She didn't like we didn't have all her books

[depechemodefan]

NOte, I work for a City library, and there are talks about furloughs, cutting hours or other things and that appeared in the newspaper. Nothing has been decided yet, though cutting hours of operations sounds the most logical.

A woman calls the library asking if we had pull all her 8 books, that she requested yesterday.

I ask for her last name and library card number. She first give me her number, then she pronounces her name, "Riosdelmancheco" (I make up this name, but similar enough-also she says it fast enough where I can't be sure of what she said) and I ask her to spell it:

SC: I-O-S...
me: I-O-S...
SC: No, R like Richard, I, O like Oscar....D like dog, e, no, L like larry....
me: OK, R-i-o-s-d-l-m
SC: No, it's d-e-l. D like dog , e, l like look....

(note, when I asked her to spell her name, she sounded like I was dumb for not knowing how to spell it. Hey, bitch, not everyone speaks or reads Spanish in this city. Also, on the caller id, her name shows up as "Mancheco". So I just had to make sure of her name)

So I look up her record and see she has 4 out of 8 books available. I also see she she owe us $9.48 in fines. Anyone who owes $10 or more can't check out anything, or renew or use our computers. She owes on Beuty books and I see she paid enough on one book to owe less than $10. Latter on, I figure she might have tried to brow beat a circ person about the fines, or lied about turning them in on time. And she owes us this money since Sept.

I get back to her and say we only have the 4 books.

SC: Well, why don't you have all 8 books? Did no one pull them? Do you not have enough people? Did you implement furloughs? (note, she said this in the snottiest voice)?
Me: No, there is no furloughs. The people who went looking for the books only found the 4. They are going to check for the books again.
SC: When? Today? Do they check for books on Saturday?
Me: yes, they do.
SC: (in put-upon-voice) Well, I'll be there today to pick up my 4 books.

Her attitude is someone who is put-upon and pissy. I wouldn't have thougth much about the fines, because lot of people don't pay the fines at once, but since she owes since Sept, and she paid enough so she still have privledges, I don't think we will ever see the rest of the money.

[Teskeria]

The South Shore library system developed a weird glitch. they fixed it many times. However, it keeps insisting I owe $999,999,999.99 in fines. (good thing the librarians made a note in the system at least 10 times that this keeps popping up.)

I love libraries. they have books! Sigh, but I read all the books that interest me in all the libraries in the Boston system. no new books till more good writers write them. they write too slow (it takes me about 45 minutes to read a 300 page book. and no, I can't speed read)

[Ironclad Alibi]

So I look up her record and see she has 4 out of 8 books available. I also see she she owe us $9.48 in fines. Anyone who owes $10 or more can't check out anything, or renew or use our computers. She owes on Beuty books and I see she paid enough on one book to owe less than $10. Latter on, I figure she might have tried to brow beat a circ person about the fines, or lied about turning them in on time. And she owes us this money since Sept.

How about recommending to the library management that anyone who owes $10 or more in fines has to pay it off entirely to regain library priviledges? Not that management would see the logic of doing that.

[mattm04]

How about recommending to the library management that anyone who owes $10 or more in fines has to pay it off entirely to regain library priviledges? Not that management would see the logic of doing that.

I totally agree.

[reimero]

How about recommending to the library management that anyone who owes $10 or more in fines has to pay it off entirely to regain library priviledges? Not that management would see the logic of doing that.

Actually, that's not a question of library management so much as a question of library computer system logic.

I won't bore you with details, but if our library director were to decide to implement that sort of system, it would ultimately come to me, and I'd tell him I'm pretty sure it can't be done automatically, at least not with the system we have. The circ staff would have to manage patron blocks manually, and that can get rather time-consuming.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't do programming so have no idea how difficult it would be to program, but you could have it set up so that once you hit >$10.00 it locks the account for making further withdrawals and the only automatic trigger for removing that lock is when it hits $0.0, at which point it returns to the allowed state.

^-.-^

[depechemodefan]

How about recommending to the library management that anyone who owes $10 or more in fines has to pay it off entirely to regain library priviledges? Not that management would see the logic of doing that.

But the customer will suffer! [/sarcasm] . Management does not want to inconvienence the customer. "No" is not in the management vocabulary. I really don't know why they have the policy they do. I guess people could have fines but not the money to pay the fines right then (like "surprise! I didn't expect to have fines when I turned these books in, and I didn't bring my purse). but makes more sense not to let them have any privledges if after, say, 2 weeks, they didn't pay their fines.