Excuse me?

"Do you work here?" she asked, in a barely audible from across the Information Desk, where I sat, behind the front of the desk, waiting to help the next person who came along.

Startled, I pondered that for a moment. I'm sitting at the Desk, the computer screen in front of me. Well, perhaps it wasn't obvious, though it did seem so to me.

"Yes, I do," I answered.

"Can you help me?" she asked. "Over here." She stood by one of the OPAC computers.

I walked over dutifully.

She wanted to print out a list of items, but I advised her that wasn't possible, as OPACs don't have attached printers. Adding, helpfully, I told her she could print from an Internet PC, but would need to provide her own paper (or buy some at Circulation).

That deterred her. Buy, her thoughts were almost visible; me, buy? "Can I get a piece of paper, so I can write down some information?" she countered.

"Sure," I answered, and gave her the scratch paper.

"No, that won't be big enough."

"Well, there are plenty of them," I added helpfully.

"No, that won't do," she insisted. "Can I have just one sheet of paper? How much is one sheet of paper?"

"We do not sell single sheets of paper." I eventually gave her one sheet, and she was content. So was I.