173
Posted on July 12, 2017 at 12:00 am by Gene Ambaum
↓ Transcript
Martin: Look, I know the book you requested isn’t here because the computer says it isn’t.
Patron: You’re the librarian who convinced me to trust books, not computers.
Martin: I was talking about something else.
Patron: You said, “You should always trust books.”
Martin: I was talking about facts in well edited and researched books. In this case there’s no book.
Patron: That computer could be lying.
Jody: I’ve told you before, you librarians aren’t allowed to touch anything here without supervision.
Martin: Don’t interrupt my search for the truth!
Patron: You’re the librarian who convinced me to trust books, not computers.
Martin: I was talking about something else.
Patron: You said, “You should always trust books.”
Martin: I was talking about facts in well edited and researched books. In this case there’s no book.
Patron: That computer could be lying.
Jody: I’ve told you before, you librarians aren’t allowed to touch anything here without supervision.
Martin: Don’t interrupt my search for the truth!
6 thoughts on “173”
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I know what it’s like to wait for an especially interesting book on hold. Just yesterday, I was happy to find that a stack of items arrived at the library.
I don’t know how it is in PLs, but in academic libraries, I’ve never seen staff tell librarians what to do and where they’re forbidden to tread. Not that I’m trying to “pull rank!” 😉
I dunno, if a specific librarian has a history of *really* screwing something up, repeatedly, I can see it becoming a sort of “ha-ha, only serious” type of ribbing. Maybe?
It’s like when someone rearranges your filing cabinet and you can’t find anything. He’s not allowed because he’s gonna mess up the system. Honestly, there should be a greater look of horror on her face.
1) The OCD patron is the one driving the almost equally obsessive Martin to go way beyond the call of duty and look where “no librarian has gone before” 🙂 for the desired book on hold, so the latter was basically doing his job so that
2) He could inform the fixated patron that he personally confirmed that the item was not in fact yet in plus
3) With his obvious passion for printed books, I really don’t think Martin would misplace anything and finally,
4) Jody apparantly is always unfazed (as best as I can recall), this is the most annoyed expression I’ve ever seen on her face).
As I don’t work in Circ, I have fortunately been spared having to ever look into whether a held item is in or not; we have Circ staff to take care of that. I have had plenty of other types of crazed users to deal with over many other issues, however. Some of those incidents would be great fodder for this strip! I’m sure a lot of my fellow librarians and library staff colleagues have a tale or two that would also fit right into the panels of “Library Comic” as well. 😉
When it comes to trying to make the patrons happy, I don’t think circ would ever stop info. I mean, if they want to delve into a big stack of holds bins, I wouldn’t stop them. But it could take them a while. It’ll take even longer if we’re checking holds in. I don’t think this is a ‘boundary of duties’ thing.