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I live in a small town, with a small public library.
I've been here 22 years, so I know all the people who work there.
YET, I am so annoyed that there are SO many mistakes made:
ie- I return a book, and it remains on my card, and I have to go in and find the book on the shelf, take it to the desk and have them clear my card.
This happened 3 times in the last couple of months.
The other day, I handed 3 items to a worker, and stood there, while I asked him politely to please check them in right there and then.
He did.
I went home to discover that one of them remained on my card!
Yesterday I was checking books out, and a woman in front of me was telling the worker that she had found 4 books on the shelf which had been indicated to have been checked out to her.
Anyone can make a mistake, but when mistakes are made so frequently it becomes very annoying.
No one has the time or the inclination to keep going back (or calling them) to correct mistakes.
Either their staff is terrible, or their system is.
What to do?
Usually I would talk to the Director and point out all these things.
But the Director is a terrible person. I was in the library once with a friend who found a book on the shelf, which the library had said she had checked out.
She took it into the Director to show her that the library had made a mistake.
The Director accused my friend of having snuck the book into the library and put it on the shelf!
My friend burst into tears, she was so insulted.
So I am not going to talk to the Director.
I thot about a letter to the newspaper which would get my points across, and would put pressure on the director to do something, and might also evoke other people to speak up.
But then all the workers would be angry at me, and it would be uncomfortable to visit the library which I do frequently.
My goal is not to insult or offend anyone but to get them to deal with the problems. They must know there are problems.
There is a person who is head of circulation, I will talk to her today.
(Today I just discovered that they put something on my card, which I have no idea what it is and have never seen it! - the last straw.)
But other than talking to the person who is head of circulation -- not really "Head" but has been there the longest. Don't know how much power she has or if she gives a damn.
Other than that, I don't know what to do.
It's been a problem for a long time, but in the last 6 months it has gotten worse.
any ideas?
appreciated...
also appreciate being indulged to let off steam. I realize this is not the most important issue in the world, but it frustrates..
yes, everybody has a boss.
after I posted here, I went back to the library website and found a Board of Trustees, so that is whom I will write.
this way, if the trustees act in a professional manner, they will inform that there is a problem, but will not reveal my name.
yes, everybody has a boss.
after I posted here, I went back to the library website and found a Board of Trustees, so that is whom I will write.
this way, if the trustees act in a professional manner, they will inform that there is a problem, but will not reveal my name.
Why not reveal your name? Anonymous correspondence carries no weight. Tell them that you are a long time resident and patron of the library. Stand behind what you say.
Go to the town website and see if there is a city manager or mayor who runs the daily operations of the city. Contact that person to let them know there is a management problem at the library.
Stop worrying about offending the workers. You have a consumer complaint, and you already are getting bad service. They won't black ball you from using the library. Your tax dollars are paying for it.
I'd wait so see how the head of circulation at the library responds to the OP's problem before suggesting that she go to the Board of Directors or the Mayor. The library staff most likely knows that there is some kind of glitch with the computer system, but they might not have the funds to do any upgrades or the staff time to go through every record to check inventory
Go to the town website and see if there is a city manager or mayor who runs the daily operations of the city. Contact that person to let them know there is a management problem at the library.
Stop worrying about offending the workers. You have a consumer complaint, and you already are getting bad service. They won't black ball you from using the library. Your tax dollars are paying for it.
This will only work if the library is funded from the city's budget. If the library is funded directly from tax assessments, then it will not be effective. I would not go much beyond the board which administers the library though. You could cause enough of a flap to get the library reduced funding or even close it.
I like the idea of talking to the head of circulation.
And here is a secret: all libraries make mistakes like this, although this number of mistakes is egregious. There should be a procedure to check the shelves when someone tells the library that they returned the book in question. When an entire return is not checked in, you have to suspect the library user has not returned stuff. When some of the return is not checked in, you have to suspect the transaction. But the library user should not have to check the shelves themselves; in fact it would be better for staff to do this as a matter of course. I myself did many shelf checks for this very problem.
I suspect the clerks are careless, perhaps because the technology is dated and hard to use. But the director needs to take some steps to deal with this. Honestly, a few of you need to meet with the director and respectfully point out this problem. Ask if she knows why this happens frequently. If she cannot deal with this, or is disrespectful to you, then all of you need to take it to the board.
Good librarians overcome poor technology all the time. That's what we have always done. This is a very labor intensive field.
It sounds like your library needs automatic check ins and check outs. Probably no money in the budget for this, but it might solve this problem.
I've had these same types of problems with my local library, be prepared a lot of people will take up for the library and not you.
I once had a book appear on my account that I did not check out.
I also had turned in books on two occasions that weren't checked in by the librarians, so they sent me over due notices. I went to find the books on their shelves, they had reshelved them but never checked them in - their mistake, but was told I still had to pay the overdue notices! The librarian just said "tough", wouldn't admit their mistake, and refused to help me. I eventually found a nice male librarian who agreed to remove the overdue from my account
And here is a secret: all libraries make mistakes like this, although this number of mistakes is egregious.
My local library told me that they never, ever make mistakes; they even said it's "impossible" for them to make mistakes. And that it's always the patron's fault, not theirs. Yes, they really said this, even after I caught them in some errors over a period of time.
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