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Amused Librarian is Unamused
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Sep. 2nd, 2008 @ 07:44 pm
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this post is political in nature, and horribly unamusing. I suppose it does qualify as "annoying or stupid things patrons do in the library" though. One of our vice presidential candidates apparently attempted to have a librarian fired for being uncooperative in a book banning effort.
"Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor." - whole article at Time.com
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Aug. 25th, 2008 @ 09:43 pm
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Patron: I'm looking for season 3 of Lost. I looked all over the entire Internet, and I couldn't find it, but then I thought of you.Current Mood:  amused |
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Fear the bibliodons!
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Aug. 19th, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
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An amusing comic for y'all. I've got to try this on some of my patrons someday. ;) |
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Aug. 16th, 2008 @ 08:28 pm
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A boy, maybe 9-10 years old, wanted to check out a video game. Mom wasn't letting him. Let the whining commence! I only heard the boy's part of the conversation, but really, I know I got the good half:
"Mom, can I check out this one?"
Why not?
But everyone else has it.
No, really, everyone!
All of my friends do.
No, it's really not that violent.
Because they say it's not.
But everyone has it! I have to check it out!
Really, it's not even that cool of a game.
Nobody really likes it - it's not that great.
There are lots of better games out there.
But mom, I really need this game.
...and so on. :) The game kept getting less and less "cool" during the conversation, in hopes, I guess, that mom would be more likely let him take an un-cool game. |
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Aug. 15th, 2008 @ 11:28 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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We have burial permits available at my branch in locked file cabinets for people to use for genealogy purposes. The genealogy volunteer just told me as she was leaving, "The man locked the death cupboards."
I have "death cupboards" in my library.
:O
Aug. 14th, 2008 @ 11:17 am
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| » Why? |
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As I'm sure is true with many of you, schools here are about two weeks from starting back, and students are suddenly realizing they didn't do their summer reading assignments. We can just about guarantee that none of the books are in, but we always look them up anyway, just on the off chance. Schools here don't give us their reading lists ahead of time, and we don't get new materials during the summer (due to how our budget year works), so we have no way of knowing what books to get or what to get more of. Folks don't understand this. I was particularly amused by today's patron.
Teen and mom approach the desk...
Mom: We need book XYZ.
Me: (looks it up) I'm sorry, but it's currently checked out. You're welcome to put a hold on it, though.
Mom: You only have one copy?
Me: Yes, I'm afraid so.
Mom: Why?
Me: Well, we don't know ahead of time what the schools will put on their lists, so we don't know to order more than one copy.
Mom: Really? Okay, well what about book ABC?
Me: (looks it up) I'm sorry, but we don't have that one.
Mom: Why?
Me: ...The same reason as before - we didn't know it was going to be on a reading list.
Mom: Okay, what about book LMN?
Teen: I already asked them about that one at the other desk. They don't have it.
Mom: (to me) How come there are some books you don't have?
Me: ...We can't possibly buy all the books in existence. We don't have nearly enough money or space to put them.
Mom: Really?
Me: Really.
Mom: Oh...I guess that makes sense.
And they walked away.
Aug. 5th, 2008 @ 07:12 pm
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| » No, this is not Chicago. |
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This person wasn't a patron, but they amused me nonetheless. The phone rang, and I picked it up.
Me: Dacula Library, how may I help you?
Him: Is [person's name] there?
Me: I think you have the wrong number sir.
Him: Well, he called and left his number on my answering machine. I thought this was it, but I guess not. *pause* Is this Chicago?
Me: No, this is Georgia.
Him: You mean the state of Georgia? You're kidding!
Me: No.
Him: I must have really messed up dialing.
Me: I guess.
Him: So, what's it like in Georgia? Is it hot?
Me: Uh... yes...
Him: Well, sorry to bother you. Have a nice day.
Me: You too. Bye.
Aug. 5th, 2008 @ 05:54 pm
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| » I'm not a mind reader. |
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Yesterday I had a man come up to me holding a book and ask, "Will this book tell me what I need to know?" I asked him what he needed to know, but also told him that I hadn't read the book so I really couldn't be sure exactly what information it contained. He then asked if he was allowed to sit down and look through the book before checking it out. I told him he could do that. I really want to know how he thought I'd know if the book would help him or not when I'd never even spoken to him before.
Aug. 5th, 2008 @ 01:25 pm
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| » Shhhh! |
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A man who is new to our community, and to our library, just YELLED to me from across the library, and through my office windows about the library being very quiet.
Um, not so much anymore!
I actually had to explain to him that there were people working in the library and that we like to try to keep it quiet.
