This question wasn't difficult at all, just surprising. One of our semi-regular patrons, an elderly woman, came over to the desk and asked for help at a computer.
When we got back to where she was working, she explained that she had moved from one end of her retirement complex to the other, and was on the Post Office's website trying to change her address. She was stuck on the first step - the difference between a "permanent" move and a "temporary" move. She felt, at her age (86), she wanted to get a second opinion on how "permanent" I thought her move was. I know she has a good sense of humor, but I honestly couldn't tell if she was kidding this time.
We got her through that step, and I went back to the desk. The whole process is only about five screens, but over the course of the next half-hour, she came back twice more to ask for help. It was a busy day so I wasn't able to stay with her, and usually she's very good on the computer.
However, the last question stumped us both: they required her type in her credit card number, and were going to charge her $1.00 to change her address.
Well, after a half an hour of frustration, that was the last straw. I know you can do change of addresses at the Post Office for free, so she said she was going to go right over to do it the old-fashioned way, and to give them a piece of her mind.
Initially, I thought this was another annoying example of an online place charging service fees or "internet surcharge" to use their website. I see this a lot buying tickets and things online, and to my mind, it seems like a pure scam - buying online should provide a discount, since it saves them effort.
After the patron left, I went back to the website to see if they mentioned this $1 fee earlier in the process. On the first page, I found a not-too-easy-to-read note at the bottom, saying a valid credit card was required - and that you have to change your address with the credit card company before you can change it with the Post Office. It reads:
Note: A valid credit card and a valid email address are required to complete the Online Change of Address process. For your security, the credit card billing address MUST match the address you are moving from or the address you are moving to (for business moves it must match the address you are moving from). If you are unable to use a credit card and a valid email address, you will have the option to print the Change of Address form and then mail or deliver the printed form to your local post office™.
From this, and from the page where you enter your credit card number, it seems like it's more of a security feature, to deter random people from changing the address of other people. However, you can still do it for free with no questions asked using the paper form. There has to be a better way to handle things like this, so that security doesn't impede convenience.
I've got to apply this logic the next time we revamp our library website.
Anyone know where this photo was taken? Thanks to Chris for sending me this, and the comments on Reddit are worth skimming.
I'm a nerd and did the research to figure out this quote came from the second season episode Tooth and Claw, in which a werewolf is sent to assassinate the Queen. Here's the quote in context:
One problem with busy days like yesterday is that I am focused just on what's in front of me, and miss out on what's happening elsewhere. After work yesterday I was catching up on news and blogs, and found a few stories I thought were significant and wanted to share (you know, besides that whole leak thing):
Libraries Loan More Movies than Netflix - I occasionally still hear of public libraries that don't circulate DVDs, and it really astounds me. I know we do a ton of them, but I didn't think we out-paced Netflix et. al. - yay libraries (via LibraryStuff.net)
Federal judge says you can break DRM if you're not doing so to infringe copyright - This was totally unexpected, but is finally some copyright/DRM news moving in the right direction (ie, a people-friendly logical way, counter to ACTA's direction). It'll affect us when it comes to downloadable audiobooks and ebooks, and it reminded me how much traffic my website gets from searches like "overdrive hacks"
Al Franken's Warning On Net Neutrality - Net Neutrality is another issue I've been watching, because it impacts information access and intellectual freedom. I am grateful to have people in the government on our side, and that Al Franken sees this as a serious issue: "Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time." (via Slashdot)
I'm participating in today's Library Day In The Life - it could be a good (interesting) day, but it also means I've been here for an hour and a half already and this is the first chance I've gotten to post anything - busy day.
