Reference Question of the Week – 5/2/10
May 7th, 2010
I'm sorry to post this on Mother's Day weekend, because it is truly disgusting. Really, if you have a weak stomach, stop.
After helping out at the circulation desk, I was just leaving to go back to Reference when I heard a patron ask one of my coworkers,
Can I have a plastic bag?
I knew she wouldn't need my help for that, so I continued back on down to Reference. At the end of the night, I got the rest of the story.
After the circ person handed him a bag, he opened it and put in his dirty, dripping, reeking underwear (I'm using italics instead of being as graphic as the situation warrants). He then proceeded to tell her that he had a cheeseburger earlier in the day, which upset his stomach, and he didn't make it to our bathroom in time.
That's bad. But what's worse is this happened about 7:00 PM, and I saw this patron downstairs using a computer until about 8:30 PM - with his plastic bag right beside him.
I had no idea what was in it until we closed at 9:00 PM and the circ staff filled me in, but this is one patron I definitely would have asked to leave with his parcel had I known. I don't think we have a policy explicitly forbidding carrying body fluids and fecal matter around the library in a plastic bag, but oh yes, we would have that night.
Not that I wish this on our maintenance staff, but I cannot understand why the patron went to such lengths to keep his underwear - why not just leave everything in the bathroom? Wow.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:56 am
Wow. Just wow. This has to win an award for….something.
May 8th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
O.M.G. I would have needed a plastic bag of my own…. Sounds like a good time to implement that “Any behavior that is disruptive to the library and library patrons may result in being asked to leave” policy.
May 8th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
This takes the cake. The closest I’ve come to something like this happening in my library was the time a special needs patron peed her pants while using the computer and continued to sit there and type away for quite awhile. We are small library with no custodial staff, so guess who got to clean the chair? ugh!
May 9th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Ohhhhhh, ewwwwwww. Poor Brian. I’ve heard some bad ones, and this one is bad.
May 11th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
This is definitely going into my snappy library anecdote collection. Next time I’m conversing with someone about public libraries over dinner…
May 20th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Apparently his lucky underwear lets him down now and again.
June 12th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
we had a “customer” leave his leavings on the floor in the hallway to the bathroom. who knew one of the tools of a librarian with an mls would be a pooper scooper?