It's that simple.....

[Hon'ya-chan]

Simple things to do to get me to find your book:

• Title
• Author
• ISBN
• General Subject

So why does finding a book become:

• A game of 20 questions, which progressively grows with the customer getting madder and frustrated.
• Wrong titles which end up being the SUBTITLE.
• Author only being a first name, or just the last name.
• Some super obscure subject that only radical fanatics know.
• Is some OOP book and people don't want to believe that publishers delist titles that don't sell. And we need to get it due to some "fictitious" demand.

Just recently, I had one woman who gave me the subtitle of a book of some guy in some mysticism stuff. It took nearly 10 minutes to finally convince her that what she gave me was the SUBTITLE of the book, and not the ENTIRE title. Yet she was convinced that I was wrong and she was right, and that I must have a bad system because that was the book title that she saw from some friend who got it in some used book shop in the old market area of the ghetto of the big city. And that she needs to have it.

No wonder why I have the New Age folks.

[bunnyboy]

ugh.... going through the library for books on mysticism/occultism, unless you're way out of the way or in the bible belt you have no excuse....then again even in the bible belt I found storews....AND mind you I found one....in SLC....about a mile from Temple Square.

Then again I noticed the only Crowley they had was Vivian.

[Evil Queen]

It's a RED book!

[Imogene]

It's a RED book!

<Eddie Izzard>
"Little red cook book! Little red cook book!
They would say..."
</Eddie Izzard>

[RetailWorkhorse]

It's a RED book!

It was on OPRAH!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Out of Print? What does that mean?

Well, it means the publisher is no longer printing the book.

Oh. Well, do you have it?

It's a RED book!

No, it's blue.

It was on OPRAH!

<slaps RW>

Actually, though, "It was on Oprah" can actually be helpful if they are either looking for the most recent Oprah title or at least know the subject matter. B&N has an "In the Media" link on their system, too, that lists a number of national TV/radio shows and newspapers/magazines. Except it's at least a few days behind so if "it was on XX show yesterday" you're probably out of luck. And seeing as how they don't let us watch TV while we work, no, I haven't seen it!

And to be fair, the subtitle can be helpful, unless your computer system really sucks.

[RetailWorkhorse]

<slaps RW>

Ow!

*Rubs head and points at EQ*

She started it!

[Belari]

Hm...well lets see...it's about this thick *holds up fingers* and had a cat on the cover, but it's not about cats. Some lady wrote it. Can you find it for me? What??? Well why the hell NOT??? *huff and puff*

[Sliceanddice]

Hm...well lets see...it's about this thick *holds up fingers* and had a cat on the cover, but it's not about cats. Some lady wrote it. Can you find it for me? What??? Well why the hell NOT??? *huff and puff*

oh i know those books my mom reads them! their detective books right?.... what? atop looking at me like that....... i dont work in a book store im aloud to say that...