Since June 1, at the library....

[PepperElf]

my library allowed coffee in the main lobby - or it did when i first came back
but now the coffee machine is gone and food is completely barred


i suspect it may be due to people leaving food trash and damaging books
but it may also be to discourage people from using the library as a homeless shelter too

[MoonCat]

Food in the library = bad idea. You see what they do to the bathrooms...imagine what happens to the books....greasy fingerprints, big splotchy stains, crumbs in the binding....yuck.

[depechemodefan]

It's a new month, but I still have stories from June.

It's a book. It has phone numbers in it.
Yes, I have to look up numbers for people who want the Fiesta, Best Buy, Social Security office off of x. Granted, places like SS or US Post office don't have their own branch phone number, but that means we can't find it. Stop asking us, the US gov't doesn' want you to have it. WE still wish people would use their damn phone books.

But this guy is special:

(sc calls the library)
sc: I need the phone number to Party bbb (it's a store that sells party supplies)
me: one moment...ok, it's (713) 861-908x.
sc: can you repeat it?
me: it's (713) 861-908x.


5 min. latter:
same sc: I need the phone number to Party bbb.
me: I gave you the nubmer already, was it wrong?
sc: no, I just need it again.
and you know what? I had the number memorized by now
me: it's (713) 861-908x.

How can a person lose a phone number that fast? Unless he didn't write it down?


study guides and plays
a guy calls the library asking for a study guide for a Real Estate exam. I get 2 diff. books off the shelf, and the titles are almost the same. I told him the titles and he thought I repeated the title. I explained that they are diff. books. He doesn't have a library card so I have to place them on hold the hard way. He says his name is Nicholas. Let's say he says it with no stress on any letter.

So 3 hours latter he comes up to a desk I was manning. I see he got the books so I know he is Nicholas. He wants a play. He then introduces himself as Nicholas, accent on the last syllable. Usually, I don't change the pronounciation of my name within a day, but whatever. Now looking at the catalog I didn't fidn the play. He said we had it, he saw it. I said it could have been lost (stolen). He says he saw it in other libraries. So going to worldcat I find that it was part of a compilation. In our catalog, it just showed the name of the compilation and the editor, so no index or front page showing what plays were in it. Through worldcat, it list the plays (the one he wanted and others) so I was able to find the right title. I tell him the call number and tell him where it is. So far he acted ok, but as soon as he left he gave me a "WTF?" look. Um, because I coudln't find the play right off the bat? Because I told him where the play was, but didn't get it for him? Because I pronounced "Nicholas" without the accent at the end? I don't get it.

[wagegoth]

in this case, you would be right, praise ya isn't there; if i remember correctly, yaweh is the jewish word for god, so you'd be right on all accounts.

somehow, i don't think she'd understand that, either.

It probably depends on the translation/version as to how it is worded.

[depechemodefan]

More of what happened in June

wwe smackdown, hobo style.

earlier this last week some of the homeless people decide to throw chairs at each other. One guy got a ride in the

ambulance, another in the cop car. We have no idea why they got in a fight.

Manager of emerging technologies? You don't know anything about emerging technologies!

this involves several of us in teleph. reference.
met: manager of emerging technologies
cw: cw I hate
cl: crazy lady
me: luckily never talked to the cl

cl: I need to know if the x library is still having the kids program today (a Sat.)
cw: let me check...I'm sorry, I'm not finding any information on the program. I can give you their ph. no. but...
cl: I have their number! I called and no one answers!
cw: they don't open until 11.
cl: the flyer says 10!
cw: I'm sorry. that must be an old flyer.
cw decides to call our library's kid's area to see if they know about the program. They don't but agree to talk to cl.

5 min. latter.
cl: I want the number to the kid's area.
met: I'm sorry, I can't give out that number. Maybe I can help you with your question?
cl: I want to talk to a manager!
met: I'm a manager; I'm the manager of emerging technologies.
cl: Manager of emerging technologies? You don't know anything about emerging technologies! You're stupid!
met: Ma'm I can't help you if you insult me.
cl: You are stupid!
met: Ma'm I want to help you, but if you keep on insulting me I have to hang up.
cl:I'm going to call back all day!

cl hangs up and keeps on calling us for the rest of the hour. the first few times met keeps on getting her, and the cl hangs

up, but we started to let her call roll over.

Somehow met gets cl phone number or at one point, calls the manager in charge for the day to talk to cl.


