[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Friday Funny Tidbits



Having used customer survey forms in my former life in retail management, I
quickly learned that you have to allow for those odd folks that are utterly
beyond your ability to please. A category like "Unable to Help" might
suffice. With the oddballs off in a category of their own, the rest of the
results become more meaningful because they actually describe your ability
to help people who can be helped.

It's kind of like being dissatisfied with a search engine because it doesn't
recognize what you tell it to search for, however reasonable your entries
may be.

I remember one call I got a few months before making the jump into archives.
A lady got quite upset with me that our surveying and drafting equipment
store didn't carry bone folders. None of our wholesalers carried them. None
of us had ever even heard of bone folders. But she believed the person who
told her we had them instead of us who worked there, for 17 years in my
case. Little did I know that I would be working with bone folders in a few
short months!

Back to work . . .

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@wcnet.org
http://www.bigtoy.com


Dean DeBolt wrote:

> 3.   Akklad's diatribe about archivists at BPL not giving him the correct
> information reminds me how often I get patrons who are rabidly insistent
> that we have something in our collection because the "friend of a friend
> of a cousin whose son once used your library" told me you had it!
> Sometimes these are TRUE but it takes some digging in pre-computer typed
> inventories ...and somtimes these are PARTLY TRUE, where the information
> has gotten twisted during the game of "telephone."    I once used forms
> for people to evaluate whether we had served them.   Many of them said
> "no" which was interpreted negatively on our service....but under what
> they were looking for were such notations as "microfilm of Czechoslovakian
> archives" and "motorcycle repair manuals." Obviously I no longer use the
> forms.    I keep wondering how many comment cards come into restaurants so
> dissatisfied because the Mexican restaurant did not serve egg rolls.
>
> Dean
> Dean DeBolt
> University Librarian
> Special Collections and West Florida Archives
> John C. Pace Library
> University of West Florida
> 11000 University Parkway
> Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
> Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
>      http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>