Librarians - the bad, the good ...

Something's been bugging me and I'm going to share, as they say.

I recently heard about a comment of a librarian whose school I visited near Newcastle a while ago. She said I "seemed quite nice" but "wasn't very chatty" and the kids didn't seem very impressed by having met me. Yes, I remember that school - the librarian didn't introduce me to the audience, the kids arrived late and were hyper, the teacher marked work at the back and had never heard of my books, and I was doing three separate events that day. I was, understandably, highly irritated and was wondering why I bothered. I was frankly looking forward to getting out of that dull place. So, my message to that uninspiring and unfriendly librarian is, "You get what you deserve."

Most school librarians are utterly wonderful and do an enormous amount to prepare the pupils and staff for the visit; and most events consequently go beautifully and everyone benefits. However, most authors can tell you horror stories of dire events where the organisers had made every mistake in the book. It doesn't take much to generate a bit of excitement and interest and to introduce the author to the audience.

That librarian seemed far more interested in telling me about a famous author she'd met - implication that I really wasn't famous enough. I felt sorry for the kids in that school - I didn't meet a single member of staff who seemed in the slightest bit interested in them.

Luckily, I meet many more teachers and librarians who shine and are inspirational. And you see it refected in the pupils. In fact, I'm going to name a wonderful school I went to last week: St Columba's High School in Clydebank, nr Glasgow. Great librarian, fantastic bright-eyed keen teenagers. They should be proud of themselves.