Saturday, March 16, 2024

Old Woman Fan Club


Like many libraries, our Friends of the Library group sells books at our locations as a fundraiser. We don't have lock boxes, so we take the payments for the books at our front desk and lock them in a desk drawer. An advantage of this is that we can make change for patrons if needed.

Nice old lady: I'm sorry to do this to you, but if I want to by a $1.00 book, can you break a $20?
Me: I totally understand, no worries. Let me check...Do you mind taking a $2.00 bill?
Lady: Not at all. I think it will be worth something someday...[pause]...I think it will be worth two dollars.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Quick reference shift

 A man asks: Does your sister work here? 
Me: No, I think I just have one of those faces. People are always asking me if I go to their same church and stuff.
Man: Seriously!? Me too, actually! Three times already this morning I've had people ask if they know me from somewhere. I'm 51, so I don't think I went to school with you, sir...
I told him I was excited to meet another person like me.
Later as I was passing the area where he was sitting, he held out his fist for a fist bump.

A kid asks me for help figuring out 15x12 (I show him a trick my dad taught me, that 15x12 is the same as 10x12 and 5x12 added together).

Same kid, later:
Hi...[grabs a piece of scrap paper]...bye!

I have to tell about 50 disappointed families that tonight's storytime is cancelled (our usual presenter and our backup are BOTH out sick, and I could do it, but only if we wanted to just leave the reference desk unstaffed all night). They are all so nice about it and I can't tell if that's better or worse than people being crabby.

A break up a study-room-related incident that has escalated to one patron threatening to sue the other for assault (don't worry, no one was actually hurt).

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Why the library's electric bills are so high

1. Back corners of the stacks must be brightly-lit for safety

2. As long as the elevator exists, no one uses the stairs

3. Scanners. SO many scanners.

4. No matter how many times I ask them to, staff never turn off the front desk computers at night

5. The patron who comes in with his own power strip and charges two phones, a tablet, a laptop, and a mysterious device I have yet to identify.

Friday, December 15, 2023

Oh no

I am doing a pet project of cleaning up old notes on patron records when I have downtime on the reference desk. As far as I can tell, I seem to be undoing the life's work of one of Those Old School Library Workers who felt that all things should be noted in the patron's account, period. Today I deleted someone's social security number from the notes field of their patron record.

SMH.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Grandson/grandma

 Today an elderly lady who was hard of hearing came in with her grandson, who I'd guess was in his mid-20s. I'd ask the lady questions in a loud speaking voice, and she'd say "What's that?" and then her grandson would repeat whatever I said by shouting it 18 inches from her ear: "SHE SAYS THERE'S A SCANNER IN THE COMPUTER LAB!"

Fortunately, none of the other patrons complained.

Friday, November 3, 2023

4 branches, 3 (not 4) sets of etiquette

The library system where I work has four locations. Here is how changing of the desk shifts "on the hour" works at each one:

Location #1: If you're not arriving to relieve your colleague 5 minutes before the hour, you're late.

Location #2: You arrive on the hour, on the dot, period.

Location #3: You wander in around 5 minutes past the hour. Sometimes the person on desk has to call their replacement to remind them to come out.

Location #4: Half the staff thinks the cultural standard is the same as location #1 and half the staff thinks it's the same as location #3, and they hate each other. You cannot win. If you try the location #2 approach, BOTH groups hate it.



Wednesday, October 11, 2023

'Technology' Librarian

I know that I am easier to reach than the IT department is, but please be advised that the things below are not my job just because I am the Technology Librarian:

  • Resetting your work computer password
  • Finding you a spare extension cord
  • Helping you with your personal cell phone
  • Figuring out why your webcam won't work three years into the era of virtual meetings
  • Replacing a clock
  • Explaining to a patron why the website they want to go to is blocked just because you don't feel like breaking the bad news yourself