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Date:         Mon, 5 Oct 1992 13:25:11 -0500
              <CIRCPLUS@IDBSU.BITNET>
From:         Loretta Merlo <Loretta_Merlo@QMCUMC.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU>
Subject:      re>reader comment

   I would be happy to field this comment, as I sort of started this
discussion in the first place. To the reader: I can only assume from your
comment that you did not read my initial communication to the List members
concerning an experience I had with a patron. Without hearing the story from

the beginning, I don't think you can appropriately comment on who deserves an

apology. I assure you that the story was TOTALLY unlike the one you
experienced, and I'm SURE I can speak for all of us on this bulletin board,
all of whom I know only from their comments, when I say that you did the right

thing to complain in that instance, indeed you deserved an apology, and if I

had a staff member who allowed something like that to happen to a patron, that

person would be severely reprimanded, believe me. It would be the only right

thing to do. We have very strict regulations re> use of profanity, and you had

hard copy evidence, not just hersay, one's word against the other's in the
heat of the moment, so there would be NO arguement. It's not like I couldn't

imagine how this could happen-- the staff member intended the note to be read

by another staff member and it got to the patron instead, but that's what
public service is all about. You can't "scratch you behind" as my mother would

say, "without someone seeing you" (I hope no one is offended by this quote-if

so, I apologize in advance). When you're in the public eye, you must be
pristine. That's part of the job, and that's part of what makes the job so
difficult and so thankless. The situation you described was quite cut and dry

in my mind. It reminds me of a very playful young man who was on my staff (no

longer, thank goodness) once who would use the comment field of patron records,

 as well as the prefix & suffix fields, to write funny things, like "Master
Tom Jones, the great" and in the comment field, "he's so cool". Some of them
,
were very amusing, and although I got real intense about discouraging this
practice, I couldn't stop it completely. Then, our systems manager wrote a
bulletin board program which interfaced with our patron file. He had the
wonderful idea of addressing the patron with their title, i.e. "Hello Dr. Pain,

 welcome to Vital Signs". Well, luckily for us, he found Master Tom Jones, and

others like him. He printed up a list of all records with words other than Mr.,

 Mrs., Ms. etc., in those fields and we editing everything out. This same
young man would hum appropriate, or rather, inappropriate songs when various

patrons would enter, like "Old McDonald" when Jim McDonald would walk in. I
warned him repeatedly that such behavior woulod get him in BIG TROUBLE some
day. Luckily, it never did, and happily, he left here some time ago now, but

if someone had complained, it would have been totally out of my hands anyway.

What could I possibly say to defend such behavior? Only that I had repeatedly

warned him to stop. Such situations are very black and white and call for
obvious action, even if I knew this staff member to be very fun loving and
liked by many patrons, very patient and a good worker, there was no way I
could defend his behavior if anyone complained, and I told him so up front.
   You, the reader, did not specify what your job is. If you are a faculty
member, how would you feel if a student insisted on hearing a lecture from
your TA instead of from you, and then complained to your Dean who asked you to

apologize to the student? If you are a medical professional, how would you
feel if you overheard a volunteer nurse under your supervision giving a
patient the wrong medicine, and when you interferred, you were told to mind
your own business. Those examples are closer to the situation I experienced
and summarized to the BB members for their comment. The fact is, we are all
very much dedicated to patron service, despite the lack of respect and rude
treatment we often get.