Librarian Ire

For the Love of Pete!

Patron: "Can you tell me what copy number of the book I have checked out is?"

Me: "Why do you need the copy number, do you have more than one copy checked out?"

Him: "Yes."

Okaaayyy. I don't question. Well, I do, but the answers usually frighten me. I pull up his patron account. He has 11 books checked out.

Me: "What's the title of the book?"

Him: "Blah blah blah, really boring, blah"

Me: "You only have 1 copy of a book by that title."

Him: "Yes. What is the copy number?"

Fine. Back and forth I go on the screens. "Its copy number 1."

Him: "Copy # 1?"

Me: "Yes."

He's staring at me in confusion. I'm all 'right back at you freak-boy', but I try to help him out. "Its copy #1. It's from the chemistry library, so it will be stamped "Chemistry."

Him: "Copy #1. From Chemistry?"

Me: "Yesss."

Him: "No. I got it from the Physics library."

Me: "You may have checked it out there, but it is a Chemistry book. The Physics library does not own a copy of this book."

He's looking at me like I don't know what I'm doing and I just made that up. I watch him wander away (b/c of course once he's out of ear shot we're going to talk about him), he stops in place twice and turns around in a circle. Is he chasing his tail? What the heck? He makes a turn down a row of stacks. I turn to the co-worker to address this insanity and BAM! There he is in front of the desk again!

Him: "Can I find out the copy number of another book I have checked out?"

What the heck is with this? None the less, I look him up again, and search the title. "You only have one copy of that book."

Him: "Yes. What is the copy number?"

Me: "It's copy number 2. You know that if you only have 1 copy of a book, it doesn't matter what copy number it is- its that 1 book. If you need to know when its due, just look at your account, there is only that 1 book of that title."

Him: "Yes. Copy 2?"

Seriously, this has got to be the stupidest guy on the planet.

posted by Loki at 10:54 AM