Why? Please, tell me why.
I am perplexed. Why, when library patrons are told they owe fine money for keeping their books longer than the allotted borrowing time, are they so astounded?
Case in point.
Me: Hello. Can I help you?
Patron: Yes. I have seven holds to pick up and I'm checking out these books.
Me: OK. Great!
I look at patron's record and see 16 overdues.
Me: Did you have some books that you just brought back today?
Patron: Yes. They're in the book drop.
Me: OK.
I check out patron's books. As I reach for the last one...
Patron: No. Not that one. I don't want that one.
Me: Oh. All right.
*thinks to self: If you didn't want it, why did you put it in your pile?*
Patron: I have seven holds to pick up.
Me: Yep!
*thinks to self: I heard you the first time.*
I check out holds to patron.
Me: OK, that will be $3.50 to pick up the holds.
Patron: OK.
He hands over credit card. I run the card through the machine and give it back to him.
Patron: Is that all?
Me: Well, just to let you know, those books that you brought back today were overdue. Some of them by quite a lot, actually.
Patron. OK. How much?
Me: Well, I'll have to go get them out of the book drop and return them before I can see exactly how much. Let me get them.
Patron: OK.
I retrieve the books and return them.
Patron: Those ones there are probably overdue since December.
Me: Oh dear. Now, there are 7 more books out on your card that have not been returned. Would you like me to renew them?
Patron: Yes.
Me: All right, they all renewed. Everything you have out is due the 24th of this month.
Patron: So how much are the fines?
Me: Altogether it's at $49.50.
Patron: WHAT???!!!!
Me: ....
Patron: Fine. Here.
Patron hands me credit card again, and I run it through the machine again. When I return to the patron...
Me: Would you like to sign up for email notification from the library? We'll let you know a few days ahead of time when you have items coming due!
Patron: No. Nope.
Me: All right. Were you aware that you can go online to check when your items are due?
Patron. Yes.
Me: Great.
*thinks to self: Then why in the name of all that's holy are you so shocked when I tell you how much your fines are????? God, help me not to say something I regret...!!!*
I don't get it, and I don't think I ever will. We provide patrons with email notification if they will sign up. We make it super-easy to sign on to the library's website to check your due dates; all the information is there in a few clicks of the mouse. We provide an easy-to-navigate phone renewal system, either automated or speaking to a live person (they can take their pick). We provide them with an actual paper receipt with all their due dates and other information, which they could perhaps conceivably post on their refrigerator or their calendar or some other conspicuous place. Why, then, are they always so clueless and outraged when we tell them they have fines?? Can anyone tell me?????
posted by Jess @ 15:59
12 comments
12 Comments:
gestapo librarians!
always tryin' to shake down poor patrons for cash.
who cares? did anyone want those books they had? any requests for them that could not be fulfilled because the patron had not returned them? -Probably not methinks.
but...
the librarians want all their little books neatly tucked away on shelves in their proper place. and if they aren't, well that's a big problem and you'll have to be punished for that. punished i say. so that will be $49.50 please. now we will put those unwanted books back in their little cubby-holes and we will feel so much better.
did it cost the library anything to have those books outstanding? did some uptight, anal-retentive, librarian pour over the datalog of overdue books, wringing their hands in worry over what might be the fate of those poor, lonely books. feeling the vacuum of loss over them not gathering dust in their appointed place on the bookshelf between some other equally meaningless drivel.
i think you need to feel the freedom of checking a few books out and leaving them overdue for a decade or so, just for the heck of it. then return them, and ask the librarian when they become indignant that you did not return the books if someone had requested them. they will say, "no, but that's not the point". we have rules, and you did not follow them." so give them the books, tell them you don't care about their silly little anal-retentive uptight rules, will not pay, turn brisky around and walk out, head held high. you'll find it's sooooooo refreshing!
hew!
ps- i think you need to go to librarian's anonymous or the betty ford clinic for librarians, to detox.
Actually, YES, it does cost the library money when people don't return their books. Let me illustrate.
The library is allotted a certain amount of money (some from taxpayers, some from other sources) to purchase materials for patrons to borrow.
Every piece of media the library owns is tracked every time it's checked in and out; this data is analyzed and recorded every year by statisticians.
The number of times an item has circulated throughout the community and been returned to the library is called, not inappropriately, circulation.
When libraries have good circulation or, in other words, a large proportion of circulating items, they are allotted more funding to purchase materials for patrons to enjoy.
