Librarian or Listener

Hello, It still amazes me how much people stay and talk about some difficulties in their life. Just the other day, a woman who does not even check out books, but uses the computers, told me about how much trouble she was having finding affordable housing. She apparently lives on social security. At the moment her rental place is good, but soon will not be available because of changes beyond her control. I gather other rental places in Ely are much more costly than she had been paying. She would like to stay in the small town as she feels a bunch of crazies live in the city. She did not respond when I said that I lived there, perhaps she already knew what a crazy I am. She did look at a low-income place on the edge of Cedar Rapids, only to learn that there is a two-year waiting list which does not help her. She is grateful for the food pantry that is available in our lobby. This place is used quite a lot with even out-of-town people coming. Some of the reasons for that success is that there are no questions asked and the hours are quite long with it being open every day of the week. Other people have also talked about how much they appreciate getting food there. One woman felt the need to tell me that the food was not for her, but for her sister who was not well off. I am not the only one that people do talk to. It seems we are a place for many to come and get some relief by talking. My boss thinks we should not even consider self check out machines because it gives us a chance to interact with our patrons. It is interesting to me that people often make sure they tell the entire staff good bye when they are leaving which also says something about that personal touch. Paula