Monday, 29 March 2010
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Monday, 22 March 2010
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Drums Along Leith Walk
Wrinkled Weasel recently did a post on libraries upon which I commented thus:
"My library demographics:
15-20% readers
10% homeless drunks looking for a place to sleep.
5% homeless junkies looking for something to steal.
10% Poles booking flights back to Poland.
5% feral youth looking for trouble.
The rest is made up from Wi Fi users huddled around every available plug point."
Now I've worked in libraries for over twenty years, and I thought I had seen it all; used hypodermic syringes, needle attached, employed as bookmarks, blood and other substances squirted against the toilet walls, drunks comatose on the floor, little old ladies audibly peeing themselves as they read the Daily Record, teenagers building bonfires up against the fire exit; half bricks, fireworks and air rifle pellets through the windows.
Thieves are usually easy to spot, especially those with a "chemical dependancy"(not the councillors, they steal in a different way) as library users tend to make it easy for them; women put their handbags down when browsing, computer users get engrossed and don't notice somebody walking past with their rucksack's strap hooked around his ankle.
Items stolen from libraries tend to be DVDs, CDs and strangely enough "True Crime" books; from the public, bags, keys, sunglasses, phones etc.
As you may have guessed by now, something unusual got stolen from my library today.
Neatly stacked five foot high on an old pushchair in the foyer, was a metallic blue five piece drumkit.
"My library demographics:
15-20% readers
10% homeless drunks looking for a place to sleep.
5% homeless junkies looking for something to steal.
10% Poles booking flights back to Poland.
5% feral youth looking for trouble.
The rest is made up from Wi Fi users huddled around every available plug point."
Now I've worked in libraries for over twenty years, and I thought I had seen it all; used hypodermic syringes, needle attached, employed as bookmarks, blood and other substances squirted against the toilet walls, drunks comatose on the floor, little old ladies audibly peeing themselves as they read the Daily Record, teenagers building bonfires up against the fire exit; half bricks, fireworks and air rifle pellets through the windows.
Thieves are usually easy to spot, especially those with a "chemical dependancy"(not the councillors, they steal in a different way) as library users tend to make it easy for them; women put their handbags down when browsing, computer users get engrossed and don't notice somebody walking past with their rucksack's strap hooked around his ankle.
Items stolen from libraries tend to be DVDs, CDs and strangely enough "True Crime" books; from the public, bags, keys, sunglasses, phones etc.
As you may have guessed by now, something unusual got stolen from my library today.
Neatly stacked five foot high on an old pushchair in the foyer, was a metallic blue five piece drumkit.
***Thanks to Argent, who made me realise the bottom half of this post was missing***
The drumkit belonged to a musician who popped in to the library to check his emails and left the drumkit in the foyer unguarded. It was the sheer blatancy of taking a five foot pile of brightly coloured drumkit balanced on an old pushchair down one of the busiest streets in Edinburgh with wall to wall CCTV which inspired this post...
Monday, 15 March 2010
Friday, 12 March 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Monday, 1 March 2010
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