I’ll just do everything for you then, shall I?
May 4, 2008 by phantommidge
–Yes, the blog looks different. I’m experimenting with a new format, so it may change again.–
While I do enjoy the benefits that computers have brought to the library (quick searching, databases, book editing) for librarians, I am also wistfully wishing for those times when you didn’t have to deal with endless computer questions.
Because it’s not enough that you expect me to know EVERYTHING about books (”I was in here last week and saw this book over there about this big {holds hands apart} with a blue cover…I’m sure you remember it, what was the title?”), ferret out OBSCURE data in the blink of an eye (”I’m searching for an address for an old college buddy…his name is Paul Williamson and he used to live in New York…{waits 30 seconds} What, you haven’t found it yet?!”), now you also want me to be your own personal Geek Squad/IT staff/Help Desk?!
Now, I’m not completely computer illiterate (notice you are reading a blog here…) but I do have my limits. But patrons seem quite irate that I cannot solve all their computer problems immediately with a click of my magic mouse. They also fail to grasp that I cannot take 2 hours to explain the intricacies of the Web to them personally (that’s why we offer computer classes).
Sigh.
So, in honor of them, I offer the following video link (I think I will use her Computer Whisperer technique next time):
Hmmmm…oddly ironic here, but WordPress is having tech difficulties pulling up the add in video screen so you’ll have to just visit the YouTube site here: Computer Trouble
Really like the new look! I met one of your patrons while I was working in Texas. He was looking for the big red book on legally changing one’s name. It was over there on *that* shelf before the library rearranged everything [picture him squinching up his face accusingly]. Later I saw him leave with a large yellow book about whales. Heck, if I’d known he was just interested in any old large book in a primary color, I could have been much more helpful!
Ha! Love it! Hmmmm…I wonder if the same guy is just flying across the country making a living exasperating librarians
We now have a regular patron we’ve dubbed “Crazy Computer Lady” (and you know you’ve hit the big time when the library staff give you a nickname).
At least three times a day she will leap up from the computer and run up to the reference desk yelling (and I do mean yelling), “I need help over here!” and never realize just how apt that statement is….
I think those stories run true for every library … I know that friends of mine in Cleveland have experienced patrons like that (though I bet none have approached “head wound tranvestite,” who apparently hung around the youth section, with his open head wound, until they called the cops on him). There’s just something about libraries that just attract those special folks …
Huh. He’s probably also the kind of guy who would say something like: “Well, I don’t see any signs that say ‘No Bleeding on the Books’!”
Freaky…