Alive!
IT's (meaning me) alive!! I've been quite delinquent with the ire induced rants but and totally gearing up to it! I forged a shallow stream of sanity with a new job at the beginning of september and thus haven't experience much ire for awhile (moving ire doesn't count stupid decrepid back). Well, to continue the metaphor, I slipped on some slime that coated the bottom of that stream and fell onto the bank and totally got my backside covered in mud. Coming soon: rants on applications, interviews, and Library Barbie.
Butthole alert!
This guy didn't know how close he came to a talk with security... So, we work at the Circulation desk. Right nearby is the Reference desk. Across from these is the 6 crash bar entry doors, the gate alarms. All around are computers... I ask anyone - would you think this is the spot that will have NO noise? So this as-cerbic person comes up to the desk and goes "Who's in charge here?" I ask if he means here - this area - or something else. He gives visual attitude cues, then nods, so I reply I am. Then he says, "This is a library do you think this means that you can talk?" I'm all... "excuse me?" which I barely get out before he's all "you're just standing around talking; a library is a place for quiet and study..." I open my mouth to start to explain this is a service area there will always be talking, but I get maybe 2 words out before he interrupts and says "don't make excuses" and "what do I have to do to make you shut up?" and he said some other shocking crazy things but I was concentrating on controlling my fists so missed it all. Well sir, if you don't want to listen to our voices let me call the police and get you removed you COMPLETE wack job!! So I just said, "ok" and he walked away... (because he was in no way going to accept any rational explanations) My student was very frightened by this guy... he is definlty crazy in a murderous kind of way. I've got my eye on him now. He's using one of the research terminals - the second he accesses anything that isn't library created or owned I'm kicking his ass off! Not to mention my student and I are making it a point to speak very loudly to all people coming to the desk. Everyone's getting a greeting... books are being forceful put on shelves and counters...
Anger and Rage in ILL v.2
So after I sent out the polite informative note about how we don't ILL stuff we already own, he sends another ILL request. This time it's for something that I not only know we have, it's something that I have seen recently. So it's on the shelf. I actually go down to look for it. Right where it's supposed to be. So I canceled the ILL request yet again. And my favorite part was he didn't even bother to search our catalog. He went straight to Google to look for it. Now I have nothing aganist Google. I use it frequently myself. But c'mon! Just blows the mind that he made it to college and grad school. So while I am rapidly losing patience with this idiot, I hold out hope that he can eventually be taught and send him the following message. "I would like you to come to the library for a refresher course on how to use our catalog and ILL software. I believe it would be more rewarding and less frustrating trying to do research if you learned how to use them properly. Please e-mail me with a time that you can come for this." Tune in for part three of this entertaining saga. Labels: crazies, interlibrary loan, teaching
Anger and Rage in ILL
recently there was a spate of new ILL requests. All by the same person. His user ID was Dude(I learned to leave off the 'e') So I knew before I even saw the request we were going to have issues. After searching our catalog I noticed we have all of his requests so I sent him an e-mail telling him he didn't need to ILL the books. After the last ILL was cancelled 'The Dud(e)' sent an e-mail back saying and I quote "why was this cancelled? I've submitted about 10 requests and have only gotten cancellation notices--nothing that I requested. Am I doing something wrong?" Librarian Loki chimed in from her sabbatical with a resounding yes in her inimitable way. I believe the words crazy and fool were used. I sent out a nice, polite, and informative note to the "dud(e)" explaining things about catalogs and ILL policy. Do you think he understood it? Wait until the next installment. Labels: crazies, interlibrary loan
Worrying about the fate of the profession
Now they are into the e-mail. I recently had a run in with the King of Stupid. Via e-mail. Okay I will concede spam and the stupid jokes and forwards. But to invade my cozy ivory tower with His Majesty was just too much. There was a question about the problem of library security. You know, stolen library books that appear for sale on various internet sites. The person wanted to know what other libraries had done in similar cases. One public librarian made the comment she had seen a book on sale on Ebay that she herself had taken a lost fee for only days earlier. She didn't complain to either the web site or her bosses because the person in question had paid her for the book. I was surprised at that response. And said so. Then the K of S jumps in saying why should she complain since the book was paid for and the library no longer owned it and oh by the way you are very wrong and your opinion isn't worth jack. Okay he didn't say the last part, but the way he phrased his e-mail it was implied. And it's not the first time that the K of S has offended people. Most of the time we ignore him or in a few cases gang up on him with our superior knowledge and experience. But in this case I replied to his post pointing out a few facts. Like just because you accept a lost fee doesn't mean you sold the book to this patron. And later it was discovered that, the library in particular, had been targeted by people who were shopping library shelves for specific books to sell. (Can we say arrest warrant?) Of course that wasn't good enough for K of S. He had to send me a personal e-mail pointing out how wrong I was and how fantastically right he is. You work in a tiny little community college. I work in a major research university. Gee, I wonder why. If this is what's out there in my profession, I need to move to Paris and learn to paint.
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