(no subject)

[darchildre]

We have two new staff members at my library - they started a couple weeks ago. They're both lovely, but they have both done the same inexplicable thing and I just don't understand it.

So, we have a bunch of bookcarts. We keep a few by the check in desk in the backroom, and the rest of them, full or empty, go out on the main library floor in designated spots. When you fill up one of the carts by the check in desk, you find an empty cart in the relevant area of the library, replace it with your full cart, and then take the empty cart back to the check in desk. The full cart stays on the floor to be shelved, whereupon it is an empty cart. Simple and logical, right?

Both of our new employees have had this explained to them. They've had it demonstrated to them while they were shadowing me doing check in - I've walked them out with a full cart, shown them where the empty carts are, done the swap, and walked them back to the check in desk with a new cart. And yet, both of them have taken full carts out to the floor, grabbed an empty cart to take back, and left the full cart in a random place that is not at all the spot they got the empty cart from! This is a thing I have had to explain and demonstrate to both of them multiple times!

I don't understand where this confusion is coming from and it is just boggling to me.

Comments

[james]

You might have to make a taped square (rectangle) on the floor that says "cart goes here". Because yeah, telling someone that the carts have designated places they belong clearly has not registered.

[darchildre]

God, I would love to. Alas, no tape on the floors where the patrons can see.

[silveradept]

Are they people who assume they're going to end up shelving the full carts they've just created? Because I could be laxer about "cart goes here" if I knew I was going to turn around and reshelve it later.

[darchildre]

Sure, but you're presumably already familiar with the rules/processes/workflows at your library, right? So you know which of them can be bent or changed for your convenience without impacting someone else. Whereas these folks are brand new both to my branch and to working at libraries in general - their job right now is to learn those rules/processes/workflows.

I find this repeated disconnect confusing but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's either something I've communicated in an unclear manner, or that they're overwhelmed by all the new stuff they have to learn and some things get forgotten. I wouldn't like to think that they deliberately ignored my instructions because they think they know better - that paints them in a bad light.

[silveradept]

True. You need to learn the rules before you decide they're stupid and break them. (I am definitely the kind of person who will ignore stupid rules until someone can explain to me why they're not stupid, but I will at least try to learn them and do things by those rules before determining they're stupid.)

[corvidology]

I'm always amazed how much some people struggle with spatial relations.

[frenchroast]

It makes sense, but I've grown used to people never understanding how to properly put book carts where they go. It is a constant struggle where I work, and everyone's been here for years. Last year, we got 3 new carts, bright red (thus obviously different from all the other carts, which are beige) for our Stacks people, because they kept taking so many of ours at a time that sometimes we didn't have enough.

Well, their new carts routinely end up mixed into the area designated for the Cataloging carts. Despite Stacks having their own area for their carts, and the carts being a completely different color, AND not marked with "CAT" like the cataloging carts. Yet they will still take our carts and leave theirs (new!shiny!NOTSQUEAKY!WHY.AREN'T.THEY.USING.THEM??) in our area.

It is very frustrating.