Friday, August 8, 2008

Patron Calls Library While Appliance Shopping; Road Repairs; and a Bear Wearing a Hardhat

This morning a BHPL patron called the Reference Desk from a local appliance store asking if we could find a review of a washing machine she was looking at. She told us that the item was not reviewed in Consumer Reports which the store had on hand. We found two customer reviews in http://www.epionions.com/ and read them to her over the phone. Usually we search EBSCO periodical database for reviews in other periodicals when Consumer Reports does not have a review, but since time was of the essence, the internet seemed the way to go for this question.
We have been receiving more questions by phone since the road in front of the library is being repaved. Surprisingly, roadblocks have not deterred many intrepid BHPL patrons. I'm not advocating barreling through roadblocks to get a good book, but it does make us feel needed and provides anecdotal evidence of how valued library services are to people.
Re: roadblocks, Union County has a really cute webpage called Road Construction Update hosted by U.C. Bear, a hardhat-wearing cartoon bear. Just click on the little road cone on the county map to find out the status of any specific road project. Who would have thunk? Road repairs are inconvenient but U.C. Bear makes them bearable. (aargh.)

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