Librarian Ire

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A new insult record!

Had a patron break the insult record lately. I couldn't decide if I wanted to award him or kill him. Three insults in about 8 minutes.

He had been sent over to the library(first trip by the by) to get a specific edition of a book for his boss.
First of all he didn't know the title. He did however know the editor's name. But he told me it was the author's name.
I finally find it, by using the call number which he also had, yet didn't think was useful.
I see that someone had returned it in the last few days. We invite him to look on the shelving cart, and he pulls the wrong book. He found the 2006 edition.
Which isn't the right translation.
Here comes insult number 1. The library is wrong. How could they have made such a huge mistake as to catalog an English translation as a Greek one! It's a travesty. He shoves it in my face TWICE, probably in order illustrate his point. But really just annoying me. At this point I have to help him to shut him up.

I doublecheck on the screen and see that the book he has is a different call number and a different edition as well as a different barcode.
I tell him he has the 2006 edition. Then he looks over the cart again and WOW there it is.
Insult number 2 was the comment in order to find things here, you have to know what you are doing to find things here. Meaning of course HE knew what he was doing and no one else did.
Then insult number 3 was if I know how to check books out to him. He's lucky he made it out of the library alive at that point. I thought about hitting him, but the boss was in her office and she would have seen.
And the rule is NO WITNESSES!