She wanted to know famous sisters: I told "the Olsen twins" (longish)

[depechemodefan]

Dumb woman: dw
long-suffering library staff: me
co-worker: cw

dw calls the library
me: Good afternoon, Thank you for calling blah blah library, how can I help you?
dw: *I don't hear anything* (I think it's their phone with a bad connection)
me: hello, how can I help you?
dw: hi, can you hear me now?
me: yes, how can I help you?
dw: I have a question. It's about sisterhood. Queen Elizabeth, (at this I thought she meant the current queen of England), she beheaded another queen, Mary queen of Scots. Now Victoria, I don't know her number....
me: um, you were talking about Queen Elizabeth, but now Victoria. I don't know who you want me to research.
dw: Did I say Victoria? I meant Elizabeth. She beheaded another queen, Mary queen of Scots.
me: ok, well if you want to know Elizabeth's number, it's Roman numeral one.
dw: ok, did she behead Mary Queen of Scots?
me: Let me look....ok, She was known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, or Mary, queen of Scots.
dw: ok, Mary I of Scots...
me: um, no, it's Mary I of Scotland also, Mary, queen of Scots.
dw: how old was she when she was beheaded.
me: *looks* 44.
dw: how were she and Elizabeth related.
me: first cousins once removed (luckily she didn't ask what that meant)
dw: when was she beheaded.
me: I can answer this last question, but I have to move on to the next caller. February 8 1587
dw: ok

She calls back and gets cw. Imagine a dw with an attitude.
dw: I talked to you before.
cw: not me, I just got here.
dw: what's you name.
cw: It's Mrs. blah. What is your name?
dw: Mrs. Blurhg.
cw: how can I help you.
dw: I need to know how old Elizabeth was when Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded.
cw: *give answer*
dw: What blah blah blah.
cw: excuse me, if you have more than one question you can just list them for me and I can answer them for you.
dw: You are making this difficult.
dw has more questions, then calls back. I get her again.
yes. she had attitude.
dw: What is your name.
me: Miss blahh
dw: I need the name of two famous sisters.
me: *waiting for more infor*....ok, one moment.........Ok, there aer Mary Kate and Asley Olsen. Is that ok.
dw: um, no.
me: any particular type of sisters? Because I can't find what you want if you don't give me a type.
dw: no
me: The Bronte sistes....
dw: what did they do?
me: they were authors.
dw: no. I need sisters who promoted world peace.
me: ok, that's what ou want. one moment....There is the Grimké sistes, Angela and Sarah. (actually, Angelina, but when I caught myself saying it wrong, I decided not to correct it).
dw:...ok, Angela and who?
me: sarah. The were abolitionists, and talked to the first mixed crowd in 1847.
dw: can you tell me what books they wrote?
me: *gives titles to two books*
dw: thank you

At some point I wanted to ask if she was doing her kids homework. I hated that she gave my cw an attitude, and me too the second time she called.

Also, I remember a movie about Liz and Mary, and the tagline said something about them being sisters.

[Andara Bledin]

At some point I wanted to ask if she was doing her kids homework.

Nope. She's getting you to do her kid's homework.

^-.-^

[Eisa]

Nope. She's getting you to do her kid's homework.

^-.-^

Yep. Which...doesn't even sound difficult. The lazy, it burns.

[Kristev]

Failure as a parent, right there.

[depechemodefan]

She's getting you to do her kid's homework

true that.

Oh, well, at least I gave her some wrong info. For ex, looking up how old Mary was when she died, I subtracted date of death from birthdate and got 45. But then realized she really was 44. OH well.

[Salesmonkey]

I don't understand how your library system considers this "ask a librarian any question" thing to be a good investment of your time or salary. It doesn't really even drive up library business or circulation numbers, either... why check out a book when you can pester a librarian? Or goodness forbid look up QE on wikipedia.

[Andara Bledin]

I imagine that most of these people calling and asking don't actually have the Internet.

I know it's a foreign concept to most of us, but there are still huge numbers of people out there that aren't connected.

Just yesterday I was helping educate the guy ahead of me at the bank about how to do bill payments online either directly or through the bank, and the benefits of using his credit card to earn points (a conversation started by the line-assistant). He was just about my age and still used checks for most things.

^-.-^

[Sleepwalker]

chek...z? What is this 'chekz' you speak of? Isn't that a cereal?

[depechemodefan]

I know it's a foreign concept to most of us, but there are still huge numbers of people out there that aren't connected.

There are people who come to the library to use the internet and don't know how to do it. They tell me they took classes. The other day this guy came up to me he, was trying to contact a person on craigslist and the computer won't let him. I see he was typing the guy's email address from craigslist in the address bar.

But even without the internet people came to the library to do research. People just want other people to do their kids homework. Good-luck getting your kid out of your house 20 years latter.

One problem I encountered with paying bills by my bank account online. I was paying my mom's student loan online. I sent $100 a month. In Aug. I notice a bill in the mail; I didn't recognize the company (ACS or something like that) so I thought it was a scammer. By Dec. I finally get a notice in the mail by the student loan people that my account was given over to ACS since Aug. and for a few months they have been forwarding a check to ACS but they stopped in Nov. I had just paid online in Dec. to the old account. I then noticed in a pile of bills a check from the old account for $100 from Nov. I have no idea where the $100 I paid in Dec. went to-it certainly didn't go to ACS.

[Andara Bledin]

One problem I encountered with paying bills by my bank account online. I was paying my mom's student loan online. I sent $100 a month. In Aug. I notice a bill in the mail; I didn't recognize the company (ACS or something like that) so I thought it was a scammer. By Dec. I finally get a notice in the mail by the student loan people that my account was given over to ACS since Aug.

This is another reason I pay my stuff manually. Or schedule only for the current month. The hassle of remember to do the bills every month is much less than the hassle of having to change everything should you change your bank account or credit/debit card number.

^-.-^