Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Computer problems

At the Old Library, the number one computer problem was people not being able to copy and paste. It was such a huge issue that I anticipated it being the number one computer problem here at the New Library, too. However, the biggest one we get here is people who type their search into the search bar, do nothing, and then get upset that they are not taken to the page they want/their search results. Today a woman came up to say:
Can you make the things on my screen [i.e., the pictures on the library homepage] go away so that I can use the computer?


This comes up at least once a week here for some reason--this was also the problem for Flinstones Guy.


Other "highlights" of this afternoon's reference desk shift:


Does the printer take dollar bills?
It should; have you tried that one?
No. Can you just give me change?


An older couple comes in. The husband wants books about "lake boats," ore ships and other commercial boats on the Great Lakes. He is pretty satisfied with the one I show him but his wife is stirring up trouble--his original hope was to find ones he had looked at before, and she wants me to help them locate those, but "He's had a stroke. He won't be able to remember anything about them."


Guy wants to "get his music back" on his reset Samsung Galaxy phone. Can't type, can't tell me what app he uses to listen to music. He claims to have a Samsung account but eventually says, wait, no, that is Verizon. I don't think I have a Samsung account. Who knows how he got any music on there in the first place. While I am helping him, a different phone starts ringing. After my prompting to silence it, he takes a second phone out of his backpack, but can't figure out how to turn it off. His friend has to silence it for him. I have so many questions.


Coworker, answering phone: "Reference department, how can I help you?...He's dead." (hangs up) "That woman drives me crazy."

1 comment:

  1. there was a nice riff on librarians not being tech support for people who have the money to buy devices (smart phones, iPads, whatever) but not the money to take classes in how to use them, and who expect librarians to do tech support for them. Um, no. //I've always wanted to answer a reference questions with "he's dead."

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