Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Miss Information has no patience for this.

Ooooh. Miss Information has had it with the impatient types. Her first customer was a man who was asking about Oriana Fallaci. He was looking for her books and mentioned that he'd heard about a recent documentary about her life. The books were no problem, the library had several in stock. The documentary was another matter. 

IMDB didn't have a doc listed. Miss Information resorted to Google where she found the schedule for a February 2015 film festival that had screened the movie -- not a documentary, more of a docudrama and not available in the library. IMDB did have a listing which came up when Miss Information searched by title. It was a television movie which appears to have been released only in Italy. 

In the middle of this seemingly endless search, another patron appeared. Then she left. While Miss Information was continuing to search for the first patron, a circulation staff member came over with the woman and interrupted. "This patron is looking for a book called Stalin's Daughter--do you know where it is?"

Miss Information replied that she did not know off the top of her head but could check as soon as she finished with the man she was helping. 

The man left quickly. He didn't have to. Miss Information was totally willing to help him for hours, if it would annoy Stalin's Daughter woman. 

Miss Information quickly looked up the information. The book is high demand so the woman would have to place a request. Did she want to do that? 

Yes. Oh but could she pick it up at her local branch instead?

Miss Information said she could and asked for her library card to complete the transaction.

Oh. I don't have it with me. (Would have made it difficult to take the book out if it had been available, right?)

But never mind, Miss Information gets another piece of ID from the woman and places the hold. It maybe didn't take quite as long as the Oriana Fallaci question, but it was way more annoying. 

Why do library patrons feel like they're the most important people on earth?