30 January 2006

Library Land!

At the small college library I work in, we require students to sign in
as they enter so we can keep track of patron statistics. The more
people in the library, the more it looks like we are useful, the more money
we get. People seem to have such hostility towards signing in.

"I signed in this morning when I got here!" Yes, but it's now seven
thirty pm.

Another problem we seem to have is people don't understand where they
should sign. It is basically a grid of boxes, with the times at the top,
so you sign your initials (some people like to sign their entire name,
which takes up several boxes across various times, or the best, is to
sign the time: 6:35) in the column that corresponds with the hour of the
time that it is. Nearly everyone requires the assistance of the
librarian or a workstudy with how to sign in. And when we don't pay attention,
they sign in at whatever box they want. Then, when people who think
they understand how to sign in come in, they get confused at what to do
and how to do it. It drives me nuts: sign your initials in the box under
the proper time column. Apparently, it's a lot harder than it looks.

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