Not for the first time a library patron came to the front desk with a small stack of what looked like insignificant documents and asked me if we had a shredder.
"No, I'm sorry. We don't have a public shredder here." I replied.
Oddly enough, we do have a small paper shredder in our "Library of things" collection, which she could request and then maybe get to check out in two or three months when it was her turn, but I felt it would profit no one to offer that option. We also have a staff shredder in the back for staff use. I've never done anything private enough here to warrant using it, but some of my colleagues are involved in spying and stuff, probably.
She was heartbroken that we didn't have a shredder.
So after setting the groundwork that we don't have a shredder for the public, and because she had a fairly minimal number of documents, I offered to temporarily suspend our protocol and shred her sensitive documents.
She was delighted and thankful and hopefully now not a person who would say to me or one of my colleagues in the future "But they shredded for me here before!"
I suppose that was 50-50.
I walked away with her documents all the long way to the shredder. The shredder is pretty fun when it works! And on my way back to the library patron I wondered:
If her documents are sensitive, is it wiser to hand them over to a person who wanders away with them into some far back room, or would it be better to just anonymously rip them up into pieces and throw them in the trash?
Ah well, I didn't steal her medical information, so I guess it all worked out.
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