Christmas Eve in the Library

It is Christmas Eve. My Library is open until 3pm today.

This time of year is a little weird in public libraries. Our main customer base is those who need to use the Internet and those who don't have anywhere else to go.

The first Christmas Eve I worked two customers got into a first fight at the Reference Desk 15 minutes before closing. They were fighting over the Internet. It's gone hill every year since.

Today hasn't been so bad. One customer called and asked for the name, address and phone number of a church. I found the info and while I was reading it the customer started to yell at me that I had the name wrong. I didn't - I read exactly what was listed in our business database. I recognized the customer's voice and he's kind of a jerk. I thought it was funny that he was yelling at me about a church.

Earlier this morning a customer came to the Reference Desk and said that a woman wouldn't get off the 15 minute express stations and was acting "really violent". I went over to take a look while my co-workers worried about my safety. The customer was a little cranky because her email wasn't working. I told he I would take a look and logged off the computer and logged back on and then tested a couple of other websites. Everything seemed to be working so I stayed with her until she got into her email. Crabby and a little rude, yes. Violent?! Ah, not exactly. The customer who complained is kind of a tattler and over dramatizes things and this was no exception. Later in the hour another customer complained that the same woman was "doing it again" and she was acting "aggressive and volatile". I was helping someone else so my co-worker dealt with it. Again, it was a false alarm. I find that library customers are really good about policing other customers and often tattle to library staff. It's a library, not third grade!

All in all, a short but good day.

Merry Christmas Eve!!