11:00 am
Arrive at work, go right to Reference Desk. Morning person is on vacation, so our Assistant Director was covering. Talk to her about how busy the morning was, problems from the weekend, and pending reference questions
11:15 - 12:30
Field a flurry of reference question, even having to press our "emergency" button (wireless doorbell) to get someone from the backroom to come out and help. These vary from looking up book titles, reserving museum passes, finding books for patrons (on dream symbols, mythology, New York travel, books for middle school summer reading), check in newspapers, give newspapers to patrons, find parking map for local bike trail, and retrieve a lost cell phone for a patron
We're also doing interviews today for our Head of Circulation opening - however, interviews were scheduled after I approved vacation time for this week, so I spent some time scrambling to find someone to cover the desk while I'm in the interviews
12:30 - 1pm
Transfer call from Nashua (NH) Public Library to our ILL department
Talk to maintenance guy about the huge mouse he caught in the library's garage ("it was black and this big," holding his hands about eight inches apart - I think that qualifies as a rat)
Finally get a chance to post this
A patron wanted travel books for Italy and Greece, and holy smokes, the Fodor's and Frommer's 2010 books for both countries were on the shelf. Usually they're checked out and patron needs to settle for past years, but this time we rocked it
Help patron connect her Windows 7 laptop to our wireless network - I've had to do that a lot lately, so Windows 7 must be a little wonkier than XP
Try to reread the resume of the candidate for a 1pm phone interview
Reply to email message from someone who confuses us with the library in Chelmsford, Essex, England (it happens about every other month)
1pm - 1:30
Phone interview. I'm sure the candidate is far more nervous to be interviewed than we are to interview them, but the whole hiring process seems just unpleasant all around - especially on a day when we're short-staffed and I just realized there is no one to cover my lunch break
1:30 - 2:30
Back at the reference desk, check email and reread resume of 2pm interviewee
Catch up with coworker who was on vacation in Vermont last week - although, being the only adult on vacation with three daughters + one friend each may not actually qualify as a vacation
Take cordless phone and start pulling books from the shelves that were requested by patrons over the weekend (also eat a handful of almonds because of this lunch thing)
Compile a list of staff on our email staff list, to see who hasn't been getting our all-staff announcements
Holy smokes: apparently we haven't had a page in awhile, because we have about five fullc arts of adult non-fiction that needs to be shelved - ah, something else to worry about
2:30 - 3:45
Interview
3:45 - 4pm
Check in at Reference Desk to see how things are going (busy)
Sneak away for a banana lunch before 4pm interview
4:00 - 5:20
Interview
5:20 - 6:00
Back at the Reference Desk for the rest of my shift, still haven't eaten that banana
"Patrol" the floor, restarting computers, picking up abandoned books and scrap paper, and pushing in chairs
Catching up on emails from the day. One email reference question has me puzzled - is it a real question or spam: "how can i download googled images;my photos 2 my facebook?"
Checking out Glogster.com, which one of today's interviewees mentioned. I'd never heard of it, and after a quick look at the website, am not sure I get - sigh, I'm so 2009
6:00 - 6:30
Reviewing notes I took during the interviews, both about the candidates and ideas they suggested (see Glogster.com above)
This position is very much a readers advisory job, so all candidates are ask about their experience and the tools they use. Humorously, almost every person so far as named Amazon.com as one of their top readers advisory tools, and most have said it a bit sheepishly. It's okay, really
But more on readers advisory: one of my notes on resumes was to not apply for jobs for which you are not qualified. This is the definition of not being qualified for a job: the job ad specifically includes readers advisory, and during the interview you're asked about your readers advisory experience - if your response is, "readers... what did you call it?" you are not qualified for the job
I'm going to steal a candidate's idea for next tax season: hang a "federal and state tax forms are available at the library" sign in the post office, which usually only has federal forms (and never enough)
6:30 - 7:00
Wow, everyone just must have finished dinner and came to the library to get middle school summer reading books
In honor of Thursday's Libraries in Videos post, I thought I'd do this week's reference question video-style.
My brother-in-law turned me on to Xtranormal.com, a text-to-movie website - you type in your script, select actors, animations, camera angles, etc., and then it builds a little video for you. It's worth it to read about their free and paid options before you spend two hours fine-tuning the perfect video, only to learn it's going to cost you $5 to post it (oops).
This is a made-up reference question, but one I think everyone will recognize. I'm the one on the right - enjoy:
Alright, I admit it's dorky, but it was fun to make, and what can I say - I used all the free options. But this would be a cool way to make instructional library videos, because editing is super-quick, no cameras or mics needed, and is a boon to the camera-shy.
By the way, I chose to upload this video to YouTube and embed it from there, but the Xtranormal video page allows embedding and lots of other sharing options.
Some of them I'd never seen before, but all of them were enjoyable to watch. However, the Library Girl song wasn't there, and they also left out David Lee King and Michael Porter's Library 101 project. I guess that one isn't meant to be funny ha-ha, but I was making a funny face in it.
I still occasionally find that song going through my head, even when I haven't watched it in awhile. Since libraries have been declared the Next Big Thing (via), we'll probably see ourselves in much more media - after all, we are pretty hip.
This question wasn't difficult at all, just surprising. One of our semi-regular patrons, an elderly woman, came over to the desk and asked for help at a computer.
