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	amxjm 2007-07-18 05:30 am UTC (link)
	I may not be a librarian, but I'm here to say that people don't seem to bother reading signs, even if they're ON the door. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	smo 2007-07-18 06:36 am UTC (link)
	Or right in their line of vision, telling them exactly where they can get exactly what they're looking for. used to be secretary/receptionist (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ashu 2007-07-18 09:02 am UTC (link)
	Oh how true. So very freaking true. is a store clerk (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	smo 2007-07-18 04:36 pm UTC (link)
	My deepest sympathies. Retail blows goats. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ashu 2007-07-18 06:37 pm UTC (link)
	It's better than working fast food, but... Other than that, yeah. Much goat blowage. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	waitwut 2007-07-18 12:42 pm UTC (link)
	Told my boss once, after I'd repeated something for the zillionth time, that even if I stapled a sign to my forehead with the necessary information, people would still ask. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	smo 2007-07-18 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	Sad but true. (Reply to this)(Parent)

queencallipygos
2007-07-18 03:50 pm UTC (link)

Presenting: a true story from the life of

queencallipygos.

I once worked on a biggish play that was rehearsing at New York's school of criminal justice, which has a huge, 800-seat theater (go figure). The box office of the theater was our production office, and I often was the receptionist and was thus sitting in the box office window. We were rehearsing in summer, so at first we only occasionally got questions from confused people asking about the school; we just very politely explained that we weren't affiliated with the school, and maybe the security guard they'd walked past to get to us would be able to help them...

Then the summer session started, and we started getting 10 school-related questions a day, and weren't able to be as polite. So after a couple days I put a sign up in the window:

"This is the office for [play]. We are NOT connected with the school. If you have questions about the school, or about classes, please turn around and ask the security guard by the door. Thank you."

A couple days later, I was sitting in the office when a guy walked up to the window. I looked up at him. He looked at me.

Then he read the sign. Then he looked at me.

Then he read the sign again. Then he looked at me again.

Then he read the sign a third time. Then he looked at me a third time.

Then he looked at the sign one last time, and then he looked at me and asked, "Can you validate my ID card?"

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	smo 2007-07-18 04:23 pm UTC (link)
	It would have been hilarious to say yes, but I'm having trouble thinking of something sufficiently rude to do with his ID card after that. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	queencallipygos 2007-07-18 04:41 pm UTC (link)
	If memory serves, didn't say anything -- I just looked him in the eye and pointed at the sign, and waited until he walked away. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	smo 2007-07-18 04:45 pm UTC (link)
	Heh. Excellent wielding of the clue-by-four there. (Reply to this)(Parent)

jat_sapphire
2007-07-19 04:20 am UTC (link)

That story brings tears to my eyes.

And reminds me of mine: Lo, in the ice age when I was an undergraduate, I worked at the front desk of the library, answering inane questions and checking books out and in. The front desk faced the doors; to the right as you entered was the stair block, with glass doors behind which the staircase could be clearly seen, labelled helpfully, "STAIRS."

You can see where this is going.

The librarian yelled at me twice for telling the millionth and the million-and-a-halfth person who asked, "They're over there, through the door marked 'stairs.'" And I kept saying it anyway, because really, what other way was there to answer? Interpretive dance?

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eldritch
2007-07-18 07:50 pm UTC (link)

Seriously.

POP QUIZ TIME: You walk into a room at the public library. Directly to your left, not five feet away, is a large desk with a sign that says INFORMATION on it. You want to know where the Anne Rice (gag) books are. Do you:

A) Ask the Information Desk.
B) Walk into the stacks, where there is a sign that says FICTION ORGANIZED BY AUTHOR'S LAST NAME, realize that you should be looking in the Rs, and find the book yourself.
C) Walk by the Information Desk, walk by the sign detailing the shelving methods, and go to the other side of the room, behind all the books, and ask a shelver hard at work with headphones on.

...it's always C. It's always C.

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	smo 2007-07-18 08:52 pm UTC (link)
	Librarians: should be issued bazookas Y/Y? (Reply to this)(Parent)

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