Why do they care???

My library system has 2-renewal limit policy, meaning that a customer can't renew an item more than twice. It's a good policy; it makes it harder for people to keep our stuff forever simply by renewing over and over.

Unfortunately, over the years, clerical staff have developed an *extension* to the policy that is pretty much impossible to explain or defend when customers complain. There is now a widely accepted practice of not allowing customers to return an item and then check it back out on someone else's card (wife or husband, for example). When customers ask why, they are told that it gives other customers a chance at the material and makes things more fair. I have even heard staff members telling customers that there is a "24-hour waiting period" before materials can be checked back out again.

This is ridiculous - there is no 24-hour waiting period, and we have no policy that prevents customers from switching items from one library card to another. Not only that, but it's truly impossible to enforce. If a frustrated customer left the circulation desk and came over to the reference desk and asked for the item, the librarian would simply do his/her job and go look for the item, and, finding it on the sorting shelf in the workroom, would give it to the customer with no questions asked, allowing the customer to check it out on the self-check with the clerks being none the wiser.

Recently I questioned this practice with the systemwide clerical services manager. Although he agreed with me that we can't defend this practice because there is no policy to back it up, he said that when he brought it up at a meeting of the clerical supervisors from around the system, they absolutely FREAKED about it and were vehemently opposed to changing the practice. They seem to have such a personal stake in it but I don't fully understand why - why do they care so much?

For my part, I just want the circ stats!

I understand the origin of the practice - a concern that people are hogging stuff and not letting anyone else get a chance at it. But if a staff member has that concern, all they need do is place a hold request on that specific item and the next time the customers try to get it, the hold request will prevent them from checking it out again. So in my mind there is a simple solution to their concerns.

My theory is that many clerical staff members feel essentially powerless - they are frontline staff who take an incredible amount of crap from people all day long and have to work so hard moving materials around, but they don't really get to control who gets to do what at the library - the high muckety-mucks make all the decisions. So when they get an opportunity to say "you can't do that," I think it makes them feel like they're in control, EVEN IF IT MEANS AN ARGUMENT WITH A CUSTOMER!

However, in spite of their objections, I understand that sometime in the next few weeks the administration is going to come out with a clarification that reinforces that we have no policy preventing customers from switching items from one library card to another.

At that time I will have to tell my staff that they need to stop doing this, and I'm not looking forward to the resistance and resentment that I know are inevitable. Every time a librarian bends "the rules" when a customer complains, the clerks get PO'd because we're not supporting them. But sometimes the rules need to be bent; everything isn't black and white all the time.

It will just be one more thing to reinforce the divide between the clerks and the librarians, which is truly unfortunate. What I wish is that I could figure out some ways to make us all feel part of a single team that's working together to do the best job we can, but so far I'm not succeeding. Sigh...

When opportunity knocks...

As the staff and I were walking out to the parking lot at closing time last night, a young woman ran over and shouted, "Someone stole my car!"

She told us that earlier she had had some trouble with her car as she was parking at the library and called AAA. They came and fixed whatever it was and she went into the library, LEAVING HER KEYS IN THE CAR DOOR (of course she didn't realize that at the time). Two hours later at closing time she discovered the car was gone. Well, duh.

Two of us waited with her until the cops arrived. She kept talking about how shocking it was that someone would do that, but in my mind, with the keys hanging in the door, the car was just sitting there shouting at passersby, "Steal me!!" Now I know there are honest people in the world who would have taken the keys into the library and turned them in, but that's not how it went down.

I bet she won't do THAT again.

Flag anxiety

About a month ago I noticed that our US flag was looking pretty tattered. It was less than six months old but I guess recent storms and high winds had really beaten it up a bit. I asked our supply clerk to order a new one, which she did fairly quickly, but we haven't gotten it yet.

On 9/11 an extremely irate customer informed me that not only was our flag not at half-staff (as it was supposed to be on a national day of mourning), it was extremely tattered. Luckily I was able to tell him that we had a new flag on order but that it hadn't come in yet. I checked my email and lo and behold there was a message from the administration that the flag was supposed to be flown at half-staff that day. The message had been sent exactly two minutes before we opened! They always wait until the last possible second to tell us the important stuff. Granted, I should have been on top of it myself, but I was on the desk and we were incredibly busy that morning, so I just blanked on it.

Anyway, I promised the customer I would lower it to half-staff right away and he went away relatively happy.

Yesterday the new flag STILL hadn't arrived, so I had no choice but to go out and buy one myself ($36! Of course, we have no mechanism for me to get reimbursed). My boss is coming out today for a meeting and she always notices details like that, and just LOVES putting me on the spot. One day someone had put an Olympics bumper sticker on the front door, and of course I didn't know it was there. She came out for our meeting later that day and very pointedly asked me what was the deal with the sticker on the front door. She seemed delighted when I didn't know anything about it. Sigh...

