I have had a love for libraries since a tender age. I fostered that same love into my children, who've each had library cards since before they started school.
The other day I returned some items to my local library via their new 'automated' check-in system. It consists of a conveyor belt and a computer screen by which you individually return each item, and it gets subsequently routed to the proper channels for redistribution within the library.
Well.....one of the items I returned was showing as unreturned on the library's website when I went home to double-check my account. I called the library and spoke to the circulations desk chick. She claimed it was nowhere to be found and asked me if I'd had my receipt available. This automated return machine asks you, after you've submitted all your returns, if you'd like a receipt. Most recently, I've chosen 'NO' because I see it as a waste of paper......in other words, I'm trusting that my library has received my items. Big Mistake, as it turns out.
After 3 days of calling and going into my library, I was told they could not find the item and that I'd be charged late fees and/or lost fees as a result. The price of buying the item they'd assumed I had kept would've been around $40. The librarian at the desk today told me I could wait till 'Amnesty Week', which begins on April 11th, and only have to pay $9 for the item. I wasn't satisfied with that, as I didn't HAVE the item and had returned it 3 days prior to it being due. I was instructed to call the manager.
I did. She knows who I am....as do most of the library employees there.....because I've been patronizing that library since 1977. The 'manager' remembers me from when my son and daughter were small and I'd bring them in. I guess you could say I have 'street cred'. Whatever. I'm innocent, nonetheless.
The phone call to the manager today was infinitely gracious and she gave me an example of what has most likely happened: The DVD, being a multiple disc and also having a hold request on it, was probably straight up put into the request box and sent off to the library location the requestor had stated.......without clearing it from my account first. She took it off my account, graciously. I explained to her that, even though I did not have the item, I'd pay the fine simply to get the whole mess off my account. The library means THAT MUCH to me that I'd take the fall for someone else's fuck-up.
Happy ending. I can only hope the flunkie in charge of distribution at the other end of that machine gets reprimanded. Don't threaten my library priviledges.......you won't be happy with my reaction.
