I'm a book person, not a people person

Tomorrow is my first meeting as chairperson of the library committee at my son's school. Tomorrow I make my speech to the volunteers and walk them through their duties and break it to the Luddite stalwarts that we are now completely computerized, or close to it. Tomorrow is also the day I have to hand down the librarian's edicts against eating, drinking, chatting, conferencing or reading on the job. The actual work that needs to be done in the library -- and there's a lot of it, making the transition from cards and due date stamps to bar codes and databases -- doesn't scare me, but having to be a leader of people does. When I was first approached about taking the committee over a year ago, the start of this school year seemed a long way away. Even in June, when the former chairperson turned over all her papers to me, it seemed a long way away. It's not so far away now. Couldn't I just hide out somewhere in the stacks and let someone bolder handle the politics?