Every time patrons don't return the materials they borrow, the library's circulation is cut. When the library's circulation is cut, their funding is cut. When their funding is cut, they can no longer purchase any materials or repair the materials they currently own. When the library doesn't have materials people want to borrow, no one will come to the library. Then the library will start firing their staff because they cannot afford to pay them. Then, slowly but surely, the library will shut down. Then everyone will start whining because there are no libraries.
I can just hear the sarcasm... "Oh dear, did poor little Willie from down the street forget to return his book on time? That must be costing the library so much money!"
In return, I say you are missing the forest for one spindly tree. Little Willie's book may not cost the library much money, but is he the only resident of the county? Uhm, no.
As of two years ago, there were over 730,000 residents of this county alone. Let's say, conservatively, that only half that number own library cards. So, 365,000 people can theoretically borrow materials from all the libraries in the county. What if, on any given day, a third of them (over 12,000)have ONE item overdue by only ONE day, at 25 cents per day? That's well over $3,000. That could be the amount of money the county libraries lose every single day if people decide not to return their books.
These figures don't even take into account what I mentioned earlier -- how the lack of available items leads to lack of circulation leads to lack of patronage leads to closing of libraries, etc. etc. etc.
Honestly, though, that wasn't even the point of my rant. Heck, I don't care if they pay their fines or not, as long as I keep getting paid (which I might not if libraries start firing their staff due to lack of money).
The point of the post was to ask why people are so amazed that they owe money when we have made so much information available to them, and when they acknowledge that they are aware of said information and the processes leading to access of the information.
I just don't understand why people won't save themselves, and us, the hassle of fine-paying. Believe me, we do NOT enjoy telling people they have fines. Do you think I enjoy having people swear at and intimidate me? No way. You wouldn't believe the crap we take from people on a daily basis. I will say no more except to ask, why do you think the library has to have their staff take mandatory workshops on how to deal with violent patrons?
...
Ahh, SFL. It is good to have you back here. I have missed the verbal sparring, the extemporaneous debates, and frontal-lobe-stimulating discussion. And I fully acknowledge that I have given you less than satisfactory fodder for said discussions. I will attempt to remedy that when I can.
Hugs to you and WOT and DOT and SOT. Hope all is well. :)
oh my dear you feel this keenly don't you...;-)
now in all seriousness i never knew what you just said, and i bet most other's don't fully appreciate it either. maybe you should include that in every email reminder automatically sent out to those naughty overdue-ites.
however it's a bit confusing that if CIRCULATION is the key metric for future funding how does getting overdue books back to sit unused on shelves fix that. i would think if no one has requested the book that is currently out it's better to be out and overdue than returned and sitting unused. maybe i missed something in your excellent explanation of the subject.
so let the poor sod have his overdue books, and just automatically recheck them out for him/her. they keep and otherwise unused book, and you boost your circulation; a win-win for all.
he!
ps-who's willie?
pss- it's SPOT not SOT. i promise not to rat you out.
psss - sorry for my long fast from such stimulating discussion. i'll try and keep and eye on it.
Wow....thats all I'm going to say. It's in reference to the original as well as the following comment...
Wow....thats all I'm going to say. It's in reference to the original as well as the following comment...
Inasmuch as I have to deal with the angry people who come through the library's doors, yes, I do feel this issue "keenly," as you put it. Unfortunately.
*sigh*
I would have thought, dear doctor-of-metallurgy (or whatever your millions of diplomas have printed on them), that of all people you might possibly understand the technical phrasing of my previous answer. Or could it be that you might have understood it if you had bothered to try, and would instead rather torment the poor librarians who try to make the world a fairer place for everyone?
I rather suspect that to be the case. But just on the off chance that you really do require a simpler explanation, dear SFL, let me try this. The books do not sit unused on the shelves. Just because it isn't on hold doesn't mean it will remain on the shelf. May I provide a down-to-earth example?
Let's say you walk into a small Mom-and-Pop grocery store -- since I know you prefer that sort of thing to Wegmans -- and you have your shopping list all ready. One container of hummus, one gallon of milk, one box of flatbread crackers, and one jar of spaghetti sauce -- that is all you've come for. However, once you get into the store, you see that they are offering 99-cent jars of olives, and you of course think how much Slimmer would enjoy an olive to play with...so you get a jar. Now, you didn't walk into the store intending to get the jar of olives, because you didn't know they had them on sale. But will you leave the jar sitting on the shelf just because it wasn't on your list? Of course not.
Similarly, if the patrons see an item they'd like to check out, they will do so. They may not have had it on hold, but they won't ignore it just because it wasn't "on their list," so to speak.
If books are returned, other people will and do check them out.
It's really not fair to let only ONE person keep them when they could have been checked out two or three times (which they would have been, had they been available).
