limited capacity--no all steam ahead until parts arrive and are installed. But at least we are open and people can use the space for as long as they are comfortable.