The Passive Librarian

This just in: "Most people who work in libraries are passive by nature... [s]o it's difficult for them, at times, to say no or to eject people from the library. That goes against the grain of their nature." (Link).

Holy stereotype, BatGirl. It's been my experience that library folk aren't particularly passive. It's true that we're in the business of customer service, so we try to help people. It's also true that many of us are public servants, and the "servant" part of this phrase means that we have have a duty to accommodate, but this accommodation only goes so far. I think we deal with conflict very well, thank you, perhaps better than your average Joe off the street. I would venture to say that communication is a large part of our job, here in the library, and many of us can use our communication skills to build understanding and diffuse problems. When all else fails, though, we ask problem people to leave, and when that fails, we call the police.

In any case, the guy who I quoted above, Warren Graham, is apparently another librarian with a black belt: he's got a website with some wonderful pictures of black belt librarians. I totally love this one:
Mmmmmm. I wonder if I could get my picture on his site...