Friday, August 12, 2005

The Irony of Being a Librarian

Yesterday morning my youngest son who's in grade 2 at DBTI Makati asked me for 6 pesos. I don't give them money for baon because they have all the food they need for recess and lunch and there wasn't anything on their diary that said he needed to buy something or pay for anything. So I had to ask what he was going to use the money for.

And I was surprised at his answer. He was going to use the money to pay his overdue books. Note that he was paying for two books.

I didn't readily and wholeheartedly give him the money though it was a small amount because I had to know why he had an overdue when I kept reminding him of his due date. His answer almost made me laugh. He said he didn't forget to return the books but since the line at the circulation desk was long and my son not having the patience to fall in line and wait for his turn, decided to keep the books longer.

All I could think of at that moment was the irony that as a librarian, I can borrow a book from our library for as long I want without overdue so long as nobody needs it and I consider this privilege a perk of the profession and here is my son asking me for money to pay his fines. Karma? Maybe. Probably. Whatever, at least my kids are reading and making use of their library and I can't fault them for that.

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