Thursday, June 12, 2014

Miss Information is finding it all terribly funny

Miss Information was walking through the mall to get to work. It's been under construction forever but she notices that the clothing store is back in its usual spot and has a new sign. She may not have noticed the old sign because the new version strikes her as hysterically funny today. 

The shop is apparently called "Mario's for Men" and that's great. It's the subtitle that gets Miss Information snickering. Underneath Mario's for Men, the sign clarifies: Clothing for Ladies and Men. Miss Information wonders why, when they ordered the new sign they didn't drop the "for Men" part of the main sign but she walks past their window display and realizes that perhaps the shop employees don't really understand signs--at least not in the way that she does.

The window display has a nice Father's Day sign--"I Love You, Daddy!" It's very sweet. Everything else in the display is handbags--clearly women's handbags. Miss Information grew up fatherless, so the subtleties of the holiday may have escaped her. 

At work, there's a lot of excitement about an upcoming film screening and Miss Information is adding a woman and her plus one to the registration list. 

"Oh, my goodness," the woman exclaims. "I didn't notice this. It says it may not be suitable for young children!"

Miss Information says that yes, it is in fact a PG film. Was the woman's plus one a child?

"Yes, it's my daughter! Do you think it will be ok to bring her? She's 26."

Miss Information manages to suppress her howls of laughter long enough to assure the woman that the film will not be harmful to her adult daughter. She spends the rest of her shift with her head under the desk so no one will hear her giggling.

So far this has week has been pretty awesome.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Come on, people. Quit annoying Miss Information.

Miss Information spends a lot of time answering questions about eBooks. So this afternoon, when a person comes asking for help with downloading, she is not surprised. 

The woman wants a certain book in digital format. The library owns the eBook. The woman is vexed because it isn't permitting her to download but will only let her place a hold. Miss Information explains the reality of library licensing of eBooks. 

The patron then says that she really wants to buy the eBook but she's searched Amazon and they don't have it. Miss Information points out that the book might not be available for Kindle but may be in ePub. The patron gets snippy. She'll ask someone else. 

Um, well Miss Information is actually doing a search that may contain the answer and urges the woman to stick with her. Yes, she finds the eBook for purchase in ePub format from another big bookseller. 

The woman's attitude is starting to annoy Miss Information but she pulls up the information about compatibility anyway and shows the patron the many devices that she can use to read the book. 

At this point, the patron snaps. She doesn't want to "read" the book. She wants to "search" the book. That's why she wants to use an eBook! She implies that Miss Information is really stupid for not understanding this. Miss Information thinks the patron is really stupid for assuming that Miss Information would just automatically know what she wanted to do with the ebook. She counts to ten and assures the patron that she can search an eBook or she can read an eBook, whatever she turns her crank.

See folks, Miss Information wants to help you. It isn't even in her job description to assist you with non-library purchases so the least you can do is not get snippy with her. When you tell her you want to get an eBook, she assumes that "reading" is going to take place. Don't get all huffy with her for not being able to read your mind.