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First I have to say, every 2 months there seems to be a new department; or an existing dept. has new duties.
We have a World Language center, and now the higher ups decide it should have it's own dept. head and crew.
So people are recruited from branches. This new dept. now does desk time 2x a day. The desk they do duty at is the World Language desk. So the rest of the time the other depts have to man that desk.
Anyway, the person at that desk now happens to be a World Language librarian-wll-, (She's new to our library) who comes to me:
wll: A person wants me to see if we have a book on the fourth floor. should I go up and look or call?"
me: *thinking, do they mean 5th floor, the closed stacks area? we just submit the request electronically* Uh, do you mean 4th floor, where the kids and teens rooms are?
wll: yes. The patron wants to check if we have it before she goes up there.
me: No, you don't need to go up. You can call up there. They can check.
wll: They won't get angry?
me: no, esp. if you explain to them what is going on.
wll: ok.
I don't know this librarian well, or else I would have asked if the patron was mobily disabled.
We have elevators. It's not a chore to get on one to go to another floor. The fourth floor isn't that big where there is a lot of walking (say like a floor at Macy's). It's like walking into Target and asking someone at the customer service desk, "hi, I don't want to walk to the girl clothing area unless I know for sure if you have a Little Mermaid shirt with Prince Eric on it." You know, the area right in front of the registers.
If every patron walked in and expect us to find books for them....
We have a World Language center, and now the higher ups decide it should have it's own dept. head and crew.
So people are recruited from branches. This new dept. now does desk time 2x a day. The desk they do duty at is the World Language desk. So the rest of the time the other depts have to man that desk.
Anyway, the person at that desk now happens to be a World Language librarian-wll-, (She's new to our library) who comes to me:
wll: A person wants me to see if we have a book on the fourth floor. should I go up and look or call?"
me: *thinking, do they mean 5th floor, the closed stacks area? we just submit the request electronically* Uh, do you mean 4th floor, where the kids and teens rooms are?
wll: yes. The patron wants to check if we have it before she goes up there.
me: No, you don't need to go up. You can call up there. They can check.
wll: They won't get angry?
me: no, esp. if you explain to them what is going on.
wll: ok.
I don't know this librarian well, or else I would have asked if the patron was mobily disabled.
We have elevators. It's not a chore to get on one to go to another floor. The fourth floor isn't that big where there is a lot of walking (say like a floor at Macy's). It's like walking into Target and asking someone at the customer service desk, "hi, I don't want to walk to the girl clothing area unless I know for sure if you have a Little Mermaid shirt with Prince Eric on it." You know, the area right in front of the registers.
If every patron walked in and expect us to find books for them....