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The single biggest SC problem at my new job

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  • The single biggest SC problem at my new job

    After my time at the Thrift Store, I've switched to a more enjoyable and less physically-taxing job as a library page. In this position, like my last one, I rarely have to deal with the "customers" at all, but I still sometimes have to deal with what they leave behind.... and there's one problem that comes up much, much too frequently. Dear library-goers: If you aren't absolutely certain you can put your book back exactly where it goes, just leave it sitting out, please. It's actually less work for us to reshelve it than to put it back in the proper place if it's mis-shelved. I don't know about anyone else, but I was taught this back in Elementary School, and actually working at a library only demonstrates how true it is.

  • #2
    Having a good friend who works as a library page at the downtown library I feel your pain. For me I used to always put books back from where I got them because thats what mom taught me to do. After meeting and talking with my friends I always just leave books out now.

    At the library on campus there are huge signs everywhere that once you take a book off the shelf either give it to the circulation desk or just leave it out.

    I wouldn't so much call this SC behavior as people just doing as they were taught and putting things back where they got them from.

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    • #3
      Now, this was a long time ago but,




      ...I think when I was in elementary school they actually taught us to put the books back, exactly where we found them (or at least, tried). I remember these little wooden sticks we'd get, we were supposed to put them in the gap whenever we took a book out to look at but not checkout. I donno, maybe they were for reference books or something, but the stick thing just... sticks out in my mind. All the while they were trying to teach us the dewey decimal system.
      Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

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      • #4
        We have the same problem here, though we don't employ pages to reshelve materials. We hire Student Helpers, and that is their main job at work.

        What really gets me, though, is how the librarians (and a few of the Circ staff) come complaining to me about how certain sections need to be shelf-read (books put back in order and straightened), because they're a mess and why aren't the Student Helpers doing their job right?

        Hello! We have hudreds of patrons in and out of the library all day, and I've seen them just shove things in wherever they think it goes when they're done with it. Hell, I've seen kids push all the fronted books to the back of the shelves.

        Since I supervise the Student Helpers, I get so tired of hearing that they aren't doing their jobs correctly when I know it's usually the patrons making a mess. I even advised one of the Circ staff to stop telling me over and over about messy sections and to go fix it herself, since it's part of her job description. I haven't heard a complaint from her since.
        I love mankind ... it's people I can't stand. -- Linus Van Pelt

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        • #5
          ... They had us use sticks -- plastic, in our case -- to put them back, too, but the specifically mentioned that if you couldn't do that, you should just leave it out for them to re-shelf. And... SC might be a bit too harsh, but it's really obnoxious, and it seems like they should know better. I just needed to vent. x.x;

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          • #6
            lol books out of order are a pet peeve of mine.
            a long time ago i did volunteer work at my favorite library putting books back.

            even now... i have a habit of putting books back in order when i see they've been messed up.

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            • #7
              When I worked at the University library (circ desk and later media services), the stacks maintenance folks were AWFUL. Really lazy, always took carts up in pairs so they could gab while up in the stacks.* At the circ desk, I got to deal with all of the dazed students and cranky professors, while checking in/out books, and then would be pulled away for an hour to do.....stacks maintenance. Really frustrating.

              On a somewhat similar and yet unrelated note, PhillyBoy and I (I did a post about him long long ago) would get into fights about the library system. University libraries tend to use the Library of Congress system, which I know and love, because it's easy and makes sense. Public libraries tend to use the Dewey Decimal system which I think needs to die in a fire. PhillyBoy loved the Dewey Decimal system and would constantly bitch and whine and moan about not being able to find books in the campus library. I finally said, "Look, you can either let me go with you to the library and show you how to find stuff, or you can go to the public library downtown and use IT. But, really, SHUT UP." And then I got to hear about how mean and bitchy I was. I'm so glad we're in different states now.

              *Of course, this was one particular circumstance limited to one particular library. This in no way reflects an opinion on stacks maintenance in general.
              "Even arms dealers need groceries." ~ Ziva David, NCIS

              Tony: "Everyone's counting on you, just do what you do best."
              Abby: "Dance?" ~ NCIS

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              • #8
                Speaking from my experience as a library page, I'd much rather have the patrons try to put things back instead of just leaving them sitting out. But then, this mostly comes from spending nearly an hour in the children's room cleaning up books which patrons let their kids scatter/pile up all over the tables and shelves.

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                • #9
                  Before we had closed stacks, curators would often bring visiting scholars in for research on weekends. We had a weird problem with foreign readers reshelving and we always knew that they were foreign because of what they did.

                  We knew they were trying to be helpful and they often reshelved in the proper place but they put the books in upside down.

                  Take a look sometime at vertical spine titles. Those published in anglo-phone countries almost always run from the top to the bottom of the spine. Those published in most other European languages run from the bottom to the top of the spine. Regardless of the language of the book, top to bottom didn't look right to our visitors.

                  When we came in on Monday morning and saw that we'd know that Hans or Ernesto was in town.
                  Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

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                  • #10
                    I get the same thing with the lab glassware. Students think they are doing me a fuckin' favor when they put DIRTY glass back on the WRONG shelf. Notwithstanding the fact that they are supposed to CLEAN it and keep it in their DRAWER.

                    Sorry about the colorful language, but labs are starting up again next week, and I need to get back in full-form.
                    Last edited by poofy_puff; 09-11-2008, 01:41 PM.
                    I was not hired to respond to those voices.

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                    • #11
                      I didn't know that about the spines - I'll have to check it next time I go to a library or bookshop here.

                      At the main library I used to visit regularly, back in Liverpool, each book had a code sticker near the bottom of the spine. To put a book back, it was a simple enough matter to match the code to the shelf, then look for the gap where it had been taken out in the first place. The code might have been Dewey Decimal, but I don't know enough about that to be certain.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Chromatix View Post
                        The code might have been Dewey Decimal, but I don't know enough about that to be certain.
                        was the code 3 digits, a decimal, another digit or 2, followed by the first three letters of the authors last name (I think that's dewey decimal if I remember correctly from elementary school).
                        If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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                        • #13
                          It was a LONG time ago, but I think that might have been it. I think they put the numbers and letters on different lines, so they would fit on the label.

                          Either way, that label made re-shelving any normal book trivial, even for a pre-teen.

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