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Posted on February 26, 2018 at 12:45 pm by Gene Ambaum
Characters: Martin
Thanks to HarperCollins for sponsoring Library Comic this week. Please check out Willy Vlautin’s new novel, Don’t Skip Out On Me, as well as its soundtrack. https://librarycomic.com/20180226w/?utm_source=web
↓ Transcript
Martin: We don’t have a book with that call number in this library.
Patron: Is it at another library in your system?
Martin: I checked, and no.
Patron: But I wrote it down after seeing it in your catalog.
Martin: You made a mistake. It happens.
Patron: Not to me. And I double checked it.
Martin: Then you made two mistakes. Or is that three?
Patron: Is it at another library in your system?
Martin: I checked, and no.
Patron: But I wrote it down after seeing it in your catalog.
Martin: You made a mistake. It happens.
Patron: Not to me. And I double checked it.
Martin: Then you made two mistakes. Or is that three?
Oh for Pete’s sake, ask her the title. Or do a subject search. Telling her she is wrong is not helpful, and being helpful is your job.
The title is what she should have written down in the first place.
One time I got a call from someone that had a call number it was in the ESL section, 428.34 and I forget the cutter, one of the publishers. Not knowing which of the 8 or so books on the shelf with the same call number she wanted I asked the title of the book and she proceeded to yell at me “Why can’t you just tell me if you have that book!” With her getting angrier the more I tried to get any tiny bit of helpful information, I finally just said yes.
I would have felt better if I was more like Martin and she would have gotten just as much help as she could possibly get.