Unfriendly

Tonight an old woman who stank of onions invaded my personal space while I printed off state and federal estimated tax worksheets. (You know the type. They hover over your shoulder while you’re navigating the quagmire of a web site that the IRS runs and give you advice on how to find what they’re looking for.) We are not allowed to give tax advice or attempt to interpret tax forms in any way. She didn’t want all the pages of instructions and vouchers, and I was trying to get her to tell me what she DID want since I’m not qualified to tell her what she should and shouldn’t print.

I finally got her pages printed and she paid for them. She complained to me that these things used to be mailed to her and I said they were probably trying to cut costs and probably trying to be environmentally-friendly too. She then complained that the estimated tax forms used to have a “what’s new” section on them and she wondered why that information wasn’t on there anymore. “Couldn’t say,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“You know, you’re not very friendly,” she said. Taken aback, I defended myself, saying I was not allowed to give tax advice or speculate on tax matters such as why there’s not a “what’s new” section anymore. “Well, it’s your attitude,” she said. I let it drop. There’s no arguing with people like that. I felt I was professional and courteous throughout the whole transaction. No, I probably wasn’t what you would call friendly, although I WAS being nice considering the circumstances. I certainly wasn’t rude. That’s one aspect of my job that sometimes gets to me. I consider myself a pretty nice person and I want people to like me. But when you work with the public you have to accept the fact that you can’t please everyone.

This is a library, not a repair shop

The other day a woman came to the reference desk with her DVD player. One of the DVDs she had checked out had jammed her player, apparently. Turns out it wasn’t even our DVD. It belonged to another library in the county. She’d had it sent to our library for pick-up. However, since she picked it up at our library, she thought we should help her fix her DVD player. I told her we were not equipped to do that and that she’d have to talk to the library that owned the DVD.

“I don’t even know where that library is,” she said.

“Well I’ll print directions from Google Maps for you,” I said, bringing up the web page. This was clearly not the response she was looking for because she immediately stopped me and said, “No, can’t you just help me fix this?”

At this point someone who had been standing within earshot came over and suggested that when she got home all she had to do was get a screwdriver, take out the screws, lift off the top of the player, and reach in and grab the disc. Then another person piped up and said that they thought they had a screwdriver with them. The lady disappears for a moment with these people while I confirm with my colleague that we really shouldn’t provide her with our tools to open up the DVD player. He agrees.

The lady comes back. That person’s screwdriver wasn’t the right size. When I tell her we can’t provide her our own tools to use because of liability, she doesn’t understand and doesn’t care. Eventually she ends up over at the circulation desk where the circulation manager is explaining that there isn’t anything we can do and that she needs to talk to the other library. Even that library will probably tell her that she’s on her own getting the DVD out of the player and getting her player fixed if it’s broken. They go around in circles for awhile before the lady finally storms out the door and speeds away in her sleek black Acura.

We don’t put stickers on our DVDs or CDs explaining to people that they use these items at their own risk and they we can’t be held liable for any damage. We probably never will. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Nobody reads those things anyway.

Reduce, reuse, recycle at your library

At the library I work at, the public computers have management software that requires people to log on with a library card. If you’re from out-of-town, the staff can print a guest pass for you to use. The other day a guy wanted a guest pass and I asked if he was from out-of-town. No, he wasn’t. I told him that if he lived around here we encouraged him to get a library card. It worked for all the libraries in the county. His next response blew me away.

“Isn’t that a waste of resources?” he asked.

“A waste of resources?” I asked, dumfounded.

“Yeah. It’s a waste of that little plastic card when you could just give me a guest pass,” he said.

I wasn’t in the mood to argue with this stubborn man so I started getting him a guest pass. He had made me mad, though, so as I was getting it ready I pointed out that having a library card was the exact opposite of a waste of resources. He gave me a puzzled look.

“You can check out books, magazines, movies, CDs, etc. for free! Then you don’t have to buy them. And when you’re done, you can bring them back for other people to use. Kind of like recycling!” And I handed him his guest pass on a piece of paper, which was also kind of a waste of resources, I thought to myself.

After a moment’s thought, the man conceded my point with a “that’s true.” And he walked back to the computers.

Spices

Whenever I run out of a spice, I always mean to get more from the bulk section at the grocery store. But somehow that never happens. Until this weekend. I was almost out of rosemary and when I was in the spice aisle ready to get more, I thought “Ah ha! I should go get this from the bulk spice jars.” And I did. You just scoop however much you need into a little plastic bag, they weigh it at checkout, and you’re good to go. I got enough rosemary to refill my little jar at home, and then some. It only cost $0.54, as opposed to $4 or $5 for a whole new jar of the stuff. Awesome! I’m buying all my spices this way now!

Shame, shame

I recently got my parents a travel edition of Scrabble. They’re leaving this week for California and they’ll be gone a month. I didn’t plan far enough ahead to order them a Scrabble Dictionary from Amazon, where I normally buy my books, so I stopped by Borders in Tigard when I was in the area last week. No luck.

Yesterday before leaving work I checked Barnes & Noble’s web site to see if they listed inventory. Whereas the Borders web site (which I didn’t think to check before going last week) says “likely in store”, the B&N site is much more confident: IN STOCK. So I braved the Saturday evening crowds at the mall after I got off work, happy in the knowledge I’d have a Scrabble Dictionary in hand when I left. HA! They didn’t have one. Like Borders, they only have a monstrous expensive hardback one. Not what I was looking for. I checked their in-store computer. “Not in stock” it told me. What? It asked if I wanted to check nearby stores, so I said yes. “Not in stock” it told me. For every Portland-area store.

Now, just a few hours before, the web site had told me that EVERY Portland-area store had a paperback Scrabble Dictionary. Now that I’m standing in the store, I learn that was a lie. I come home, check again. It still says the dang thing is in stock. I tried a store request, just to see what would happen. Less than an hour later I get an automated reply triggered by a store employee, no doubt, that says my item is not in stock. Meanwhile, the web site still says otherwise.

Powell’s was a different story. As much as I hate going there on a weekend, I braved the rain, the traffic, and the crowds to go to the Burnside store today. Their web site said they had some in stock and it even told me how many. Low and behold, when I walked in the store a friendly employee at the help desk directed me to the correct aisle in the Rose Room and there was a stack of paperback Scrabble Dictionaries, just like the web site said. Now if Powell’s can do it, why can’t a big fancy rich company like Barnes & Noble do it? Yeah, I know their web site says to call the store first to confirm availability, but if customers have to do that, what’s the point of listing inventory on the web site at all?

My theory is that every book says “in stock” for every store everywhere. They do this in the hope of luring people in and then if the book people are looking for isn’t there like they thought it would be, they’ll buy something else. They made the trip after all. Why not make it worth their while? Well I am not so easily drawn in. I wanted a Scrabble Dictionary and ONLY a Scrabble Dictionary. I’ll buy my books cheap from Amazon like I always do (another website that is accurate in listing their stock), or get them from the library.