Another Librarian

Here’s a little PSA for you:  your friendly local service professional has feelings too.  Sometimes we say “thanks” or “hope to see you again” when we really are thinking quite the opposite.  Even when you, as the library patron, are being mean and belligerent, we really want to help you, and we’d like you to come back again.
On Tuesday, I was having a somewhat rough afternoon due to circumstances unrelated to work.  A patron came up to at 2:20 with a pamphlet request.  I was busy linking books to the catalog in preparation for scanning by Google.  Our pamphlets are in the closed stacks, and we generally get them on the hour and the half-hour, so I explained that it would be about twenty minutes.  Twenty minutes came and went while I sat at the desk in a linking zone.  You know how absorbing repetitive work can:  you search for the call number, click “okay” when the record comes up, click “add item,” click on the second tab, type in “1” under “copy,” scan barcode.  Ad nauseum, ad infinitum.  At 2:40, the patron came up to me and asked calmly about her pamphlet.  I realized I had forgotten about my 2:30 pamphlet run, and apologized profusely.
“No, it’s too late. No, I’M sorry, she snapped, as she stormed out of the reading room.  “I’m sorry you’re SO BUsy.”  Thanks for your patronage, lady.

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