Ahhhh...Fall Break. Though we are still here and open, it is so lovely and quiet today. A day to catch up and not stress.
Or so I thought.
But it seems the closeness to Halloween is bringing some of the crazies out of the closet. These anecdotes highlight the typical type of patron interactions that always seem to come my way. As a supervisor and manager, I try to minimize the amount of time my front line staff have to deal with such issues. Which tends to make my days interesting, to say the least.
Freaky Crazy #1
Patron loses her glasses in early summer. She was called immediately and the glasses were placed in lost and found. She comes in this week and complains because now, many months later, the glasses cannot be found. We do not inventory our lost and found and regularly send items over to the main lost and found on campus. We try to make sure that expensive things like phones or personal items like wallets are put in our safe, but the remaining misc. items get dumped in our lost and found bin and are often forgotten until disposed of. She was rather upset that after so many months she could not find her glasses. So upset she has gone to the Dean about it. However, despite the fact that this lady is on a pointless crusade, it has led us to decide to add a specific lost and found policy to the library's policies and procedures just for CYA purposes. We'll be citing the University policy that says after 30 days the items are disposed of, or after two weeks if the individual has been notified.
Freaky Crazy #2
Gentleman enters the library and asks my staff person at the front desk, "Do you know anything about cell phones? Because my phone never works in here. Don't you know it's a federal violation to block the airwaves? That you're actions are illegal under the FCC?" Apparently he missed the part of the FCC rulings that say that using cell phone jammers is illegal; however, passive blocking due to construction materials is not covered under the law as it is perfectly legal. I don't trip every time my phone cuts out at Food Lion. Walk outside dude, is it that hard? And by the way, my phone works in here fine so it must be you.
