I wrote somewhere else that I was giving up sarcasm for Lent, but on reflection that's clearly not going to work. Instead, I might try giving up booze... on weekdays. Don't want to go crazy with the self-denial after all.

Thought for the Day today was all about how Lent isn't about giving things up in order to achieve perfect wordly health and well-being, but about remembering our own mortality. Hence the ashes on the head - that's how we'll all end up, matey. There may be a good time for waxing lyrical about how everything's decaying and how we're all going to be just so many piles of dust in the cosmic equivalent of two ticks, but I'm pretty sure that 7.45 on a Thursday morning is not it.

Tags: Lent

17:16

. . .

So, how do you get the right balance between responding to user needs and sticking to policy? I just had the following conversation with a student (who has been here a while now and already knows that we don't do a lending service):

Student: can I take this film home?
Me: no, you can only watch the films here I'm afraid.
Student: I can't take it just for one night?
Me: no, sorry. You could check to see if the library has it.
Student: they don't have it. It's the film of the book I'm reading.
Me: yes. You could come and watch it here this afternoon?
Student: I want to watch it in the evening.
Me: no, sorry, you'll have to make the time to watch it here.
Student: please? Just one night.
Me: no. What about a video rental shop?
Student: hhrrm... no. I would bring it back tomorrow.
Me: no!
Student: my host family said we would all sit down and watch it together if I brought it home.
Me: [trying not to weaken] aw. But sorry, no. I'm sure the family have a video shop membership, maybe you can go and get it together?

I wonder what John Lubans would make of the above exchange. There's an article on his site that I quote in my dissertation - the one about 'saving the time of the user' - which suggests that he might tell me I was wrong, that giving the user a good experience trumps the 'no lending' policy in this case. Though maybe not. I do agree that we have some policies in which we don't really believe, and which we can't really justify, and in those cases we should be changing the policy, not punishing the user. But the reason we don't lend things is because we don't have an automated circulation system or any security tagging so things would go missing for sure, and the resources are too much in demand in any case. I have broken the rule a few times, for students in special circumstances, but I really don't think this should have been one of those times. The student was just pushing his luck, because he knows I'm nice. But you can't afford to be too nice, otherwise nobody believes you when you DO have to be firm and you spend half your days having circular conversations like the one above. I WANT to be responsive and help students and everything, I really do. They're not the enemy. But they're not my friends either, and I can't work if I'm doing them favours all the time.

Tags: work gripes libraries user-centredness

15:53

. . .