Overboard, much?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The library I use is in this big, spacious, modern building. They have a good selection, a nice big room just for the little kids complete with chairs, tables and a computer to search the catalog at little kid height.

But their system seems a little wacky.

I use the self check out kiosks like every one else. Last time I checked out a book it popped up a message stating some of the pages were “wavy” from water damage. It was like three or five pages in total, no big deal and didn’t make it hard to read the book.

Well, I turned the books I had out back in, gathered some more books, and went to check out. When I scanned my card I got this.

My Name
THIS ACCOUNT IS TEMPRORARILY SUSPENDED

:confused:

I had turned all of my books in on time, had never had a late fee, and for the life of me couldn’t figure out why my account would be suspended. I go up to the librarian and ask her to see why it is suspended. She scans my card, goes to the back and comes back with the wavy book. She tells me its because of water damage. I tell her what the computer told me when I checked out the last time. She confirms it is in the system that book had prior damage and to just tell them whenever it happens again.

  1. It was already in the system, so why did it suspend my account? and 2. Why suspend an account for barely visible damage?

The “damage” isn’t even visible unless you open the book and look through it. Seems a little bit like overkill to me.

2

Former librarian here (now retired). My guess is that your library’s system contains a note field that allows staff members to record damage to a book when it’s returned. It’s up to staffers to decide whether observed damage is worth making a note about. I probably wouldn’t have even blinked at a few wavy pages (I’ve seen much worse), but that’s a judgment call. In any case, making a note of damage is generally considered a Good Thing, because it means that later borrowers won’t be blamed for the damage.

That brings us to the temporary suspension of your card. I don’t know the details of your library’s system, but that sounds like a error; I can’t think of any scenario in which this is desirable behavior.

Most library systems allow “check for something-or-other”-type alerts that tell circulation staff to look for something before checking in an item when it’s returned. For example, if you return an audiobook with 10 discs, an alert will pop up telling the staffer to verify that all 10 discs are present before discharging the item. If something is missing, then something else happens (maybe the borrower is notified, or the account is locked—this is probably locally configurable). My WAG is that somebody at the library screwed up and put the note about the wavy pages into the “check/alert” field.