=D
Aug. 5th, 2008 @ 11:55 am
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| » Mooooooooooo |
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Here's a great one from when I used to work at the Circulation Desk at our community college library. A student came in asking for several articles for Sociology and wanted these 2 specific ones: "Do's and taboos in society" (which she pronounced like the computer DOS) and "The scared cows of India." Look closely at that last one. That is not a typo. I gently asked her if she meant "sacred cows of India" and she looked puzzled but went ahead and checked the article out.
My co-worker had her back to the counter and pretended to be busy filing so she wouldn't laugh in the poor student's face, but I could see the grin on her face and her shoulders shaking with laughter. Heck, I can understand the confusion between DOS and Do's since most kids don't know a world without computers.
Once she left, I turned to my co-worker and asked, "Just what do cows in India have to be scared of?" She replied with a quick, ghostly "Mooooooooooooooo" (instead of "boo!"). At which point we both cracked up and made ghostly mooooo noises to each other for the rest of the week.
Jul. 31st, 2008 @ 04:17 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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Just had a suggestion in our suggestions box:
"Piped music and sexy librarians walking around - I'll come to the library more often". Their secondary suggestion was "a bar near the library". I must admit, I was pleased to see that they didn't ask for the bar to be in the library itself, thus indicating that they respect the library rules regarding food and drink.
[X-posted to my LJ]
Jul. 31st, 2008 @ 09:12 am
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| » the library-directions |
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While I'm scanning the reserve shelf for a math book (I work at a community college library), the patron attempts to help: "it's right there, by those other two books."
What?
Jul. 30th, 2008 @ 06:07 pm
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| » What kind of lives? |
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I work in a bookstore. Yesterday a woman came in asking for "Stories about people's lives. Biology."
She went on to say she'd read the new Madonna book but "it wasn't trashy enough" so maybe she did mean biology and not biography.
She wound up with Willie Nelson.
Jul. 30th, 2008 @ 11:18 am
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| » The Wonders of Email Librarian |
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This came through our email librarian a few weeks ago, and was promptly forwarded around to various staff members.
( No changes were made to this email (including font and font size) )
Jul. 30th, 2008 @ 08:29 am
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| » cake pans? |
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A conversation I had earlier today with a patron:
Random woman: Do you have cake pans?
Me: Cake pans?
RW: Yes, cake pans. I heard that some libraries offered cake pans for checkout.
Me: Um, I've never heard of libraries offering cake pans before.
RW: I was on a message board and a bunch of women were talking about where you can find cake pans. Someone mentioned that the library often had them available for checkout.
Me: I have honestly never heard of that happening. That's odd.
RW: I thought it was weird, too.
So, yes. Someone asked me for cake pans? Does any library actually do this, or were these message board women just pulling this poor girl's leg? I mean, I guess I could see how simply borrowing that cake pan shaped like Thomas the Tank Engine would be cheaper than buying it for a one-time use, but really? Seems to me that it'd be unsanitary...
Jul. 29th, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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More Library Skills!
Become a Cataloger!
Jul. 29th, 2008 @ 11:55 am
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| » Why, yes, I do feel old now. |
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A father walked down into the adult section of the library with his 5 year old son and 7 year old daughter. The boy, like most boys, was full of energy and also drawn to technology. He ran right over to the typewriter we keep for the rare patron who needs one and loudly asked his father, "What's THIS, daddy?"
He paid no attention to the computers because he knew what those were already.
Jul. 24th, 2008 @ 10:12 am
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| » Welcome to Hades. We've got a hot nightlife here. |
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Full disclosure: This incident was partly my doing and partly the patron's.
Patron: Do you have any information on Hades? (I'm thinking, that's a country, right?)
Me: You mean, like the country? What kind of information do you need on it?
Patron: Anything you can find, like customs and history and cultural information?
Me: *searches through two catalogs and two databases* I'm not finding anything. Wait...*light clicks on and Hercules starts doing a jig in my brain* Do you mean you want information on Haiti?
Patron: Isn't that the way it's pronounced? Hades?
Me: Hades is...hell. It's Haiti. H-A-I-T-I.
Apparently, my brain function is near zero today. Some library assistant I am! lol
Jul. 22nd, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
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| » Spelling 101 |
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Patron: Do you have the book "The Last Orchid"?
Me: *type, type, type* no, I'm not finding anything with that title.
Patron: Well, it's really new, maybe you have it on order
Me: No, it would still come up here if we've ordered it.
Patron: Oh, you're spelling "orchid" wrong.
Me: No, that's how you spell orchid.
Patron: Then they have it spelled differently for the title.
Me: What's the spelling?
Patron: O-R-A-C-L-E
Me: Oh, that's The Last Oracle (quickly find it and put her name on the 50+ long hold list)
Patron: Yeah, The Last Ora-kid. *still pronouncing it like the flower*!
Jul. 22nd, 2008 @ 10:24 am
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