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?"
One of the libraries in my new system has some high-tech locks on the study rooms. You hold your palm up to them to 'wake them up,' then enter a code to unlock the door. Holding up your palm to the lock again locks the door. I was showing this to a patron when I was on the desk this evening in case she wanted to go out to the bathroom without having to take her backpack with her. When I opened the door for her with a flourish, she looked at me hesitantly.so I said "Do you have a question?" She said "So...that lock recognizes hands?" "Oh!" I said, "No, it's not that high-tech. It doesn't know that it's your hand or my hand, it just knows that there's a hand in front of it." The patron sighed and said, "Okay, good. I wasn't sure I wanted to go into a room that was smarter than I am."
I spent 30 minutes searching for the third book in the Spanish translation of a Debbie Macomber series this weekend, in which both the series and the individual books were dramatically re-titled, only to find out that apparently the translations weren't sufficiently profitable and the publisher had dropped the project after the first two books in the series. It's a toss-up whether I or the patron was more disappointed.
Overheard in the staff office: "...that's what you get when you do a Google image search for 'fearsome wallaby.'"
I am moving libraries yet again. My new job is not going to be public-facing, so I'm afraid I may be starved of blog material for quite some time! I know I didn't have much time to post to the blog as manager of Walnut Bluff so hopefully people aren't checking this too often/any disappointment has already been experienced. I will certainly keep posting highlights, they are just likely to be infrequent.
Ironically given how I am a mega-grinch, one of my last acts at Walnut Bluff was to put up a big "Season's Readings" display in the library windows. At least I got a pun in.
We now have two large A-frame signs outside our front doors that patrons have to basically squeeze past to reach the doors themselves. The signs say "CLOSED. Curbside pickup only, call 1-800-WALNUT-BLUFF." Of course, people being people, they often squeeze past the signs and pull on the door handle, at which point our front door person (whose job is supposedly delivering curbside pickups as cars arrive) has to shout the information to them. Most people get it at that point. However, today I had a couple who were still confused. They asked me "What kind of appointments do you guys do?" and when I answered "You can come pick up books or movies or printouts!" they replied, "Wait, so you can't come inside and look at books?"
When I relayed this conversation to Children's Librarian, she said, "I think people have been spending too much time in their houses watching TV and they don't know how to interact with real people anymore. They're like 'This one is talking back to me when I talk to it! What am I supposed to do!?'"
Things people want us to take into the building for them while we are closed and only doing curbside service:
-A 'donation' of two boxes of old magazines
-A mysterious envelope addressed to "Walnut Bluff Librarians"
-The book they bought to replace the one they lost ("Sorry, you need to put it in the book drop so it can be quarantined." "But I don't want to wait for it to be quarantined, I want you to take the fine off my account now!")
-Jars of homemade jam to give to the staff (Aw, how nice! But still no.)
-Used plastic bags ("You use bags to put people's books in for delivery. Why can't you use these ones!?")
