Tuesday, August 31, 2021

She needs to study hard

At this branch, if a patron wants to use a study room they check it out at the reference desk and then the staff member give them a little card showing they have the room checked out and then walks them over to the room and unlocks it.

I was helping a pair of patrons who wanted to check out a study room, and there was another patron standing in line behind them. Since she looked student-y, I asked "Do you need a study room too, by any chance?" so that I could check out one room to each group and then walk them over together. The patron looked at me like she was alarmed/confused that I was speaking to her and then said "no," so I said "Sorry, I'll be with you in just a minute." I checked out the study room the the couple in front of her, walked them over to the room, and came back to the desk. Then I asked "How can I help you?" and she said "I need to check out a study room."

Bonus: When I followed up with "Sure, can I please see your library card?" she only THEN began digging through her bag to pull it out (despite witnessing an entire study room transaction moments before) and told me "It's gonna be a minute."

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Reasonable requests

 Things today's patrons want:

"I don't feel safe coming to the sewing program because of COVID, and I don't have a computer. Can I call at the time the class is happening and listen by phone?"

"Do you have a book about transitioning from orthopedics to cardiology?"