Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Condescenscion is when you talk down to someone

A very nice and intelligent girl of about 11 or so came up looking for books on several topics. What we owned seemed to be either for younger children or checked out. After exhausting several topics with disappointing results, she asked if we had anything by or about Martin Luther King, Jr. Sadly, with the recent holiday, pretty much everything was out except for a few little kid picture books. I could tell that my patron was not that impressed with our little library, even after I reminded her about the recent holiday. I hate not having something and was offering the usual menu of choices like copies of an encyclopedia article, prints from a biographical database and holds on a multitude of biographies at other libraries in the system. She thought about it for a moment and then offered to spell King's name for me, in case I typed it in wrong. Thanks, kid.

1 comment:

Dances With Keyboards said...

How come when a patron's name is "Smith," (traditional spelling), they go out of their way to spell it, as if you've just learned your letters? Then the guy whose name is six syllables with about 5 silent letters, he MUMBLES his name and waits for you to miraculously get it right?