I know I'm supposed to be aware of everything that's going on in my library at every single moment and handle all of it immediately but sometimes it just isn't possible. But at least my boss can't get her jollies today from telling me the flag is tattered! (She is sure to find something else, though - she's good at that.)

Free still beats cheap

A young guy (fantasy, RPG-type) came in today to ask for a book. While I was looking for it, he stated that he used to live near a discount bookstore, where they would order any book he wanted at a cheap price. I countered with, "Now you can get them for free!" to which he replied, "Yeah, but I have to give 'em back." Well, there is that.

I still think free beats cheap any day. And (dare I admit this?) I can't remember the last time I actually bought a book. Why would I buy books when I can get pretty much any book I could possibly want, for free? Plus, I don't have to lug big boxes of books around when I move.

Working at the library does have some advantages.

Ah, September!

I can really tell school has started back again but they're just gearing up for the heavy work later in the year. Tonight I was on the reference desk for two hours and had maybe 5 customers. Wonderful!

It's sad that what I'm happy about is NOT having people come in the library, but after the summer we've had, we're thrilled to have a few quiet times here and there. It won't last long.

Too busy to be good

Here's a sad fact: the busier your library gets, the worse the service. Because of course there are never enough staff members to help all the customers who want you to do something for them ALL AT THE SAME TIME. It's impossible to give quality service when you have six people waiting impatiently and interrupting while you are trying to help someone else. Everyone comes in at the same time and wants service NOW. Not to mention the phone ringing off the hook.

Today I feel like an absolutely terrible librarian. We do not have time to fully assist anyone, and as a result, pretty much everyone who came in today is getting bad service.

It IS possible to be too popular. Sigh...

A good day

Yesterday was a good day at the library. Company X FINALLY sent someone to repair our public printers (which have been down for several weeks), so now we only have one out of service (it needs a part, of course).

Our alarm system, which had been malfunctioning for several days, requiring a bypass (sounds like open heart surgery, doesn't it? Sometimes it feels like it - with ME as the patient!), was repaired by a very nice technician who actually asked for me so he could give me an update before he left - amazing!

I contacted the company that supports our color copiers (not our black and white copiers - that's a DIFFERENT company) and scheduled a service call to put our color copier back in service (which has been down since May). I'm hoping they will be out by next week sometime - that would be awesome.

The person in charge of the city tech support department called to tell me that all of our computers will be upgraded next week, which supposedly will help with some of the issues we've been having. We'll see, but it was good to hear anyway.

We got a new volunteer who is in library school and is a workaholic - she got SO much done it was wonderful.

I got my odious monthly reports finished ON TIME! Whoo-hoo!

The A/C didn't go off - it stayed on ALL DAY!

And (this is not technically library related, but it really made my day), my very generous BF gave me a 1 terabyte (!!) external hard drive for my computer at home. What a nice guy. :-)

Woe the building

I work in a building that's less than 4 years old. In spite of its youth, we have constant problems with the building. Sometimes it seems like it's falling down around our ears.

Our A/C (which I blogged about in a recent post) goes out every time we have a power outage, which seems to be at least once or twice a month. It usually takes an entire day to get it fixed, and since my library is in a very warm part of the country, we have to endure 85+ conditions for way too long. It's been the bane of my existence this summer.

Our outside lights frequently don't work at all. When we leave at closing time, it is often completely dark. Repair personnel have come out more than once to "fix" it but it keeps getting unfixed somehow. We have taken to carrying flashlights with us when we leave.

There's always something wrong in our public restrooms. Seems like there's always a customer screaming at us because the automatic faucets don't work or the toilets flush too fast. (And don't even get me started on the day someone left a "gift" for us on the floor in the men's restroom. Gross.)

Our floor covering is carpet tiles, which shouldn't be a problem except the chairs that were purchased for the computers are very heavy, solid oak chairs that dig in between the tiles and pull them up ALL THE TIME. Why didn't they purchase chairs that would slide easily over the carpet tiles? It drives us nuts and of course is a tripping hazard. City repair people re-glue the tiles but of course they get pulled up again, over and over and over. I report at least three loose carpet tiles every month.

We discovered a few weeks ago that the brick facing on the outside of the building was coming loose. The builders failed to properly secure the bricks so now a whole section is sagging away from the structure. It looks pretty bad. They are supposed to repair it but who knows when they will get around to it.

Let's see...what else? We had raw sewage back up into our public restrooms the other day due to some work that was being done on our outside sewer drain. That was fun.

You would think in a building this new we wouldn't have all these issues. That's what you get when you go with the lowest bidder. Sigh...

Non sequitur

Do you ever get the feeling there is another whole reality going on of which you are totally unaware?

A man just walked by and said "Whatever it is, I didn't do it!" I have no idea what he's talking about.