Librarian Ire

Things that make you go Grr.

"Hey. Can I ask you a question?" A phrase that makes me want to just walk away. When a patron sidles up to the desk, uttering that oh-so retorical phrase, you know there is going to be trouble. Inevitably, what follows is the stupidest question in all of librarianland.

posted by Loki at 11:33 AM | 0 comment(s)

I'm good, but not psychic

I was so hoping for a good Sunday student worker. Alas, like men, all the good ones are taken.
We were forced to hire a new Sunday student worker because the last ones graduated. Funny how that happens.

Being the kind, gentle and understanding library person I am, I give them a few weeks to adjust to the wild world of Sunday librarianship.

So it's the 4th week now and I give him a few ILL requests to look for and came back telling me he couldn't find them but 'he skimmed the carts.' Hmm, not exactly promising.
Now someone can't find a book needed for a class. So we promise to look for it and let the patron know.
Guess who got to look? Yep, Mr. Skimmer. He came back saying "I didn't see it, but I skimmed the carts."
I know the book is there, since I checked it in myself. He wants to know what cart it is on.

What am I, clairvoyent? That's why we hired you. To look, not skim the carts. Sigh.

posted by Nike at 9:13 PM | 0 comment(s)

Broken lights or we're just messin' with ya.

One of our closing rituals is to blink the lights to warn people we are closing. We've been doing this for about 10 or so years. Probably longer.
It's not a surprise to anyone who spends a lot of time here. Or so I thought. Ah the pool of stupidity is endless and vast.
Celery woman appeared while we were blinking. She's a part time student here. Spends enough time here at night to be reasonably aware of things. But she asked me why we didn't get the lights fixed so that they don't blink like that. "Because it's very disruptive when you're studying downstairs."
Uh yeah. That's the point. I explain that we do that to warn people we are going to be closing in a few minutes and they have to leave.
She stares at me and walks away. Not out of the library mind you. She went back downstairs.

Now this is the same woman who while standing in front of the bathroom actually asked me where it was.
How she survived this long is beyond me.

posted by Nike at 9:50 AM | 2 comment(s)

Security gate woes

Our security gate has been stepping up it's war against me. It has recruited some students to slowly break my will.
It was bad enough when it'd just go off. It would beep and then lock. There isn't anyone around, no books to pass through. It could be some ghost or poltergeist. It's a better explanation than what the security company told us. Sometimes these things happen.
I keep a record of these assaults on my sanity. Well, for later. You never know....
Not much I can do about the students.
The one that stands out is the woman who tried to return her books. She attempted to leave the library to place all her books in the book drop on the outside of the library. In order to return books to the library.
With staff at the desk waiting to help her.
She explains that she wants to return her books. Okay. We unlock the gate and she tries again to leave to return her books!!!!!
Finally I just tell her leave them.

Labels: returning books, sanity assaults, security gate

posted by Nike at 8:02 PM | 0 comment(s)

Sad case

Had a student come to my office to "help" her. She had been in the previous day and been helped by someone and apparantly that help didn't stick. Anyway, she didn't have a copy of a book needed for her class. The bookstore was backordered. Anyway, she was quite upset that the only copy of the book on campus was in our reserves collection (for that class).

Apparantly, this "wasn't fair" that it was on reserve because she needed it.

posted by Loki at 2:05 PM | 2 comment(s)

Interruptions

I just love it when I'm trying to help someone and they keep interrupting while I'm answering their vitally important question.
Mind you they interrupted me doing something vitally important.
Case in point. A female patron comes in and says "I asked for something to be delivered here for me."
Oookay. Thanks for the information.
So she's standing there staring at me. I am using my incredible library powers to discern that the book is on the shelf waiting for you.
I ask her name and she says, Helen of Troy, like I should have recognized her instantly. Oh of course! Who?
Now Helen is back. She wants to know where the PA's are. I don't get the full sentence out before she interrupts to say "they are near the BR's right?
Uh no, not exactly. We do have a lot of other books between the B's and the P's in stacks. Blame the alphabet for that one.

Labels: alphabet, call numbers, interruption

posted by Nike at 6:28 PM | 0 comment(s)

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!

posted by Nike at 8:51 PM | 4 comment(s)