Patron comes up to the reference desk to request a book about wasteful government spending. We don’t own a copy, but I assure the patron that we’ll purchase it and get it to him soon. The patron then proceeds to rant about health care, Obama, socialism, communism, etc. etc. etc.

Then he thanks us for agreeing to buy the book and tells me what a great library we have.

(From now on, this is the example I am going to use when someone asks for a definition of “irony.”)

The thing to bear in mind is that, even though libraries occasionally disappoint people (people who don’t have a sense of perspective, usually), by and large we offer a great number of services and resources to a great number of people. Which makes us all socialists, but anyway.

We do not require patrons to log in with their barcodes when using a computer, so even when a patron does get logged off, there’s nothing to stop them from staying seated and just logging in again. But when there are people waiting, we do make an announcement, and people are pretty good about sharing.

However in this case, the patron didn’t tell us he was waiting, he just went right in to complain. Obviously, this isn’t a perfect system, but it generally errs on the side of being permissive rather than being restrictive.

As for having a dedicated Jobs computer: we used to, but then we converted it into a regular workstation. We found that it was empty more often than not, and when it was in use, usually wasn’t for job searching. So then staff had the choice of kicking that person off, which was ridiculous when there were other computers available. So now all our computers can do everything.

We do use Anne’s idea of suggesting the best times to come in, and patrons are allowed to reserve time on certain computers.

Again, not perfect, but we’re working on adding more computers (circulating laptops from the Ref Desk), which should help.

At our library, we give people two hours, and just recently have been able to extend the time if more than four computers are empty. At certain times of the day, it is so busy there is literally no chance for extensions. but we remind people that there are better times to come and use the computer – right after school gets out is not one of them! We also let job seekers know about another place in town called Worksource, where they can use computers for their job searches.

I’ve also noticed that people tend to exaggerate when they’re stressed out and upset. It may seem like those kids are there for hours, but that’s probably not completely true.

As for the lady that wanted you to scan the documents she wanted first – I get really annoyed when people have that attitude! But we see that type of person almost every day…

It’s a bit unclear in your post, is there a time-limit on the computers?

It does seem to me that with the drastically increased number of patrons unemployed, maybe policy should be shifted a bit. Maybe there should be a couple of computers that are exclusively for job hunting. That way at least if somebody is having to wait, they know they’re waiting while someone else is also job-hunting? I know it’s not ideal, but I really do think the patron has a serious complaint. Internet access is completely necessary in this day and age to find a job, and if someone can’t afford it in their own home, they’re already at an economic disadvantage. I’m sorry, but it simply doesn’t seem fair to me to push these people aside to let teenagers use facebook (this is coming from a 23 year old, so no old fogey here )