#librarylife

Today is the first day of the fall semester and that means that we are getting inundated with wide-eyed freshmen and dead-eyed graduate students who have a bajillion questions about the libraries and our policies.

It’s nothing new and we’re getting the standard questions, comments, and complaints.

It’s mostly things such as:

Graduate Student: “What do you mean this book only circulates for two hours? Two hours?!?! Come on now…two hours?!”
Cap’n Charisma: “Well, it’s a course reserve book, so it circulates for less time so that more people in the class can have access to it.”
Graduate Student: “So I can’t have it for the entire semester?”
Cap’n Charisma: “No, like I just said…it circulates for two hours so more people can use it.”
Graduate Student: “So I can’t take it for a month?”
Cap’n Charisma: “No…two hours.”
Graduate Student: “…but I’m a graduate student!”
Cap’n Charisma: “I’m sorry, the policy still applies.”
Graduate Student: “Oh…so I really can’t take it for the semester?”
Cap’n Charisma: *sigh* “No. No you cannot.”
Graduate Student: “Are you sure?”
Cap’n Charisma: “…yeah, pretty sure.”
(This conversation tends to go on for awhile…Grad Students are tenacious.)

or

Freshman: “Teehee…I beat everyone else in my class to this book. Teehee!”
Cap’n Charisma: “Congrats. Just a word of warning, if it’s being used for a course, there’s a good chance that someone else will recall it.”
Freshman: “…what?!”
Cap’n Charisma: “Well, if someone else requests the book, you’ll have to bring it back. You’re guaranteed a two week loan, but after that, it can be recalled by another user.”
Freshman: “Well that’s hardly fair.”
Cap’n Charisma: “…actually, it’s very fair, because it allows more people to use the book.”
Freshman: “Well what if I don’t return it when it gets recalled? I just get to keep it, right?!”
Cap’n Charisma: “Well, you certainly get to keep it, but you’ll be paying a late fee of $2 per day for every day it’s late.”
Freshman: “Is there any way I can get this book and ensure that no one but me gets to use it?”
Cap’n Charisma: “…you could buy it.”

or

Freshman: “How much does it cost to checkout books?”
Cap’n Charisma: “Cost to checkout books? Well it doesn’t co–”
Freshman: “What was that?”
Cap’n Charisma: “I said it was $2 per book. Cash. Only cash. No receipts!!”

…okay, not really, but wouldn’t that be awesome?! My idea of a tip jar keeps getting rejected so this seems like the next best thing.

Anyway, probably my favorite thing about the beginning of the semester deluge is the students who had late items over the summer.

I think it’s just super cute how so many of them think that if they just drop the book on the counter and scurry away, their fines won’t follow them.

They’re in the computer. Just because you skedaddled before we had time to say “hey bro, you owe the library $8!” doesn’t mean that you suddenly don’t owe the library $8.

The fine just sorta hangs out and haunts you until it gets paid off.

Anyway, there’s really no point to this entry (as one could say is the case with most of my blog entries), but I just felt like letting all you non-library peeps in on what my day was like.

You’re welcome (or something).