Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sitting on the Front Row of Life

Working at the reference desk gives you front row view to the public! It's interesting to see and meet so many different people.

There's the older patron who's lost his wife and now ready to move on. So he flirts with anyone over 50. Even the librarians. He does dress rather smartly!

There's the demanding patron. "Give me a laptop" with no smile or thank you.

There's the southern belle, the sweet older lady, that calls you honey, is very polite and courteous. These are few and far between.

There's the young person who comes in with hair in his eyes, ears plugged with ear buds, his mp3 player sticking out of his pocket. OR the young person, who does come occasionally in  and is nicely dressed and says please and thank you. (They actually do exist.)

Then there's the patron that apparently lives alone and wants to talk your ear off, either in person or on the phone, sharing their latest ache, or political complaints, or they just make no sense whatsoever!

There was one patron recently who wanted to reserve our community room the next weekend. We have a rule that groups can using the meeting rooms once a month. Only. He wanted to know if a different person made the reservation, could they have the room???? Uh, that would be... NO.

Another 'hazard' to the job is 10 people (or more) coming in to ask you the same question as the person who just left. They don't know it, for them this is the first time they've asked. But you feel like a broken record. (My father's a broken record, my mother's a broken record, but-I'm-not, but-I'm-not, but-I'm-not!!)

Well, I know I haven't posted on here in a long time. But I'll try to add more on this Front Row theme. I have much more.