AFTER we carried a story of a young couple caught enjoying a steamy romp in a library, reporter Paul Revoir visited some local bookhouses to find out what life was really like for librarians and the unusual things they have come across.>

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No sex please, we're librarians

AFTER we carried a story of a young couple caught enjoying a steamy romp in a library, reporter Paul Revoir visited some local bookhouses to find out what life was really like for librarians and the unusual things they have come across.

THE job of a librarian may seem a fairly sedate occupation to most of us.

Carrying out the routine tasks of stamping, issuing and returning books to the shelves, the librarian's lot would appear to be a quiet one.

But beneath this veneer of tranquillity, the librarians can find themselves dealing with all sorts of unforeseen dramas and strange situations.

Principal library assistant at Chingford Library Barbara Curry and her colleague, Chris Bonney are the first to quash the stereotypical view that their jobs are mundane.

They told of the well-known case when one of our borough's book-fiends returned a volume complete with a cooked rasher of bacon which had been used as a book mark.

Barbara, who has also had to suffer conkers being thrown at her while working in the library, recalled: "When I was at Lea Bridge Library, we had a lady who would tear the last page out of every book as a marker so she knew that she had read it."

More commonly books are returned in a sorry state. She added: "We've also had quite a lot of cases where books that have been taken out are put in shopping bags and food has leaked on to them.

"I remember one book had been covered in cheesecake."

At Wood Street Library in Walthamstow, principal library assistant Debbie Savage and senior library assistant Caroll Glaister had a few out of the ordinary tales such as books falling into the bath and a drunk man dropping his book in Hollow Ponds.

Our librarians do an admirable job of keeping their patience with book-bugs.

One book came back with some unwrapped condoms – the title of the book was Family and Health Book. Debbie Savage said: "We used to get quite a lot of kids letting off stink bombs in here, but that seems to have gone out of fashion now thankfully."

Ten common excuses cited by librarians for returning books late

I left the book in a hotel

The dog ate or buried the book in the garden

I left it on the Tube

It was lost while decorating

I have been in hospital

I have been out of the country

I was sick

I was on holiday

I had my bag stolen

I need it for coursework

Ten reasons why you could be asked to leave the library

Abusive behaviour

Roller-skatingAbusive behaviour

Roller-skating

Making love

Throwing books

Fighting

Defacing books

Bringing pets in

Letting off fireworks

Being drunk

Smoking

Ten things the library does for you that you might not know about

Photocopying

Under 5's reading club

House-bound reader service

Sell educational books and posters

Public/private meeting room available for hire

List of all the titles available in Waltham Forest

Spoken Word books

Magazines for the blind

Telephone directories

Information about council and councillors

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.