Birthday Wednesday is Back!

First it was Wednesday. Then it was Thursday. And now it's Wednesday again. These are crazy times we live in. But regardless of the day we celebrate, we all wish a very Happy Birthday to the staff born in January:

Christina (the 1st)

Natalie (the 22nd)

Annise (the 25th)

Catching Up with Caught in the Act

Here are your coworkers who were Caught in the Act last fall:

Jeff was caught in the act of being conscientious and generally awesome when he tried to ensure that someone had not been improperly charged. A patron wanted to check out a book he had found in the stacks when Workflows notified Jeff that the book had not been discharged. Jeff had the presence of mind to realize the patron who previously had the book might have gotten a late fee and brought his concerns to Christina. There is no better customer service than taking care of our patrons, and just doing the right thing.

Rachel was caught in the act of being indispensable. Rachel spent the fall as a reference assistant but had just come from a summer of filling in at the circulation desk, which meant there really wasn't anything she couldn't handle. She put those skills to work numerous times, never hesitating to step in when things got hectic, or to help problem solve when complications arose with the new reservation system, which she had more experience with than almost anybody else on staff. Having Rachel at the desk was like having another supervisor, and she made everybody's jobs easier. Thank you, Rachel!

Celeste was caught in the act of going out of her way many times to help a patron in a what turned out to be a customer service marathon. One evening last fall Celeste took a call from a patron who wanted to confirm that we had a certain book and that we could set it aside for him while he traveled from Indianapolis to pick it up. This began an Odyssey that included several phone calls, a trip out into the night to go find the patron when he had difficulty getting to Business/SPEA from the Wells library, and a tutorial on how to find an electronic copy of the book he wanted when our copy turned out to be the wrong edition. All throughout the evening Celeste dealt with the patron with seemingly inexhaustible patience and kindness -- a model of customer service if ever there was one.

Walt was caught in the act of updating the password page in the green book at the reference desk because it was badly needed. The page itself had a number of sometimes confusing handwritten updates that needed to be cleaned up and recorded in a brand new page. This is something that perhaps even the writer of this blog may have been meaning to do for quite a while but hadn't gotten to. Walt took it upon himself to do this unprompted by anyone else, simply because he noticed it needed to be done. Thank you, Walt!