The Paper Menagerie (Lukas)

Prompt: The paper menagerie. The last prompt of Short Story September! Then tomorrow we begin spooky season! (and inktober over on Instagram!)

One of the lesser discussed parts of being a librarian is figuring out what to do with the worn out books. I know of different things that different other librarians I know do with them. Some take the old pages and use them for scrap paper, some find the old books useful with pressing flowers or other materials that require a weight, some tear out pages to use in journaling practices, others remove the worn out pages and rebind the cover. One person I know takes the pages and glues them together before painting along the edges if the cover is still intact to create a piece of art. That is, of course, if such books cannot be restored- a labor intensive and often expensive practice. There are only a few such books in the library's collection that have been restored in such ways. They remain locked away from the public, for use only by academics and archivists under my supervision, which is more often than not just me looking over their shoulder or standing in the corner observing. In the back storage rooms in the basement of the library I spend the evening taking inventory and assessing the status of many of the books that have been temporarily taken out of rotation. My colleagues have gone home except for a few who finish their cataloging upstairs and coordinate with the cleaning staff to ensure they don’t lock me in the building when they finish. I wouldn’t be overly upset if that occurred, though. I like spending time among this paper menagerie with all the different things to read and learn about. As I work I find a number of books are worn through to the point of nearly falling apart whether that be due to age or the fact an overzealous toddler has cracked the spine and in some cases taken a bite out of a page or two. By the time I take a short break to get up and stretch I’ve made five distinct piles: one for books that are cleared to return to circulation as they were season, and their time has now come; one for books that need professional restoration before they return to the archives, many of which are new acquisitions for the library; one for books to be rebound, as they are otherwise in good condition; one for books to be used as scrap paper or paper weights, they have served their purpose as reading material but are still useful; and last but not least one for books that have to be recycled in a special repository due to their contents, I make a note to bring them with me when I head home for the night. With everything sorted and labeled correctly for whoever comes in first in the morning I clean up the mess of torn paper and disintegrating pages I had made in the process of my sorting. With that done I gather the pile of special books and say goodnight to the cleaning lady, who seems surprised, but not overly surprised, to see me emerge from the basement at not quite two in the morning. I take the books home with me for the night as it’s too late to do anything with them now and write a note to drop them where they need to go in the morning on my way to work. Morning comes far too considering the time I’d gone to bed but I manage to drag myself out of bed and downstairs nonetheless before stumbling out the door with my pile of books still half asleep. Stopping by the repository on my way I place each book carefully in the storeroom, while old these books are still special in one way or another, and should be treated as such. The overseer of the storeroom thanks me for dropping them by and wishes me a good morning leading to a brief chat after which I find myself leaving with a cup of coffee. That is exactly what I needed on a morning like this, I am not looking forward to what the day entails- whoever thought to assign me to the children's library after a night spent in that stuffy paper menagerie with little sleep did not think that decision though. Finishing the coffee I take a deep breath and steel myself for what the day will bring, so long as nobody tries to bite me this time all will be fine…I hope.