Story #5:
Libraries have security systems just like stores. We activate and deactivate items as part of the check-in/check-out process. However, our security gates seem to have the mind of a teenage girl and go off whenever they feel like it. Sometimes there are just too many people around and it gets flustered and has an emotional outburst, ringing at every person as they walk out. Other days, it likes to play mind games and rings the first time a person walks through, but won't ring the second time they walk through. And, of course, sometimes it's just our fault and we forget to deactivate the item at the desk.
One day, we were particularly busy with lots of people going and coming through our doors. A regular patron, notorious for her skills at deceiving new staff into breaking the rules, walked through the gate and the alarm went off. She instantly threw her hands up, shouting and making a scene as she made her way back to the desk. Naturally, she was defensive, we'd accused (and proven) her in the past. What made this situation all the more entertaining is that the woman was not just shouting normal defenses, she was claiming sanctuary because she had just come from a church. "Baptist! Baptist! Baptist! Baptist!", she kept shouting as she held her hands in the air. I was completely confused at why she would be shouting the denomination of her church until she managed to shout bits about how she'd just come from there and hadn't even borrowed anything from the library. The great part was, the gate was just acting touchy, she was perfectly in the clear.
Story #6:
Another part of DailyLifeInALibrary is dealing with angry parents. A woman called wanting to simply renew her child's items over the phone. Well, unbeknownst to her, libraries actually have confidentiality laws that do not allow them to disclose personal information without permission. For us, that's the library card (or number). I asked her for the number and she freaked out. She insisted that I could look up the account without it and resisted my attempts to explain. Finally, she snapped, "My husband is the one who tickets cars downtown." The conversation ended with me trying to figure out if this was a threat or if she was so irate that she was just spurting random pieces of information.
Comments (1)
Haha, how funny. ^_^