Patrons that make you say, 'Awwww....'

A semi-regular elderly patron came up to me at the desk last week and asked if I could help him on the internet computers.  I told him that I would be glad to help him out again.  When we got to a computer he pulled out a letter mailed from his bank and he had written instructions on the outside of the envelope.  He wanted to print up his last year's credit card statement but he never set up an online account.

He told me that he would try it himself but he had eye surgery and could not see the screen.  So long story short, he had to call his credit card and verify who he was and they set up a temporary password for his first log in and account creation.  I helped him set up his account, including all of the security questions and man, does Bank of America require a lot of security measurements.  When it came to setting up a password, he looked at me for suggestions.  It's nice to see that people trust librarians, not that there shouldn't be any reason NOT to.  It's not like there's a secret black market ring run by public librarians who steal trusting patrons'... right??

After it was all said and done, he tried to sneak me a $5 bill at the info desk on his way out.  I had to decline it numerous times, telling him that it was no problem, that I was doing my job, that's what we're here for...etc.  He then asked if he could walk over to McDonald's and buy me lunch, it was one of the nice patron interactions that makes you shrug off the really bad ones.

It isn't all doom and gloom as I make it out to be, but I would still advise against people pursuing an MLIS.

Public Librarianship: "It's not what you do, but how you do it"

Last week I helped an elderly patron place a book on hold and find a book on the shelves.  Typical patron interaction which I conducted in my usual means, but her reaction made it seem different.  After I checked out the book for her, she was extremely grateful and told me, "Thank you so much, it really is not what you do, but how you do it.  It's nice to receive this kind of service.  And I should know because I was a teacher my whole life."  On her way out, she even made a point to find me and thank me again while I was shelving some material in the new adult section.

My online persona can be very different than how I really am in the library.  This is a place for me to vent when dealing with the frustrations that one encounters when dealing with the public and working in such a troubling field as librarianship.  I do my best to help every single patron I meet, even if some are extremely ungrateful and rude.  I didn't do anything out of the ordinary for her either, it's not like I jump-started her car or changed a flat tire which I would have gladly done for her.  Her comments were very touching but it made me wonder what kind of horrible experiences she might have had in the past when dealing with public librarians.  I may be an extremely jaded librarian, but I know how to repress it while I'm on the reference desk, it's part of the job.

Happy Chinese New Year!

An elderly Taiwanese patron, who I usually help when I'm working, just handed me this card saying, "thanks for always helping me and happy belated Chinese New Year!"

My Love/Hate Experience with Overdrive and Kindle...

Two weeks ago I had a patron call asking for help getting his library ebook to his Kindle.  I could tell over the phone that he was not tech-savvy at all, so I took my time explaining what to click and all.  After 15 minutes of unsuccessfully getting the ebook to his Kindle, I told him to try Overdrive support or Amazon Kindle online help.  He called back later and talked to a coworker who also tried to help him.  It didn't work, so he gave the patron the number for the closest library that has volunteer one-on-one sessions for e-readers.

Well, our patron here was very determined to get his ebook that same day, he came in the branch and lucky me was on the info desk again.  So I called someone to watch the desk for me as I walked him over to public PC to attempt to download.  I went through the steps with him, but for some reason when we tried to download it from the Amazon site it said it already was, but when I looked at the Manage my Kindle section, the book wasn't listed.... Apparently when you try to get Kindle books through Overdrive, there is the slight chance your ebook might get lost in the ether.  The only way to resolve this is by contacting Amazon support directly, so OverDrive got let off the hook--- this time.

A lady brought in her iPad and wanted to download some ebooks.  She already had the OverDrive app installed, so I showed her the process of finding the library, searching through the collection and we were able to set up an Adobe account for her and download an ebook in 10 minutes flat and the patron left with a smile.  A couple hours later, a dad came up with his 8 year old boy and the young boy's iPad, they wanted me to show them the same thing.  Sure thing, easy-peasy right?  Well, for some reason the OverDrive app would not let us select the library.  If you can't select a library, well, you can't access any of the ebooks.

