Grrrr.

I had to make an emergency run to the library this evening after working a very long day putting finishing touches on my room (more on that later). It was a bitter-sweet experience.

First, I had the nicest lady help me locate some important books. I am going to have a boy with autism in my class this year, mainstreamed from the new Special Day Class at our school. I am very excited by this prospect, because I see many ways for my other students to benefit from the interaction. I have been told that this student displays behaviors that others may find odd or frightening. I want everyone in my class to be prepared for these surprising behaviors, to better allow them to see past them and interact on a more "normal" level. This librarian helped me find several books that will assist me in preparing my class.

Then, as another librarian was checking my books our for me, I was told that I had an almost overdue book. This was a book I was 100% sure I had just turned in, along with a large stack of others. We looked all around the check-in area, finding only the others. I was told there was no where else the books could possibly be and to look in my car and my home. I had to allow that through some fluke I may have missed putting this particular book with the others.

Arriving home, I didn't see the missing book anywhere. Knowing that they would start charging me late fees if it wasn't found, I called the library and asked them to look again. I was all prepared to be tough and insist that I had returned it. They threw a totally different pitch. I was told that the book had been given to the "Circulation Manager" because of "writing in the front cover". Because this was a "very new book" and it "hadn't been checked out very often", they were deciding what to do about this. Of course, the manager in question had already gone home. I told the lady on the phone that I had absolutely not written in the book. She pointed out that they "flip through the new books when they return and definitely check the front cover".

I know that it is their job to protect these books, and I understand that they are just doing their job, but I am going to be really pissed if I end up getting charged or fined after some other jerk wrote in this book. I don't writing in books I own, much less books I am borrowing. I didn't even highlight in my college texts. Grrrr.