Open library doors, insanity ensues . . .

Open library doors, insanity ensues . . .

03.24.04 (1:00 pm)   [edit]
Last night I had a guy here at the library blow up at me because he had used up his turns on our automated internet control system and he needed to finish something. He started yelling that he wanted to speak to the city's head librarian about our computer policies - regardless of the fact that she works at the main branch downtown (9-5) and has literally dozens of deputies under her to deal with this stuff. It would have taken him quite a while to work his way up through the chain of command and all for 15 minutes more of [b]FREE[/b] internet time before the computers shut down for the night that he didn't have left anyway because he'd wasted it. :evil:

I, of course, did know exactly how to bypass the problem and fix it for him, but his behavior didn't exactly endear him to me. :twisted: (Time for me to attend Customer Service Training again?) :roll:

So I told him what the policies were and how the software controlling the sign-up system was set up and that there was no way to fix the problem using [b]his[/b] library card to sign on to the system again.

That said, then he wanted me to use my library card to log him on for more time - which I wasn't about to do. :roll:

Why should I, as a city employee, want to break library rules and policies which are designed to give every patron an equal chance to use the computers and, at the very least, bend the city statute that we have regarding the fraudulent use of other people's library cards. Not to mention the fact that if he did do something illegal on the internet, I would be the patron of record who used the terminal. :roll:

Finally, when I managed to involve the manager in this patron's harangue, the manager told me that we have a couple of fake cards for this type of situation - a fact that no one had mentioned to me previously. I should have known that I would be left twisting in the wind. So I had to quickly make it known to the patron that this was not something that was done at my previous library and that no one had informed me that these fake log-in cards existed - which they hadn't. :x

Final Score = Patron happy, ArcadeAttendant pissed off.

Once again it seems that the rules only exist to be broken . . .

Today, in the first hour on desk, I've already had to deal with two crappy patrons - one in person and one by phone. :x

The first one was a guy who wanted to put something on hold from another library, but claimed to have forgotten his pin number for doing the transaction online. I asked for his card, which he then handed to me. The card number didn't exist in the system anymore meaning that he'd probably lost it and gotten a replacement card at one point. I mentioned that to him and he looked at me and said,"This is my little cousin's card." I told him that he was breaking the law by using someone else's card and confiscated it. I told him that the card was no good any longer and had probably been noted as stolen and that if he was over 15 (he looked like a high school kid - which meant I should have kicked him out for being truant), he needed to get his own card at the front desk. He didn't do it, which usually means he has a record and owes way too much money or doesn't have any ID, or is actually truant from school and didn't want to be caught. What he did do was hide in the back of the building and quietly worked on what looked like homework - which is fine. I didn't spot him until almost two hours later, at which point it was close enough to school letting out that I wouldn't have been justified in giving him the boot anymore for being truant.

The second patron was a notorious nutcase from my last location. This lady owns a dance studio and calls the libraries on this side of town looking for music on CDs, but doesn't want to learn how to look things up on her own. She wants to call the libraries and ask us to look up songs on very broad subjects - this time it was "gifts" as she was providing some sort of musical service for a wedding - and then read off the long lists of things that we come up with from the catalog so she can request that some of those items be ordered for her. She also wants us to comment on whether or not we think that each song is appropriate for what she's doing, as if we all know every song out there and can make the decision for her. I had someone waiting in the chair in front of my reference desk and I told her that she would have to come in and we'd be happy to give her bibliographic instruction on how to do the searches herself, but wouldn't do them over the phone in the manner that she wanted. If she wanted more qualified help in her musical selection process, then she needed to go to our main branch where they have an entire department and several librarians devoted to music. That seemed to shock her that a small branch library wouldn't have a music specialist on duty to assist her for what I know from experience would have been a half hour to forty-five minute call. :roll:

Ah well, the day is still young and there are many more crazy people lurking about outside, just waiting to pounce on a poor unsuspecting paraprofessional such as myself . . .

At least I can look forward, after a day of dealing with the living dead, to seeing them onscreen. Yes, I'm going to see [b]Dawn of the Dead[/b] tonight after work with another geeky librarian friend of mine. :D

Unfortunately I've started looking like an extra from that movie again as my pinkeye has started to come back after I'd finished my last course of eyedrops for it. I'm afraid I'm going to have to visit the doctor to cure this with some permanence. :(

The way things are going, I'm sure there'll be more stories later today. :roll: