You know it's been a long, busy day at the Library when...

You know it's been a long, busy day at the Library when a patron comes up to the info desk asking for a specific book. I found it listed as being on the 'Shelves' in the ILS, so I walk the patron back to the stacks.  As soon as I get halfway through stacks, I stop and turn to the patron and say, "I'm sorry, what were you looking for again?" (=_=)

Back To School: Summer Slacker Edition.

This is the epitome of the "Back to School" season.  I hated this commercial when I was younger because it was a reminder of what was in store: early mornings, trudging heavy backpacks home, HOMEWORK.  But now, this is my all time favorite commercial, "Back to school suckers!"

My favorite library reminder for Back to School, is the last minute rush of student slackers.  Some will walk up reluctantly to the info desk with their summer reading list, they might need prodding from their parents, who  give them a shove towards me saying, "You go ask the gentleman."  I can't help but smile because that was me, I can't even lie and say I never slacked from school-work during the summer when I was their age.  I have nothing but sympathy for the parents who come rushing in right after work asking for a book for their child's project that is due in a few days.  Sorry Mom & Dad, that was me...

As I start from the top of the list and run my way through looking at the catalog: "All checked out, all checked out, all checked out... Do you want to place a hold?"  Young student slacker: "Uhm, no, that's okay, what do you have here now that I can check out."  When I do happen to find a book on the shelf, the next inevitable question from them is, "Is it long?"  Me: "It's 256 pages."  Young student slacker: ::gasp:: ... "Do you have anything that's less than 100 pages?"

I also love the students who come in with their volunteer sheet in the hopes that they could volunteer right then and there for 5 hours or so.  Most libraries I have worked at, have a minimum amount of hours, mostly because of the training involved.  Yeah, it really doesn't take much to train someone to shelve picture books properly, but the library is so short-staffed that we actually cannot spare someone to keep an eye on these young ones.  Fortunately, our childrens librarian came up with a book report form that students can complete for some hours.  We are the only library in the system that offers this and you'd be surprised how quickly word spreads from student to student, and school to school.

'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.

I Don't Always Get My Way in the Library...

I don't always get my way in the library but when I do, it's for something trivial like 'Scratch and Sniff' bookmarks.

One day I was IMing my friend at another branch, when she asks me if I sniffed the new SRP scratch and sniff bookmarks.  Scratch and sniff bookmarks!?!?  And no one has told me we had them because???  I told her to hold on and jumped up from my cube to talk to the YS librarian who was working the info desk.  I asked her if the SRP bookmarks came in and if she has smelled them.  She gives me this weird look, "Why would I smell them?"  Because they're scratch and sniff duh-doy.  So I opened up a box and took a big whiff.... nothing.

Some kid's going to be getting one scratched up bookmark...

I took it back to my desk and tried scratching at it, nothing.  So I sent a message to my friend asking if this is some cruel librarian SRP virgin hazing prank or something and she goes, "Wait, what do your bookmarks look like?"  So I sent her a pic of the scratched up one and she replied that theirs has bees on it.  Well, la-dee-da fancy ass branch with their smelly bookmarks to give away.

I guess the YS librarian must have felt some pity after seeing my utterly dejected expression, because after my shift on the info desk, I walked back to my cubicle to find the bookmark catalog opened up to this page:

Hells yea, we're getting some smell-goods!

We ended up ordering the popcorn, cotton candy, and watermelon ones.  We will be saving them for the kids that complete the summer reading program and me of course.

Public Libraries Vs Nordstroms

I had a patron come up to the desk and ask where the fax machine was, I told her that the library doesn't provide fax services.  She turned her nose up and said, "Well, they used to."  No, they never have. 

It's not the first time the lack of fax services got patrons all pissy.  Back when I was working the circ desk a patron asked the same thing, I told her that we don't have any public faxes and told her there was a Kinko's down the road that did.  She looks past me into the backroom and points at the 1980's behemoth of a fax machine and asks me, "What's that?"  I love playing I-Spy!  I-Spy a patron who's going to start an argument over a fax.  I told her it was "the staff-only fax machine."  Then she looked at my government ID for my title, she then asks if my supervisor was available.  Of course he was, he's always hiding in his office so I was more than happy to get him.  He came out and it took a total of 5 minutes of repeating what I already told her before she left.

So back to the current patron, I told her that the closest fax service was 2 streets down, literally 5 minutes away.  She gets all huffy and says she would "never get caught walking in there."  She said that she would go to Nordstrom's instead, "they'll do whatever I tell them to."  That's fine, drive 15 minutes further and waste more time.  I'm fairly certain that when Nordstrom's or public libraries conduct SWOT analyses, neither pops up on each others' radar.  I heard their name brought up so many times in lectures when it came to exemplary customer service.  I'm pretty sure that this is the same patron who asked me to borrow a pair of scissors and never brought them back...