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Background - I'm a librarian in a specialist college. Our students are often entitled asshats, but are usually fairly polite and sane; I enjoy helping with research, because they're usually very grateful when we find things that they can't. They're never as sucky as supermarket morons and others that I read about on the boards, but we do have the occasional one that is...well, ARGH. /end
"Can you help me find some books?" This in a rather thick accent, and speaking to the desk rather than me. I could get most of the words, but not entirely clearly.
I cheerfully said "yes, of course" and brought up the catalogue. I thought I'd misheard, so said, "Sorry, what book was it?"
A mumbled reply along the lines of "I don't know."
O-k..."Do you know what the subject was?"
"No."
You came to the library without knowing what book/subject you wanted to search for? I CANNOT MIND READ! I don't automatically have a list of all current essays and a personal note from your tutor of which one you picked. What do you honestly expect me to do at this point?
Then he comes up with this gem: "It's the same as Hassan though."
I gather that this is another student, and look the name up. Nothing on our system. "Hassan?"
"No, Yassa."
Nothing coming up there either. "Sorry, how do you spell that?"
"Yassa. But that's his first name. I don't know his surname."
We can only search by surname, so that ruins that one. Deep breath. "O-k. Is this for an essay?"
"Yes." He beams at me.
"What's the title?"
"Russia."
We have a ridiculously big section on Russia, so he's going to have to narrow it down unless he wants to spend the rest of his day in the stacks. I finally get out of him (by dint of trawling through the intranet, bringing up the essay list for his course and having him point to the one that look familiar) that he wants books on the *insert war here*.
He then tells me that there's a specific article he needs. That's another five minutes to track it down on the intranet (I've given up on him for information at this point) and print it out. He then looks at the article and states, "I have that in my reading pack."
Right. Wonderful. I throw that piece of paper in the recycling and find the general reading list, print that out, and highlight the area he needs. He's giving it a completely blank look, so I am forced to ask the dreaded words..."Are you familiar with our classification system?"
"No. Well, I had the tour, but I can't remember."
I am NOT spending another half an hour walking him around the Library, because he's the sort of student that will try to get me to find all the books. So I smile sweetly, find our classification guide and Library map, and hand them to him with the briefest explanation I can get away with (which was still a good ten minutes). He looks a bit dissapointed that I won't find them, but (thankfully) leaves.
I later heard him talking to my colleague as he got his books out. As he was talking to the desk again, I couldn't really hear his half, but I heard my colleague: "No, we don't find them...the tutors expect you to do your own research...we will on special occasions but we don't for most students...you're given the reading list this time, later on you'll have to do all the research for yourself...ok, your books are due back in October. Bye!"
Best thing? At the top of the reading list and essay list, there's a note from the module coordinators. "Students are expected to do their own research and reading for this essay." Sigh.
"Can you help me find some books?" This in a rather thick accent, and speaking to the desk rather than me. I could get most of the words, but not entirely clearly.
I cheerfully said "yes, of course" and brought up the catalogue. I thought I'd misheard, so said, "Sorry, what book was it?"
A mumbled reply along the lines of "I don't know."
O-k..."Do you know what the subject was?"
"No."
You came to the library without knowing what book/subject you wanted to search for? I CANNOT MIND READ! I don't automatically have a list of all current essays and a personal note from your tutor of which one you picked. What do you honestly expect me to do at this point?
Then he comes up with this gem: "It's the same as Hassan though."
I gather that this is another student, and look the name up. Nothing on our system. "Hassan?"
"No, Yassa."
Nothing coming up there either. "Sorry, how do you spell that?"
"Yassa. But that's his first name. I don't know his surname."
We can only search by surname, so that ruins that one. Deep breath. "O-k. Is this for an essay?"
"Yes." He beams at me.
"What's the title?"
"Russia."
We have a ridiculously big section on Russia, so he's going to have to narrow it down unless he wants to spend the rest of his day in the stacks. I finally get out of him (by dint of trawling through the intranet, bringing up the essay list for his course and having him point to the one that look familiar) that he wants books on the *insert war here*.
He then tells me that there's a specific article he needs. That's another five minutes to track it down on the intranet (I've given up on him for information at this point) and print it out. He then looks at the article and states, "I have that in my reading pack."
Right. Wonderful. I throw that piece of paper in the recycling and find the general reading list, print that out, and highlight the area he needs. He's giving it a completely blank look, so I am forced to ask the dreaded words..."Are you familiar with our classification system?"
"No. Well, I had the tour, but I can't remember."
I am NOT spending another half an hour walking him around the Library, because he's the sort of student that will try to get me to find all the books. So I smile sweetly, find our classification guide and Library map, and hand them to him with the briefest explanation I can get away with (which was still a good ten minutes). He looks a bit dissapointed that I won't find them, but (thankfully) leaves.
I later heard him talking to my colleague as he got his books out. As he was talking to the desk again, I couldn't really hear his half, but I heard my colleague: "No, we don't find them...the tutors expect you to do your own research...we will on special occasions but we don't for most students...you're given the reading list this time, later on you'll have to do all the research for yourself...ok, your books are due back in October. Bye!"
Best thing? At the top of the reading list and essay list, there's a note from the module coordinators. "Students are expected to do their own research and reading for this essay." Sigh.
They usually get a printed list and pointed instructions about how to find stuff ("have you tried looking?")
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