If I Killed Someone, Would You Blame Me?

There has been an unprecedented amount of rudeness in the library this week. What's up?!

Being Barked At
The week started with a well-dressed woman poking her head in on a day when we were closed and yelling in a loud voice "sales catalogs?!" (I'm sitting at a desk approximately 15 feet away.) How do respond to something like this? I say, "excuse me?" to which she yells even louder, "sales catalogs?!"

I then go out on a limb and infer that she either wants to give us some sales catalogs or wants to know if we have sales catalogs. (Sales catalogs by the way are what some people call auction catalogs - like those of Sotheby's and Christie's.) I ask "are you looking for sales catalogs?" and she says, "No! I'm asking if you accept sales catalogs for donations!!" I want to say "then f%$&ing say that!," but I'm afraid this is a board member and have to tread lightly.

After a number of exchanges, I finally understand that she has a ton of auction catalogs she wants to donate to us and I finally make her understand which auction house catalogs we accept and that I'm going to sell what we don't need or already have. She is happy and leaves. I'm left red-faced with elevated blood pressure.

What Would You Like Me To Do?
We have an exhibition coming up on a well-known 20th century artist. We have a lot of tours happening and the docents are crazy to get their hands on anything and everything about the artist. I'm glad they're interested, but...

Before I continue, let me explain how this all works: I have a small book budget each year to buy books for the general collection. These books are available for staff check-out only, but anyone, including docents, can look at them and make photocopies, etc. We have two docent libraries containing thousands of books they CAN check out. However, I do not have a book budget for docent collections. Any books they want to buy are the responsibility of another department. They know this. They are told this repeatedly. This year, my book budget for the general collection was cut by 80%! (Not an exaggeration). So, if I couldn't buy whatever I wanted before, I REALLY can't buy whatever I want now. No amount of begging, pleading, brow-beating, bullying or threatening me will change that. (And, for the record, our docent libraries [yeah, that's right, there are two] are far better and bigger than most other museum libraries' of our size. It's not like I have a track record of being stingy. AND... one of the docent libraries currently has 25 books on the artist of this upcoming exhibition!!)

Now, back to the story... I have bent over backwards to provide what I can to the docents for this exhibition. I've finagled books from curators, done deals with the shop and exchanged publications with other institutions to get books on this artist for both staff and docents. And mind you, this isn't the only exhibition we have going on!

People are coming in and getting physically angry when either A. we don't have a book they want or B. we do have a book, but only one or two copies, and they're checked out. I have explained over and over and over again to people the situation. No one listens. I explain that they should ask this other department to purchase these books. They say "they don't have any budget either." So.... what does that mean.... come on, you can figure it out... come on... It means: NO ONE has any money for this!!! I often remind them that we are in the midst of two spectacular public library systems who will gladly loan them these books. Also, if they're that interested, they might consider buying their own copy so they can make notes.

To most inquiries I explain politely, "my book budget was cut and I've done my best to get what I could." Most of their responses are somewhere along the lines of: "it's absolutely ridiculous that you won't get this." Really.

I am not typically an angry or defensive person (at least I try not to be), but this week has pushed me to my limit.

By the way, people are STILL asking me how my month-long vacation in August was. Sheesh.