staff training part 1

we had staff training today. we are getting a new system...the second in two years. i just started learning the shortcuts to this current system and now they want to teach this old dog a new damn trick! the new system is HORRIBLE! it is confusing and you have to close every single window after every single use. you cannot be in the same record at the same time...ANYWHERE in RI. so, if some circclerk in Providence leaves a patron's record open, we cannot also use that record. we had this problem in our oldest system (DYNIX) and it was something we fixed with the Horizon (current) system. i think we are going live with Millenium on the 27th but only to checkout. we will not be able to checkin, place holds or anything else for TWO WHOLE DAYS! i have stocked up on my tranquilizers, Prevacid and Tylenol. i will start drinking on the 25th so i will be totally sloshed by the 27th. i wouldn't know what i was doing sober, so why NOT drink? most of us are worried but resolute. we are circ, we can do anything! but patrons beware: we WILL take our frustrations out on YOU. heheheheheheheheheheheheh!

so, we were closed from 9 unti 11:30 this morning. we had this info in all the local papers, posted all over the library, on our board outside, on the IN and OUT side of our front doors and we printed out little slips of paper, bookmark size, that we slipped in the items patrons checked out for over two weeks. plus, we told everyone who did checkout. we told patrons who took out DVD's that they could not go in the bookdrop and we would be charging fines for that day...we were only closed 2 and a half hours after all. well, at 11:30 and 10 seconds i got my first whiney patron. "my daughter is sick. she was here earlier and you were closed. she put her DVDs in the bookdrop. will she be (whine) FINED?" er, YES! "but she's (whine) SICK!" too sick to read the flyers posted everywhere but on our foreheads. YES, YES, YES, if you put DVDs in the bookdrop whether you are sick or not, we will charge you a fine! so, what did i do? i didn't charge a fine on any freakin' DVD because we all figured it would just lead to a big, fat headache later on. sigh.