A library afternoon

Arrived at the Information Desk at 1pm, and found a man on the quick-check PC waiting for it to reboot; while waiting, and then while computing, he carried on an animated, yet sotto voce conversation with himself. He stayed for half an hour.

It didn't end there.

A man came over, and spoke so softly I leaned over to listen; I had to ask him to speak up. He wanted to know about the $250 in the stimulus bill; his counselor had told him to go to the Library or post office for information. Some quick thinking, and I decided to tell him to contact his elected representatives for details. I gave him office numbers for Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Senator Charles Schumer, and State Senator Dean Skelos. That satisfied him. He did ask if I knew about the $250; I told him that I didn't want to give him erroneous information, and that contacting his elected representatives was the way to go. I did tell him about the few extra dollars in paychecks beginning this month. He said he doesn't work. He seemed, well, I wasn't surprised when he said that. He asked if I'd seen the new Cardinal assume office (is that the right term?) yesterday (the day before?) in New York, and I told him no, I'd been working. He said he watched it, and liked it a lot. He also said that the Mayor would be going to a baseball game today, and I remarked that it was a beautiful day for a game. He said he'd be playing basketball tomorrow, and I remarked how our new President also plays basketball. He countered by saying that the President had worked out with the Knicks a couple of days ago.

An older man (60ish), whom I've seen before, appeared. Wearing a big yarmulke covering the middle of his head, wearing a bright yellow windbreaker, he started talking to me from several feet away, apparently about a problem with the copier. He'd lost a dime, and had not gotten a second copy. I went over, using a copy card, and helped him. His original was a crumpled piece of paper, stained; perfectly his. Made a copy, went back to the desk. Within minutes he was back, saw me helping someone, and said he was next. (His ID is a Transportation Access card from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.) He wanted the name and address of the CEO of the Port Authority of NY & NJ. While I was getting him that he went on about changes he proposed making to the transportation system to make everything better, more efficient, less costly. Twice he needed help with the word processor. And a third time. Just minutes ago (2.27pm) I saw him leave; I was busy; he left his ID.

Other happenings. It has been steadily busy. And to top it all off, Ilene Wolper is watching a DVD. As I passed by on one of my trips to help Mister Massachusetts, she called out "I'll be right off." And she showed up in minutes, asking if the library has volunteer positions. Oy vay. I sent her up to Administration, after assuring her that yes, I did believe she had library experience. When she came downstairs a few minutes later, she asked me if she could look at books. I told her that she could, of course.

And then the patron wearing a t-shirt with Hugo Chavez's face and the slogan toward Socialism kvetching because the wi-fi isn't working and he needs to get work done. He persisted. I had called the technician to troubleshoot it, saw him doing so, and told this patron so. He asked three, four more times, hanging around the front of the Desk. I called the tech two, three times, but got no answer. Patron persisted, insistently.

"We're running a library here, not a private service," I said to him.
"You're doing your job, and I need to do mine."
I resisted an urge to tell him to ask President Chavez for a wi-fi connection. I called the tech again, and again there was no answer. I called Reference and asked if the tech was downstairs; no. The patron walked away, muttering, and I heard him say "this is bullshit." Well, yes. but can we do?

Not a boring afternoon shift.