We have a charging station behind the checkout desk at Walnut Bluff and we will take your phone and charge it for you while you use the computer or browse for books. I kind of hate that we take responsibility for patrons' phones, but before we had this system people were constantly plugging their phones into random outlets on the public floor, leaving their phones unattended, and then coming and freaking out to us when they got stolen, which happened pretty regularly.
There is supposed to be a whole process where we issue you a claim ticket, but some of our regulars will just kind of fling the phone at staff as they come in and try to skip the 'hassle' of establishing proof of ownership over their phones.
Earlier this week a man came up to one of my colleagues, looking kind of out of it, and shoved a phone in her face. She said, "Did you want me to charge this for you, sir?" and after a moment he said, "No! Talk!" Too surprised to do anything else, she put the phone to her ear. On the other end was a 911 dispatcher asking for the address. She gave them the library's address, helped the patron to an empty chair, and a few minutes later some EMTs arrived, talked to the guy, and took him away in an ambulance.
None of us knew what was wrong with him, but as I was checking with the EMTs to make sure they didn't need anything from the library, I saw another patron talking to the clerk at the front desk and gesturing dramatically in our direction. After everyone left, the clerk said "That patron said he saw the other guy huffing paint thinner outside in the parking lot. Want me to go take a look for the can?"
(I went out, collected the empty can, and threw it away.)
we had a patron quietly call 911 when he was having a heart attack in the library, then the EMTs came in and no one knew what was going on. Fortunately a very nosy lady was watching and said who it was.
ReplyDeleteOh, what a complicated relationship we have with nosy patrons!
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