“…which, by interpretation, is a honey bee.”
Patron: “Can I get the address to The Deseret News?”
Me: “Sure. Do you want an address you can mail something to, or do you want the address where their offices are located?”
Patron: “I want the address of their office, so I can mail them my book.”
Me: “I… see.”
Yes, that’s right. Nashville Guy is baaaaaaaack!
Guess what word he can’t spell?
Guess how many times I repeated the spelling of Deseret before it finally (MAYBE) sank in?
Four. Or five? Five and a half? It’s hard to keep track when you’re reading it out one letter at a time, and have to keep stopping and repeating letters and correcting wrong letters and starting over from the beginning and OH MY GOD THEY DO NOT PAY ME ENOUGH FOR THIS.
Then again, what part of my job do I get paid enough for? Trust me, anyone who enters the field of public libraries looking to make big bucks is either deluded or has a fantastic idea for a lucrative side career.
And yet, somehow, I love my job.
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July 18th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Was trying to pay a bill over the phone with credit card the other day, and the person had incredible difficulty getting the card number right. Always confidence-inspiring!
Doug´s last blog ..singa: @pizzocalabro OK, I’m way behind on reading your blog, but I am laughing and laughing at the various patron encounters.
July 18th, 2009 at 11:34 am
OH MY GOODNESS. I can SO relate to this on prior jobs. And why the heck are they calling YOU for addresses anyway? The library is not the operator! I would think they’d call the operator for something like that. What’s the address to Nashville? Are you kidding me? That’s hilarious. And they wrote a book but can’t use a computer to look up the info. I’ll bet you’ve gained enormous patience working at this job! Bless your heart. I don’t know if I could do it!
Gabrielle Valentine´s last blog ..The Abusive Relationship And…My Father. Someone Go Find Dr. Phil, Please.
July 18th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I wonder what the odds are that whatever he mails them will turn out to be the only copy of the manuscript he has.
Then again, you are in the heart of Mormondom, where losing manuscripts and gold plates and such is a daily occurrence. :)
July 20th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Well, loving your job is priceless. Money is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme.
July 20th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Doug, I have to admit, I’m glad I don’t take credit card #s over the phone. Library card numbers are hard enough to follow, especially with the unique and interesting twists the patrons put on them when they’re reciting them. :P
Gabrielle, people are apparently under the impression that we are Directory Assistance, espn.com, Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, city-wide events coordinators, the Wall Street Journal and a secretary service all rolled into one. :P
Craig, I’m almost positive that his “manuscript” has even worse and more inventive defects than being the only copy. :p
Daisy, money certainly would come in handy next year when my student loans go into repayment. :D
July 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Anyone who works with the public is gonna have to deal with some odd people (though it seems to be worse in city/county jobs I’ve noticed – probably because they think that means we’re there to serve them).
I worked at the Taylorsville Recreation center and patrons would call us asking for random information all the time. They assumed we knew everything about anything with the world “Taylorsville” in the name.
alana´s last blog ..Senators out spoke Sotomayor 2-1
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Oh Dear Lord, I sit those people down on the computer and tell them to Google. We have a cute little saying at our library, “We don’t do research for you, but provide the tools and training so you can do your ‘own’ research” :)
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
We get those at the Governor’s Office too. It makes me think that the people I know are the only smart people in the country. The morons outnumber us at least 50 to 1.