You know what reserve readings are, right? A professor might want his students to read a few chapters from a certain book, but not want them to have to buy it, or maybe it's out of print, etc. Alternately, there might be a certain musical score he wants them to listen to or a movie to watch. We keep them here, behind the circulation desk and check them out to students for two hours at a pop. They are shelved according to the Library of Congress system, just like the rest of this library.
Working the circ desk right before an exam, finals or midterms is akin to having red hot metal shoved under your fingernails. IE: it's not pleasant. Students come here having to make up an entire day's/week's/semester's worth of reading/watching/listening. Often, an entire class shows up, all clamoring for the same book. If it's out, they want to know who has it (presumably so they can whack them over the head with a lead pipe and steal the book), if they have it, they want to renew it, despite the fifteen other students who need it. Sometimes, desperate students abscond with a book and the circ staff is faced with angry, rabid students.
We're getting down to the wire here at the university. Finals are coming up and papers are due. Getting a moment to rest is a rare thing to be cherished.
So, now on to the stories. I have three to entertain you with tonight. If I seem overly harsh, please remember that these students are currently attending one of the top twenty private universities in the country. They are supposed to be at least nominally bright. I judge them harsher than other people because they should know better.
My evening got off to a grand start when a student came up to me with my absoulte favorite request:
Student: I need a reserve book.
Me: Okay...
Student:It's for Professor Jones'class
Me: I need the call number
Student: The what?
Me: The call number. It's how we shelve them.
Student: It's called "The Secret Doctrine"
Me: That's great. I still need a call number
Student:I don't know what it is. Just look it up
Me:The computers are over there. Come back with the call number and we'll do business. (And I leave before he can say anything else)
See, there are about 2,000 books on reserve. There are also 200 videos and 100 CDs. Searching a book out by title is like the proverbial needle in a hay stack. I could have looked up the call number for him, but then how would he ever learn? He might come back later when Karen or Judy was on and they would kill him. They have absolutely no pity.
Another student came up and asked for a book, once again giving me the title. I asked him for a call number and he looked at me with the dopiest expression I have ever seen and asked,
"You mean they're not shelved by title?"
Now there's an idea. Screw all this organizing stuff we've been doing. Thank god this guy was here to set us straight. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?
Student number 3 came up to me and asked for a book, giving me the following criteria: "It's by this guy...Rosen something. And it's about the Supreme Court. I think."
I sent him to the computers and he came back 30 minutes later no better off than he had been previously. This guy, I took pity on. Unfortunately, he was so fantastically off base that I couldn't find anything even close to what he was looking for.
I was forced to crack open his skull and sift through the tapioca until I discovered some very important things: He was looking for a government document, NOT A RESERVE and it was on the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings. Tracie took over at this point, as I was breathing fire. She took him by the hand, and, speaking softly as not to startle him, led him away towards the government documents, struggling to explain their elaborate numbering system. If the blank look on his face and the drool were any indication, she probably didn't get very far.
