A Patron Falls

During the summer, there was a very sweet elderly couple that visited our library on a regular basis. Their health had been on the decline, but they still managed to make it in. One Saturday when only two of us were working, the elderly lady's knees gave out and she fell. She was very coherent and not in any pain. She said that she had a problem with her knees buckling and it happened quite frequently. I asked her if she wanted me to call an ambulance for her but she refused. I asked her about calling the ambulance several times but she repeatedly begged me not to, as did her husband. The elderly man said that there was no way that he could help his wife get to her feet but she would have to do this herself and she usually used a chair at home when this happened. We did bring her a chair and with repeated attempts and some assistance, she was able to lift herself up to sit in the chair. She rested there for about 10 or 15 minutes and was then able to meet her husband at the door where he was waiting with their car. After about 10 minutes, we called the patron's house to make sure she was doing ok and she said that she was fine and just needed to rest her legs. After this, I called our Director to let her know what happened and on Monday, the Director called again to check on her and all was well. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, though. Maybe I should have called for help anyway.

This is sad!

Recently, we finished our semiannual book fair which is a spectacular fund raiser for our library. We do quite a bit to get the children and parents excited about purchasing a book or books. (We preview the books, let the children write down their wish lists, and even watch a video about it.)....but we really don't think about those children who are not able to purchase anything. I watched a little girl come in and pick out a book that she seemed to want so badly. She walked and walked around just looking at everything and she was just kind of hanging out. I asked her if her teacher knew that she was still here and she said "I think so" but I told her that she really needed to hurry and return to class. Finally, she looked around to see if anyone was watching and then she walked up to the person at the checkout and said "If you let me just take this, I won't tell anyone!" Maybe what we need to do is visit all of the local libraries "friends of the library sales" just to purchase books and save for situations like this. I don't know- it was just so heart breaking and unfortunately, she was not the only one.

Why the "library" is so wonderful to me!

Libraries, in general, are very special to me. It all started when I was very young and our library was on the way to my brother's school. I was not old enough to be in school yet. Anyway, My Mother and I stopped almost every day and I was able to get as many books as I wanted. I loved the way the new books smelled and felt. I thought it was absolutely magical the way the cover was shiny. I still feel that way about books. As I grew up, the library was always a place to be myself. When I was in Jr. High, my lovely library was sold and actually became someone's house.
My grade school librarian also made a huge impact on me. She was just an awesome person who at a very young age suffered debilitating rheumatoid arthritis. This was in the day of the card catalog and everything was done by hand. Her hands were so arthritic, that they folded into a claw like position and she could not even open any of her fingers. No matter how she felt, she never showed it to her students but always made us feel special. She loved her job and often shared with us great new books and big smiles.
When I was young, my favorite books were Curious George and The Color Kittens. When I was in Jr. High, I loved Northwest Passage. My favorite book in college was anything by Leo Buscaglia. Anyone remember him? Check out this web site: www.leobuscaglia.com/. My favorite books now are The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter and The Frontiersmen by Allan Eckert.

When to stop the search.

Recently, while working at my local library, an attempt to help one of our loyal patrons turned into a lengthy event. This young patron had waited too long to start on a homework assignment and was now facing immediacy with gathering information. The material that this person was requesting was Cd's, (most of which had been placed on a shelf to be re-barcoded and entered into the new system because our old barcodes were not accepted into the new system.) I actually had to manually search each Cd in 4 different areas. (Of course, this was not the patron's fault). After locating 2 out of 3 items that our patron desired, I was faced with a dilemma. How could I check this material out to our patron when there was no record in our computer? Also, I could not just add these materials because I had not yet received certification on the new system. I went against policy and checked these materials out to this patron anyway using the most descriptive information that I could. My patron left happy but in the meantime, my wonderfully patient coworker was forced to assist everyone else that came in and we were pretty busy. How do we know when to stop the search?

Great customer service!

Our library recently switched to a new program that allows all libraries (within the system) to be interconnected. At first, it took some getting used to but seemed to be working pretty well. It offered to our patrons incredible access to materials from many other libraries; however, a problem has occurred that negatively ( I think) affects our hopefully wonderful customer service. We have patrons who have always used our library even though their home library is not ours. There was always a reciprocity for these libraries. Now, we cannot order ILL materials for these patrons, we must send them to their home library for this service so that the statistics will be allocated properly. I feel that there should be another way to approach this situation. Maybe there should be a way to mark a patron's home library for this purpose, when ordering ILL material, but still allow ordering to occur at a library of their choice. Does anyone else disagree with this policy? Or is it just me?