Recently, we have had more people requesting that staff microwave food and drink. I’m going to let you use your best judgment on this. If you feel that you have time to quickly visit the breakroom and microwave a cup of soup or coffee, and you feel comfortable doing so, I’m okay with that choice. It would be wise to warn the patrons that most of the time library staff will not be able to microwave for them and they should plan to bring food that does not require warming in the future. Also make sure that the desk is covered when you pop back to the break room and please do not bring the patrons back to the break room with you J
If you don’t have time, you don’t know how long to microwave it, it involves complicated preparation or you simply feel uncomfortable handling other people’s food, please let them know that you are working on a library-related task and are unable to microwave for them and in the future, they should plan on bringing food to the library that doesn’t require heating.
The common message for patrons here is that, in general, library patrons should not plan on having a microwave available at the library and they should plan accordingly with their meal/snack planning. We should be educating them, very politely, in either case.
The common message for library staff is to feel empowered to say no to microwaving for library users.