Last Friday, I had a patron call who was trying to download BossyPants the audio book to her iPod.  I am not an Apple person at all, I have never owned any of their products, but that hasn't stopped me from helping patrons with their Apple devices.  She wasn't able to download the file to her Mac even though the OverDrive site says that it works for iPod.  Oh yeah, one small minor detail they don't tell you upfront, you want that audio book for your iPod huh?  The only available format is WMA, but wait, OverDrive shows that it will work for the iPod!  Oh wait, if you hover the mouse over the iPod image, it says that you can only get it to work if you use a PC.  So you can download and listen to WMA files, a PC format, on your Apple iPod, but only if you transfer it using a PC... Thanks a lot OverDrive.

Today, as I was trying to make my escape to the backroom an elderly patron came up with her Kindle Fire asking me to show her how to download ebooks.  Okay, honestly, she didn't want me to show her anything, she just wanted me to do it for her.  Hey, that's cool, she wasn't rude, she was very polite, so I browsed the catalog with her until we found an available ebook that looked interesting to her.  So I began the checkout/download progress and when I asked her to enter in her Amazon account and password, she was worried she would break the keyboard with her bad luck.  So she gave me her email account and password, I worry about these type of patrons, she's on the same level as those who get excited when those internet pop-ups tell them "They're today's lucky winner!"  And they nonchalantly enter in all their personal information for nothing.  Anyways, so after I download her Jo Nesbo book, she tells me that her 7 year old grand-daughter is visiting her soon and that she would like to download some games as well.  So I show her how to find the free game section and we ended up trying out, "Where's my Water?" (don't hate, I enjoyed the game).  She seemed to follow and remember the steps I showed her and I had her repeat it in front of me, her grand-daughter will be one happy tablet camper.

The public library ebook download experience SHOULD be as easy as the last example, if not easier.  You choose the item you want and "check out," and then you sync your device over Wi-Fi and poof --- there's your item on your device.  These numbskull publishers need to realize that pirates are not using the public library as a base for their "industry ruining" operations.  Oh, and don't get it twisted, I have still don't have any love for OverDrive, I still hate their monopolistic-[un-innovative]-greedy-lazy-antilibrary-broken-search-function-ass.

'50 Shades of Grey' and the Elderly

While I was jogging at a local HS track with my friend (yeah, I know, me exercising --- funny, no?), she was telling me about an elderly gentleman, 87 years old, who came up to her at the info desk asking for a copy of  50 Shades.  He made no pretenses that it was "for my wife," like other male patrons have done in the past when it comes to borrowing romance-smut.  He told her about another book in his younger days that also caused a stir: Lady Chatterley's Lover.  Neither of us have ever heard of it so we had to look it up like an other good librarian would do.  After she placed the hold for him, and told him his place in the queue, #1,000+, he joked that he might not be around when his place comes  : \

I had a similar exchange when an 82 year old patron came up to me at the info desk and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper from her purse and asked to place a hold on some nonfiction book she heard about on NPR.  After I place her hold, she says, "Well, as long as no one else is here."  She took a furtive glance over both of her shoulders to only spot a young boy who snuck up behind her with his completed summer reading log in hand.  She blushed a little and quietly said, "Can you also place a hold on that 50-book?"  It clicked instantly what she meant, so I just smiled and gave a slight nod of the head.  I told her her place in the holds list and she just replied, "Oh my!  Is it that good?"  To which I could only reply, "No, no it isn't"...

To the patron who said they would give me half a million dollars...

To the patron who said that they would give me half a million dollars --- I won't forget.

I had a patron come up to the info desk with a color photograph of a painting that his old landlady gave him over 40 years ago.  This was an elder patron and he admitted that he wanted to "get his ducks in a row" while he could still "get around."

