Often, people come into the library where I work, and ask if it's okay that something they checked out there got returned to another library in the same system, or that something they checked out at another library gets returned there. Now, they can request transfers and holds online, but they might not have a computer, so they wouldn't see that... but it still seems like common sense. What were they expecting us to say: "No, we pretend to be a unified library system, but we're actually in the midst of a violent civil war. Because of your foolishness, we will now have to fight to the death over control of the book, using our thickest, heaviest tomes as weapons"?
EDIT: And, just to avoid making another topic, I'm going to list another, one-time thing I overheard while working. A patron, concerned because the computers were slow, said they might have a virus, and they should get that checked into, because a good, dug-in virus can require the computers to be completely rebuilt from scratch -- as happened at his school. I know he was trying to be helpful, but... no. Just no. First off, they were probably just slow because they're a bunch of less-than-high-end computers running on the same network. Second, no virus can destroy a computer to the degree that it would need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. Just completely wiping the hard drive, including boot sector, will remove even the most pernicious viruses... and although it would be theoretically possible for a virus to overwork other components of the computer to damage them, it would have to be specifically coded for the device in question, making it unlikely.
EDIT: And, just to avoid making another topic, I'm going to list another, one-time thing I overheard while working. A patron, concerned because the computers were slow, said they might have a virus, and they should get that checked into, because a good, dug-in virus can require the computers to be completely rebuilt from scratch -- as happened at his school. I know he was trying to be helpful, but... no. Just no. First off, they were probably just slow because they're a bunch of less-than-high-end computers running on the same network. Second, no virus can destroy a computer to the degree that it would need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. Just completely wiping the hard drive, including boot sector, will remove even the most pernicious viruses... and although it would be theoretically possible for a virus to overwork other components of the computer to damage them, it would have to be specifically coded for the device in question, making it unlikely.
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