Lower Level Desk

1. While you're sitting behind the lower level desk, Patron P barks at you, "We don't have this journal! I need it! Is there another library around here where I can get at this thing?" What do you do?

2. Patron Q reports that a recent issue of Time is not on the shelf upstairs, but you can't find it on the bound shelves or on the re-shelving carts! Would you be able to help Q out? If you think you could, what steps would you go through to locate the issue?

3. You arrive at the library for a mid-afternoon shift on the lower level. Describe the motions you go through from the time you walk in the door to the time you sit yourself down behind the desk.

4. Patron X wants to know how to find "This real cool article I saw about Stealth Bombers in Aviation Week about a month--no, wait--about a month and a half ago"; or, alternatively, Patron Y wants some general articles on heating and cooking stoves which are fueled by shovelfuls of corn mush. What do you respond to X? And what to Y?

5. Describe the processes you would go through to open and to close the lower level.(Hint: Closing is not merely Opening in reverse...)

6. Here are two situations. Describe how you would handle them.
a) Patron H is hostile: red-faced, she shouts, she rants, she raves; you see, you have just informed her that our subscription to Cricket has been canceled....

b) Patron W wanders the lower level. Five times, six times, seven times, he circles the perimeter; you catch fleeting glimpses of him speeding through the stacks; he is seen lounging near the water fountain and paging through an (upside down) volume of the Journal of Bacteriology.

7. Patron E asks you where she might find the microfiche. What do you do?

Equipment

8. Patron K reports that the microfilm printer she is working at won't print. You follow her into the microform room, and see she is working at the MS 6000. What can you do? What if she's working at the MS 2000?

9. Patron L reports that Ricoh copies are coming out too light. How would you locate the problem and how would you proceed (fearlessly) to resolve it?

10. Patron Epsilon comments that the copies he's getting from the MS 6000 have really small print; and he can't read them. What can you do about it?

11. Friday night, 9:30 P.M. The lower level is empty except for you and patron N, who has brought to your attention a baffling equipment problem. You've racked your brains but just can't figure it out. What do you do now?

Phone System

12. How would you transfer an incoming call at Dani's phone down to the lower level, where the genius who can answer the caller's consternating questions sits bored and biting her nails? (Helpful mnemonic device: Think NiTroglycerine!)

13. You receive a call at the lower level desk: it's good old patron K, wanting to know when the library is going to be open this coming weekend. How are you going to help K out?

Upstairs

14. You are preparing a certain issue of Sports Illustrated for binding and notice that all the titillating bits have been ripped out. What do you do?

15. a) You sit down to check an issue in and notice that the journal isn't even on Millennium! What do you do?

b) "Silly me," you say to yourself, "It's there, I just misspelled it!" Elated, you proceed to check it in, but now you notice that it doesn't quite match the check-in prediction exactly... Whatever can you do?

16) You are checking in an issue of Shape and notice that Millennium indicates that that particular issue has already been checked in. Describe your actions from the time you make this discovery to the moment of the problem's (blissful) solution.