Montgom*** county, Texas

same hour as the cl, I was on chat. The library has a chat service that not only monitors our patrons but other library

systems as well. When someone wants to chat with a librarian, the librarian sees info. about the library of the patron. So

I see someone got on the Montgom*** County, Tx library website and is trying to chat.

kid: I need to know if you have *name of book* at the B library.
me: let me check...no, the B library doesn't have it (I don't see it listed in the locations that own the book) but I see the

V library has is it.
kid: V library? Where's that?
me: in Seely, TX.
kid: But what about the B library? It's in G (town).
me: I don't see it...*google the town, and I see it's in Maryland* I see that the library you are interrested in is in

Maryland.
kid: It should be on K street.
me: There is no library on K street in Montgom*** county tx...

kid disconnects.

5 min. latter, kid connects again
kid: I need to know if you have *name of book* at the B library.
me: hi, I talked to you 5 min ago.
kid: sorry, my baby cousin disconnected me.
me: The library system you are interrested in is in Maryland. The chat service you are using is for TX.
kid: oh. so do you know if B library has the book?
Me: one moment.
and I try to find the website for that library but it has no website. I did find a phone number and the kid seemed happy with that.

I wish the kid had notice when I first mentioned Texas.

[depechemodefan]

Free copies.

Woman and husband comes in, and comes to the second floor where we have art books. They are looking for a book with a picture of a specific work. So I'm looking in the catalog and tell them X book has it. They say, "oh, we already called the library and they had that book on hold for us, but someone already tore out the picture." Oh great, someone already did all the work and they are making me redo it. The woman wants me to look online for a copy of the pic. I say I don't find anything with the whole picture. She asks why not, and I say it's a copywriten work, so most likely the whole thing won't be displayed. There are websites that have part of the picture.
So she says get as many diff. angles of it as I could and make copies of them. I told her no. She asks me why not and I say we don't provide that service, that she would have to go online herself to make the copies. She then pulls out a copy that a cw on the first floor made her, and that "they made a copy for me, why can't you?" I tell her no, I would help her find the copies online on one of our patron computers, but she has to print them out herself. She gets huffy and bitches to her husband and leaves.

This is now 20 min. to closing and I'm pissed that she played this game with me. She already had 2 people help her and made me reproduce the same research.
It's 9pm and it's time to leave. i go to the first floor and see another person helping the woman, and that idiot cw made several copies of the work, in part. CW is telling her to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, they have a library. But it's now past 9pm, and the woman is still not leaving. I leave.
This is also one reason I don't make copies. If I do then the sc will always say "well, you did it before/your cw did it."



Tribal papers
A guy wants several things. A book on how to get money to open his own church (because God knows the gov't is just handing out free money to everyone [/sarcasm]) and a form to fill out to become a Native American. I showed him where the books are to form one's own church. While he is looking at the church books, I'm looking online for a form from National Congress of American Indians and of course people are coming up to me while I'm busy with this. The people were pretty good about waiting, though one person wanted to know where we had books on plants, even though she knew how to use the catalog.

Now, I found the form online, but I wasn't going to print it out. You know why. I print it out, and the idiot will lose it and weeks latter he will want another free copy, because we gave him a free print out before. and/or, the idiot will latter
want us to print out something else for him and when someone doesn't he'll bring up that we did it before.

I give him the address to the National Congress of American Indians so he can write for a form.

[depechemodefan]

Sorry, I have to post this in three sections, it's so long

Not without my daughter!
A woman comes up to me asking for the address for the NAACP and starts telling me that she needs to get back home to Detroit,

they stole her daughter, and she has no money, etc. Of course, she is almost hysteric. I tell her I don't want to hear it,

I will get her the phone number to the NAACP. She also wants directions. I tell her they are 2 miles away. That is too far

for her to walk. Well I guess she will never get her girl back. I also look for other agencies that might help her. I give

her the phone numbers and addresses and she wants to use our phone. At this time soem guy comes up and tries to flirt wit

hher (wtf?) and she got his name but she says she doesn't give out her name. I icidly asked her if she wanted to talk to the

guy or have me help her, and she says she wants my help and tells the guy buy.


Another YOU DID IT BEFORE!
A woman is at the Circ desk then comes to me. She wants to renew her card and wants me to look up her card. Um, the Circ

desk, which she just stepped away from, can do that for her. I tell her I can't renew her card, the Circ. desk can. She

huffs that she can't wait that long (someone just came up to the Circ. desk). So she goes back there and comes right back,

saying that we looked up her number for her before. I tell her no. She tells her daughters that she will have to use their

cards to check out the books. So she goes to the self check out. Now, even if I give her her card number, the self check

out is not like the grocery store sco where if you forget your Randles or Krogets card, you can type in the number. Our

machines have to scan the card.


Tell me you are paying
I wish people who send payments would include a note saying "I'm paying for research you did for me." Sometimes, it's just a check and I have no idea if they are paying my dept. or paying a fine or what. And sometimes it sounds like a first-time request, so I end up redoing work.