Oh, I know what you're saying right about now -- the same thing everybody over 40 (excuse me, I should have said 30, shouldn't I?)always says. "The world's NOT fair! Get used to it, kid!"
To which I unfailingly reply, "If that's so, then isn't it everyone's duty to try to make the world a fairer place?"
...
Once again, though, all this wrangling is not to the point. My entire post was written to ask why people won't save themselves the money and aggravation and just check their library accounts to see when stuff is due. That's all. I won't say another word about it.
I sense that my readers would prefer something in a lighter vein. If I happen to run across anything that fits the bill, I will attempt to post about it. ;)
*author grabs a long and substantial stick with which to poke the young whippersnapperblogger*
"A Philosophic Approach to Librarianism" by SFL.
first, the library is not a bastion of fairness.
the purpose for a library is to act as a repository of documents, often written by all manner of morally disposed people (including the unfair psychotic dictator) for society to freely access.
the primary function of the librarian is to slop those books out to the swine who come rooting around for them.
commoners do not meander along all the shelves looking at every volume to see one that "hit's their fancy". they access the computerized card catalog system searching by keyword, topic, etc. then they walk right there and pick it up. if the little plasma display says "we no got dat right now, some inconsiderate goob has had it for years without returning it" then if they really want it, they'll walk up to a librarian, tell them what's up, and ask you to contact aforementioned goob and get it back. quite fair sounding.
perhaps data might help answer the question of how much lost circulation you indeed have by the book not being there. i suggest the librarian tell every patron who walks in what books are out, and that they want one of them. then they can recall the book and give it out again. that's fair isn't it?
...and they lived happily ever after.
hew!
Ow!! Stop poking, or I won't share my delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies.
I know I wasn't going to say another word, but this is just too good to ignore.
To quote: "[C]ommoners do not meander along all the shelves looking at every volume to see one that "hit's their fancy" [sic]."
Actually, that's almost exactly what the majority of them do.
Again, to quote: "[T]hey access the computerized card catalog system searching by keyword, topic, etc.[...]"
Almost no one uses the card catalog. The computers containing the card catalog sit unused approximately 85% of the time (unlike the books). And many of the people who do attempt to use them recoil in unfeigned horror when I inform them that the computer they have selected is the card catalog and does not have internet access.
Now, do share, SFL. We all want to know. How much time do you spend in your local library every week?
first, i'm not put out by your attempt at bribing me with cookies. do you think so little of me as to think that would influence me in any way? besides you can't email or fax them, so by the time they'd arrive they'd be all crustified, petrified, and moldified anyways.
now on to the germane...
it appears you have abnormal commoners...
it also appears you have a particularly ignorant form of commoner...
where are the librarians? why have they not attempted to educate the particularly ignorant commoners who frequent this library? they are guilty of laziness and insensitivity to their charges.
no these librarians sound like the kind that should be summarily sacked and replaced with new, more enlightened, information specialists...
over what period of time do you wish me to average my weekly attendance?
hew!
If the commoners refuse to be educated, the librarians cannot help them. When someone declines to take the assistance you offer, unfortunately you cannot tie them to a chair and make them accept it.
The whole point of my original post was to ask why people don't make use of offered information. I still don't have an answer.
Oh, and you may average your number of library visits over the past...oh...thirty years or so should be sufficient, I would think.
Or if that's too complicated, the number of library visits since your move to Pennsylvania will have to do.
;)
And I do believe that cookies would make it to PA in a matter of days...no worries about mold. Besides, as Clair would tell you, a little penicillin won't hurt. Unless you're like me and are allergic to it. On second thought, we sha'n't take a chance with your health. No cookies for you -- you'll have to settle for Friskies.
i never heard that they were offered education on using computerized search systems at your library. i stand (or more accurately sit) corrected.
well my average is too difficult to estimate, what between endless days, nay weeks spent in libraries while attempting to become "educated", plus work-related remote searching of libraries, and then taking children to the library, it has to be easily 20 times per year over the past thirty years.
i'm sure you could, with your keen mathematically-oriented mind, develop an algorithm to determine the number more precisely than my pathetic attempt. please develop the algebraic expression and i will fill in with numbers whatever variables are present.
hew!
ps - friskies liberally slathered on crackers or fresh bread is far healthier than cookies anyways! thank you for thinking of my health.
as for more recently, i average around three per year. but that number is increasing.
i genuinely love your posting way, very remarkable,
don't quit as well as keep posting due to the fact that it just that is worth to follow it,
looking forward to find out a lot more of your own content articles, cheers :)
Post a Comment
<< Home