I think the Brits would call him "dim"

[depechemodefan]

Besides this on monday, I had to do chat. Our library is part of a consortium. We only do chat about 10 hours a week and we answer questions for other libraries. The constortium includes library systems in the US and the UK. For the libraries in the US, and can see what system a person is using the chat from. For ex, someon in Penn could get on their library's website, and use Ask Hear Pa for live chat help. But, in this example, a librarian answering the question might be from another part of the country. It's annoying when people ask "is X book in the library?" since the fucker is already on the library website, just doesn't want to bother to actually look in the catalog.

Annoying questions are "I can't log into my account, why?" I'm in Houston, I can't see what your record is, so I'm going to forward your question to your library, hopefully a librarian there will get back to you today, though you should have called the fucking branch. Ok, I wouldn't type that but we are somewhat limited in what we can answer. Say again someone in Penn will ask, "do you havea fax machine?" NOw the Penn librarian site might give us info about how long a book is checked out, how to renew, etc, but might not tell us if they have typewriters or fax machines. So we forward the question to the Penn librarians.

Another annoying thing is when a patron asks, "does my library have X book" and we ask "what is your library's name?" and of course they don't know. The chat service works with systems, not individual libraries. So sometimes it's pulling teeth to get info.

Unfortunately, with the UK, it covers libraries all over the UK. We can't tell even what town they are in. The chat service asks for postal codes, though, but I had a problem on Mon. I wish I could have gotten the chat saved; I forgot one detail about how he found out I was in HOuston.

DP = Dim person (who typed in ALL CAPS)
me =

DP: I want to know what time the Silver Street library opens.
me: Thanks for using Enquire, the 24 hour chat service. I'm DMfan, a librarian in Houston, and we cover your libraries chat service when they are not available. One moment while I read your question.
me: Is the name of the library "Silver Street" or that is where it is?
DP: I want to know what time the Silver Street library opens.
me: what town are you in?
DP: why aren't you answering my question?
me: I need to know what town you are in. I don't know the Silver Street, I'm in Houston.
DP: I don't want to know about Houston! I want to know want to know what time the Silver Street library opens.
me: (aftering googling his postal code, and finding the town he is in is Buury, and there is a library on Silver Street) I found the hours, I'm sending you a link.
DP: *end session*

Of course the DP gets back online, asking the same question, in all caps. I don't engage his session.

[MistressOfTangents]

Yes, and as you probably know Dim stands for Downright Idiotic Moron. *offers chocolate bars and bacon sandwiches.*

[Chromatix]

Ah yes, Bury, a town in the not-so-popular region of East Lancashire. I think people there do tend to be a bit dim - a common hazard of ex-industrial areas.

Ideally you should have access to a postcode lookup if you regularly cover UK support. In the simplest form this could just be a list of all the libraries with *their* postcodes, sorted by postcode. If you match the first part as well as possible, you should get libraries close to the customer's address without having to ask them redundant questions.

[Cazzi]

I'm guessing the guys name was Tim then

All things aside though, Bury does have a pretty good market!

[Little Retail Rabbit]

He can't be Tim, he's meant to be nice

Dim means not bright...so basically a dim person is like a 24 watt bulb :3

[depechemodefan]

Thanks for samwich.

I try not to answer Enquire questions, or any question involving "I don't know my password," "I don't know why I can't put a hold," stuff like that. Enquire questions are either "I don't know my password," or "do you have this book/audiobook?" or genealogy questions.

While I was asking him the first question, I was trying to find his library like I would for US libraries, but it gave me all the libraries in the UK that are covered by Enquire. So I was googling the postal code, which luckily was included with info. like his IP address and his email, and there were gaps between our conversation (maybe he was watching football?) but still he probably thought "why this bint butt into my conversation with the Silver Street library?"

Now I have to read about Tim.