The Great Equalizer

I was a newly minted 30 year old librarian on my first professional job interview. I had very carefully, with a great deal of help from my old father, constructed a resume and cover letters for 5 different librarian positions. My husband drove me up to the city, coaching me a bit along the way. After the initial interview at the main library with the head of personnel, I was driven out to a branch library in a section of the city I’d never explored before. It was an asphalt jungle. The library was large, old, and imposing. It had been built as a fallout shelter. Though it was on street named for a large majestic tree, there was not a tree in sight. Nor were there any people outside walking. We parked in a gated, chain-linked parking lot behind the library.

The library director grilled me, much the way our family doctor always had, pounding my knees with his rubber mallet checking my reflexes. She hurled question after question at me. She was quick paced. I followed suit, feeling like I was on Jeopardy. Towards the end of the interview she asked me what I’d do if a library patron complained to me about the odor of another library patron. Now you probably know just as well as I do that the public library is the great equalizer. Everybody’s welcome. And people are only kicked out under the direst of circumstances. I chewed on that one for a minute and told her that I’d have a small basket of herbal sachets at the desk and if someone came to me with that complaint, I’d give them one to sniff instead of the poor unbathed person.

Not too long afterwards I was hired.