Comments on: Reference Question of the Week – 11/25/12

By: Kieran

Kieran — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:04:14 +0000

Our staff has a pretty good track record of seeing when someone is in trouble and calling the desk to get them out of it.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:59:02 +0000

I worked at a library that did have a doorbell installed under the desk that would ring in the work room. If you were stuck (or if there was an emergency or if there was a line building up) you pressed the button. Someone would come out from the back, see the situation, then go back into the room and make a phone call that we *had* to answer.

By: Julianna

Julianna — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:26:50 +0000

button to trap door should be included in every budget

By: Brian Herzog

Brian Herzog — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:21:50 +0000

@Jessie: not really, unless they’re also working Reference. Like you and @Tori said, the best we have is to desperately signal to someone to save you – however, we know who the most frequent “offenders” are, so staff is pretty good about going to the back room and calling out to the desk to provide an excuse.

By: Tori

Tori — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:49:29 +0000

We didn’t have a button, but we had a code name we used to ask a co-worker to go in the back and call us if we got trapped.

By: Awnali

Awnali — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 13:50:33 +0000

My boss had to call me on the phone and tell me to come to the back room after a patron had me pinned for 20 minutes. The poor lonely guy followed me all the way back to the staff room before I could extricate myself. I felt bad for the guy, but things were starting to get desperate!

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 23:24:01 +0000

Is the desk visible to other staff members? My former library staff had a few verbal and nonverbal cues they could use to signal to another staff member, “Help! I can’t get out of this conversation!”

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:05:46 +0000

The clip also portrays the library as understaffed – and isn’t that true to life too!