Thinking outside of the book

The customer was so nice.  She was relying on us to come up with the title of the book.  We were racking our brains.  She remembered hearing about it on NPR.  It was a best seller.  A professor, African American she thought.  A man.  He taught at UMass.  And he shot his sister.  There was sexual abuse in the family.

I spoke to all of our finest collection development mavens.  And then, in the staff lounge, our executive secretary said, "oh.  You mean the Amy Bishop story."  Sure enough.  A Professor's Rage:  The Chilling True Story of a Harvard PhD.

The moral of this story:  take their name and number and talk to everyone you can think of.  You never know who might be able to help.

it's never wrong if it's in their favor

This leaping libertine librarian had a director once who said:  "It is never wrong, I will never fault you for 'erring' on the side of the customer."  What does that mean?  It means not spending thirty or forty minutes arguing about a $2.00 fine.  It means "thinking outside of the book"....how can I find that hidden question?  What is this customer really asking for?  Sometimes, it's just a smile.  Others, it's just to be allowed to check out that book even though we are closing in one minute from now.  Maybe he/she has spent a good chunk of time trying to find that book and it will make all the difference in terms of their school project.

I live by this precept and I am a much more leaping, libertine librarian as a result!