Thursday, July 31, 2014

Ready for vacation

There is a certain kind of terrible patron I have learned to take heart in.

These people are chaotic and antagonistic. They owe late fines all the time. They check out great quantities of items, usually AV materials. They return them mixed up, swapped in cases, empty. Library business is always going wrong for them. We didn't check in their items. We lost it. We didn't inform them. They called us about that. They shouldn't have to pay for a rental DVD that didn't work and none of them worked. They are exasperated that I am telling them about their 30 dollar late and lost fees. That was supposed to be cleared up by the woman they talked to. They would recognize her if they saw her. "That's her!" They say.

"She doesn't work here." I say patiently.

Why am I patient?

These people need merely be waited out. They are a self solving problem. We just hold steady to enough of our simple procedural rules, not even all of them, just hang on to a few basics and these people will dash themselves on the rocks of them. We will never hear from them again. Eventually some mistake will be too big. They will lose six DVDs. They will return 20 CDs a month late, and they will be gone forever.

But, you ask, aren't we a library? Don't we wish for everyone to be able to use it and benefit from it and come to it for all the wonderful things it has to give?

No.
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2 comments:

If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.

I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!

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