"I am an idiot."

A guy in his late 40's came back to the reference desk a couple of weeks ago. He said he needed a password for a website. I told him I couldn't tell him what his password was. No, he said he needed to make up a password for a website, and he wanted me to make one up for him. I explained, as carefully as I could, why he should make up his own password. Finally, we got down to the crux of the problem. He couldn't make up his own password because he didn't understand the instructions. The password had to have 8 characters, one of them had to be upper case and one of them had to be a numeral. He didn't know what a character was; he didn't know what upper case meant; and he didn't know what a numeral was. He was getting pretty hot under the collar at having to explain all this to me, and he did not want to talk to me about it anymore, he just wanted me to make up the password. He never actually swore, but I could see that he was thinking, "Just make up the G****** password!" So I did. I thought he deserved to have "Iamanid1ot" for a password, but I bravely resisted the temptation. I asked if he was married. He said yes, so his new password is now "Ilovemyw1fe". I don't know if he does or not, but maybe he will be reminded of her everytime he uses his password.

Totally Lost in Space or Jekyll & Hyde!!

I had a lady come in and ask for Federal tax form 1040x. She was actually the second person who had asked for that form that day. Both people explained to me that they had some problem with their stimulus check. The lady left with her two pages of the form...happier than all get out.

The next day the lady comes back in. She throws two copies of the 2nd page of the form across the desk at me. She said in a nasty way, "you can keep these...I didn't need this form. I'm not doing anything with exemptions. I didn't know you had a book with the forms in it. You should tell people you have that book, so when they don't know what form they need they can look." Then she stormed off toward the circ desk.

First, when people come in and request a tax form I don't second guess if they know what they're talking about...I guess I should start doing that!!! How would I know she didn't know what form she needed... I have never been good at reading minds! Second, why is it my problem she requested the wrong form. I had an errand down at the circ desk ( I suppose five minutes had lapsed) there she was at the circ desk just nice as pie visiting like nothing had happened!! You just have to wonder what possesses people?!

Nudist camps in Minnesota

The first summer I worked at the library I had a middle aged couple come in with an interesting question. They wanted to know where the nudist camps are in Minnesota. This couple was not Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt material so you can imagine the visuals I had. I was able to find a web site for a camp near Park Rapids. Oh boy!

The case of the very skinny book!!

I was shelving a cart of items...nothing wacko about that! I was putting a book on the shelf when another book shot off the shelf at me. I caught it mid-air. My mind registered the fact that this book felt awfully skinny. When I opened the book, it was completely empty of pages...it was just the empty cover. Now that's wacko!! Many theories have been kicked around as to this books demise...I think it's just something librarians like to do!!

No wackos today!

I am a bit disappointed. I've spent most of my day in my office, so I haven't had any contact with any wackos today. Darn! One of our usual suspects was browsing through the holds on the hold shelf, just to see if there was something he liked. He had the good grace to ask if he was invading someone's privacy by doing this, so that's not really wacky. In fact, I thought that was very perceptive of him.

WHERE AM I?

As i was standing at the circulation desk a young man using the phone asked me. Where am I? I replied " The library" He said "no, what town am I in? I told him Detroit Lakes and he relayed it to the person on the phone. Think he spent the night in the drunk tank next door.

Not a book store!

I've actually had two different incidents like this. Patron calls with a title...I find the title in our system. I asked the patron if she wanted me to put the book on hold for her. She was totally taken aback, and said in a very animated voice that no she wanted to buy the book!! I explained that we don't sell our collection we borrow books out to people to read. She had no clue...and actually sounded as though she didn't believe me. I told her she would have to go to a bookstore to purchase the book. She asked where there was a bookstore, so I put a plug in for "Book World" here in DL. I somehow got the impression this particular patron doesn't read much!!?