The Infamous ‘Back Stacks’ Tour That Patrons Keep Booking
Among Vivienne’s more creative fine-collection innovations is the ‘Back Stacks Orientation’ — a guided personal tour of the restricted archive section that she offers to repeat offenders with particularly large outstanding balances. The back stacks are, by most accounts, a perfectly normal room full of old periodicals and reference materials. And yet the waiting list to receive this orientation currently stretches to six weeks.
Derek M., a 31-year-old who has owed fines on the same three books since February, described the experience as ‘very educational.’ When pressed for details, he stared wistfully into the middle distance and said, ‘She explained the filing system to me. Very thoroughly. I learned a lot.’ He has since signed up for a library card under his mother’s name to get back on the waiting list.
The Library’s New ‘Reading Companion’ Program Is Somehow Fully Booked Until August
In what Vivienne describes as an effort to ‘increase community literacy engagement,’ she launched a one-on-one Reading Companion program last month where she personally sits with patrons and discusses whatever book they’ve borrowed. The sessions are thirty minutes, held in a private alcove in the back of the library, and are — mysteriously — only available to male patrons who have outstanding fines. The city’s literacy board has called it ‘innovative.’ Three of the board members have also signed up for sessions.
Participants emerge from these sessions visibly dazed, clutching their now-stamped library cards and already pulling up the library’s website to reserve their next book. One man reportedly checked out a Spanish-English dictionary — despite being fluent in Spanish — just to have something to discuss. ‘I’m really trying to improve my vocabulary,’ he said, unconvincingly, as he scheduled his fourth consecutive session.
City Hall Is ‘Looking Into It’ — But Three Councilmen Also Have Overdue Books
After the story went semi-viral on the town’s Facebook community group, the mayor’s office issued a brief statement saying they were ‘reviewing the library’s fine collection policies for compliance.’ The statement was issued on a Tuesday. By Wednesday, two of the mayor’s senior aides had been spotted in the library’s parking lot. By Thursday, the mayor himself had checked out a large-print copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ — a title he was seen squinting at in visible confusion.
Vivienne, for her part, has been entirely unfazed by the scrutiny. In her only public comment, she told the Maplewood Gazette: ‘I simply believe that people should be personally invested in the books they borrow. My methods are unconventional, but the results speak for themselves.’ She then reportedly returned to her desk, adjusted her glasses, and got back to work while three men in the lobby pretended to read pamphlets about tax preparation.