He had no idea who the painter was, but he was hoping that we, The Library, had the right resources.  The best I could do was find a couple of online resources that might have been the right artist or not, depending on how you interpreted the signature.  He seemed pleased with what I had found and said that he was going to visit one of his friends who works at an art museum.  Seems like the first place I would have gone, but it was nice he thought of the library.  He said, "Who knows?  Maybe it's worth a million dollars, I'll give you half of it!"

With a couple hundred grand on the line and a couple of hours after he left, I continued to do some more research into that particular artist and found a website that listed their recently ended auctions.  The highest auction ended at $15,000.  So Generous-Patron, your estimate of $500,000 was pretty far off, but I would more than gladly take a couple grand, you know where to drop off the check.

L.E.V. Parking Spots are the Worst...

My branch is newly remodeled, it's all fancy with its LEED - certification and green roof.  Unfortunately, the parking lot needed a certain amount of L.E.V. (that stands for Low Emission Vehicle you anti-green, polluters) spots and they happened to place them all together in the front row.  I'm sure this move makes for great P.R. for the district supervisor, but it has been nothing but hell for library staff.

We get so many curmudgeons coming in to complain about them, it's become an almost daily event.  Last Wednesday was the worst for me.  3 different patrons during the whole day took the time to bitch to me at the info desk.  The first two were funny, the last was just a pain in the ass.

The first patron to approach me asked in a Seinfeldian way, "What's the deal with the LEV parking?"  I gave her the spiel about the LEED certification and that the library had no input or control in the matter.  I gave her the district supervisor's number, since it's pointless to bitch to me thinking I can just put on a hard-hat and redo the parking lot myself.  Then she went on a tirade about "all these damn Leftists, controlling how the majority lives."  "You know what, if something isn't healthy for you then don't eat it, but don't take that option away from me."  Amen to that sister, eeerrr ma'am, you can take my parking spot but you'll have to pry this Krispy Kreme from my cold, frost-covered fingers.

The second patron came up to the desk and asked me what constitutes an "LEV."  He doesn't drive a hybrid but gets 28 mpg.  I gave him the same spiel, blah blah not the library's decision blah blah supervisor blah blah.  When I asked if he wanted to district supervisor's number, he said that he would look it up.  Before he turned around, he asked the name for the supervisor.  After I told him he replies, "Oh, THAT guy??  He's an idiot!"  I couldn't help but laugh at that.

Lastly, came the worst.  She came up to the info desk and pointed at the lady who had just walked up to the circ desk and told me, "That lady right there just parked her Lexus SUV in one of the LEV spots."  My eyes just glazed over and I stared blankly in her general direction.

Oh, you think I can/will do something about that?

She pretty much tattle-tailed on that woman to me, who knows maybe it was RX - Hybrid, which isn't just a plain old regular LEV, it's a SUPER-LEV, ooooh-aaaaah!  I knew from the tone in this patron's voice that there was not going to be an amicable ending to this interaction.  So I figured, eff it, I'm going in, no attempt to try to appease her.  I told her that those spots are not enforced.  I got the reaction I was expecting, "What?! Why not?"  Because no one cares, park there, it's not that serious.  She kept repeating over and over, "But that lady parked her SUV in one of those spots."

I asked if she wanted the number for the district supervisor, she said she was just trying to be in and out, so I told her she could go get her books and I'll find her.  It really only took 10 seconds, and she also failed to mention that her "in and out" also meant spending another couple minutes bitching to me about the lack of materials.  I told her that we, at the branch level, do not make any of the decisions.  There's a whole department called Acquisitions, that, shocker---acquires ish.  She said, "Well, have you made any suggestions or advice?"  I said no because it's not in my job title, then she says, why don't you take the initiative, I quickly got bored of her inane arguing and asked if she wanted the number for the library director.  She could only reply, "I'm so sick of this bureaucratic nonsense, 'it's not our fault, blame this or that.'"  Well, lady, I don't know what to tell you, blame the system.