Librarians have to have spellcheck

[depechemodefan]

Me=
idiot=customer

Here I am on the second floor, walking around, asking patrons if they needed help. I see a guy at the catalog computer and asked him if he needed help and he said no.

10 min latter.

note, I'm spelling the name as I understand what the patron is saying.

Idiot: I can't find a book on William Bugero (he pronounced it with a hard "g")
me: who is he?
idiot: a painter.
me: do you know how to spell his name?
idiot: no.
me: *use internet skills, find a painter named William Bugero. I write down name and hand it to him*
idiot: That's not his name.
me: Google shows me that is his name.
idiot: but that's not him. His name has an "e" and an "o".
me: yes, like this. Let's go to the catalog and try it.
we walk to the catalog
idiot: I already that name. You don't have anything.
me: then we probably don't have any books on him.
idiot: but I already checked out books about him before.
me: well, either we discarded them because they dont' have many circs, or you found books on many artists, and he was listed there, but the catalog didn't catalog the book with his name.
we go back to my terminal.
idiot: are you having a bad day?
me: considering you don't remember how to spell his name, and you are telling me I'm wrong, no.
ok, he didn't say I was wrong but I got that name from the internet and it fit the details he bothered to give me, I was getting pissed with him.
me: *showing him the screen* here is his name, here are some of his paintings, is this him?
idiot: yeah, but that's not how you spell his name. he painted the "elder sister".
me: *looks that up in google* ok, found it, his name is William Bouguereau.
idiot: why didn't you know that?
me: I don't speak french, I only could go with what you tell me.
idiot: you're the librarian, you should know.
me: He's your subject, you should know his name.
idiot: you have the internet.
me: yes, and the internet gave me William Bugero
idiot: you're the librarian, you should have known, you could have looked it up on the internet.
me: you could have too.

Ok, I can get sometimes you forget the spelling of people, but if you are going to bug someone else to look up things (at one point I was going to get a book on artists names and tell him to look it up himself) could you at least work with the person, give useful information?

I mean, do I look like I work for Antiques Roadshow? If I had the knowledge you think I had I would be on PBS right now.

[Amina516]

That reminds me all to much of the patients who expect me to know what the "little yellow pill" is they take every morning based on its color and size.

Uh, no.

[fireheart]

That reminds me all to much of the patients who expect me to know what the "little yellow pill" is they take every morning based on its color and size.

Uh, no.

on the opposite end of the spectrum I had nurses and doctors who were stunned when I gave them the full name of my medication-fluently. (the actual medical name, not the brand it's marketed as)

[Seshat]

I just bring in empty boxes with the full info on them.

[Aethian]

And why couldn't he have given you the name of the painting before hand?

[BlaqueKatt]

That reminds me all to much of the patients who expect me to know what the "little yellow pill" is they take every morning based on its color and size.

nuprin...little, yellow, different, better.


damn you marketing! that brand has been gone for years....

[Sapphire Silk]

That reminds me all to much of the patients who expect me to know what the "little yellow pill" is they take every morning based on its color and size.

Uh, no.

Exactly what I was thinking! You beat me to it, darn you!

on the opposite end of the spectrum I had nurses and doctors who were stunned when I gave them the full name of my medication-fluently. (the actual medical name, not the brand it's marketed as)

Generic name. Good for you! I push my students to learn them . . . more and more the docs use generic names instead of brand names when writing orders.

I just bring in empty boxes with the full info on them.

Ugh. This drives me crazy. I get these patients on a dozen different meds coming into the ER. They bring a bag full of empty bottles or boxes. I have to go through all of them and sort out the duplicates and the meds the patient is no longer actually taking.

The only thing worse is the patients who bring in the daily dose boxes. Then I have to sort out not only the little yellow pills, but the big white ones, the odd shaped blue ones, and red and white capsules, ad nauseum.

I encourage patients to keep a list on an index card in their wallet, and to update it every 3 months.

But back to the OP: Geez, what a moron. Librarians do NOT "know everything". They can help you find just about anything, but for pity's sake you have to give them something to work with!

[sevendaysky]

I'm going to chime in on the list of medicines. My mother has always insisted on the index card thing - not even a full index, but one cut to fit into a credit card slot. It lists blood type and allergies on one side, and on the other the major medications. This nearly saved my life (or my sanity) one evening when I had to be taken to the ER after jaw surgery. I react badly to hydrocodone; the doctors at this small ER wanted to give me that. My mother couldn't remember the name of "that stuff that makes her ill" and went into my purse, got the card, and handed it over.

If they had given it to me then, I would have been not a happy camper. It gives me the shakes, makes me vomit uncontrollably and continuously until it wears off, etc -- and at the time, my jaws were banded shut following surgery to reposition my lower jaw. If I had been given the medication in my dehydrated, half-delirious state, I might have choked and passed out. The time it would have taken them to rectify that situation would be critical time that... well, yes. It was avoided thanks to my mother's "You Must Do This Or Else." I've learned my lesson and update it religiously.

I also take a highlighter and scribble the edges to make it visible - no credit card I've ever seen is bright yellow!

[fireheart]

Generic name. Good for you! I push my students to learn them . . . more and more the docs use generic names instead of brand names when writing orders.

The only exception I have to this is Seroquel, because 1) a box will last me almost 6 months (I take 1/4 of a tablet, so 2 tablets is about a week's supply), 2) For some reason, my local chemist does not carry the generic.

But I can pronounce the names of my current and former antidepressants-moclobemide (current) and escilotapram (past)

[Eisa]

Yeah, when I was on reglan and prilosec, I could say perfectly clearly metaclopramide and omeprazole. I try to remember generic names.

The idiot in the OP is, well...an idiot. He couldn't even tell you the guy was French?

[chainedbarista]

given how he behaved, i'm surprised he was able to find the library without serious problems.

yes, dumbass, you do need to provide your librarian with details...

[Peppergirl]

I'm really impressed that you didn't back down and gave it right back to him with both barrels.

You rock.

[mharbourgirl]

I'm a librarian. It's not my job to know everything. Just how to find it. This is not as easy as people want to think.

We're the masters of information. Offend us at your peril.

[dalesys]

We're the masters of information. Offend us at your peril.

You have been informed.

[PepperElf]

That reminds me all to much of the patients who expect me to know what the "little yellow pill" is they take every morning based on its color and size.

Uh, no.

i'd be tempted to tell them it's "piss-in-a-pill".
i mean granted yes you can tell what a pill is based on color size and markings but... you also have to have a lot of time on your hands to do it.