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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

WIBU in the public library?

195 replies

NatureIsAWhore · 16/05/2017 12:21

I was using the computer in the local public library, I have a membership card.

A man came in and I overheard his conversation at the desk about needing to use a computer quickly to send some funds as his van had broken down, we're in a village so no banks. He wasn't from the area and didn't have a membership of the relevant documents for getting one (local household bill etc). He offered to pay just for 5 minutes use. He seemed pretty desperate. But the lady at the desk said that he couldn't as it's for members only.
They were both polite, but I could tell that the guy was frustrated. As I would be, stuck in a village and no wifi, needing to do something which would help his situation but was unable to do so.

So I called over and offered him to use my account for 5 minutes. He was very grateful, and still offered to pay. He sorted whatever he needed to do and then said thanks lots & left.

Then the lady came over to me and told me that I had breached to t&ts of becoming a member and that she would have to forefit my account!!

I now can't use my library because I did a nice thing!

WIBU to offer? i it that bad? Or was she being a jobs worth?

OP posts:

Bumbumtaloo · 16/05/2017 16:01

Wow, I'm quite surprised reading this thread. Where I live guests can use the computer for up to an hour without giving any information at all.

I have had to use the computer in various towns and viallages within the county and never had a problem at all - we don't have a computer and printer at home, have always popped along to print stuff out for 20p per sheet.

I wrongly assumed this was the case everywhere.

In saying all of the above OP I can see where the librarian was coming from but maybe she could have given you a warning.

Badbadbunny · 16/05/2017 16:05

Would this have been an issue if the OP had spoken to the guy outside and they went in together? Would the librarian have asked for ID of someone accompanying another to use library facilities???

LadySalmakia · 16/05/2017 16:12

Just to clarify I don't think the policy is wrong and I don't think the OP was unreasonable to offer - but the library assistant should have stopped the guy from using her account and warned her about why. Really bad service from that assistant.

MyWhatICallNameChange · 16/05/2017 16:21

At our local library you can get 5 minutes free if you're not a member. I've used it plenty of times to print stuff off.

Why the hell would be want to use the library to download illegal pornography or hack stuff. In 5 minutes! He must be a pretty decent hacker I would have thought.

I don't think YWBU OP, although I wouldn't have done it, but only because I don't like talking to people!

Anyway, I managed to rejoin the library after I owed them lots of money in lost books from my teenage years by getting married and moving house. You will have to do the same.

ElinorRigby · 16/05/2017 16:29

One of the difficult things about being a badly paid library assistant in an understaffed library is managing confrontation.

It can be quite difficult if

A: Someone who has just come in wants to use the computer and you explain that he doesn't have sufficient ID for you to join him up as a Guest/Temporary Member but he is reluctant to accept his.

However you have just managed to get him to accept the situation when

B: Another library user says, 'Oh don't mind about her and the policies. I'm saying you can use my compute.'

If you then say, to the library user and the visitor, 'No, no you can't. I'm not letting you do this and what's more I'm cutting off the library user's computer session right now,' before you know it, you have blazing row on your hands, there's a queue of customers waiting to be served, and the toddler group in the next room is getting disturbed by the shouting.

Your only colleague is likely to be tied up with some complicated enquiry with a vulnerable service user, and unable to immediately come and back you up...

Badbadbunny · 16/05/2017 16:30

badly paid library assistant

What does how much you're paid have to do with it?

NotISaidTheWalrus · 16/05/2017 16:35

It's annoyed me and has ruined me for ever wanting to do something nice for anyone again

You're easily put off from being a normal human being, aren't you?

BollardDodger · 16/05/2017 16:43

Your only colleague is likely to be tied up with some complicated enquiry with a vulnerable service user, and unable to immediately come and back you up...
Back you up who do they work for - the LAPD?

ElinorRigby · 16/05/2017 16:44

Being badly paid adds to the feeling of not being valued. You are not valued by member of the public or by the local authority that employs you.

You are delivering a frontline service at a time when many other frontline services - neighbourhood offices, police stations, benefit offices have closed their doors and only deal with online/phone enquiries. So the amount of work you do, and the vulnerability of the people you work with increases, while the real value of your takehome pay diminishes.

Many customers are aggressive.You are the target of aggression from people who feel they know better than you, and who believe they can get what they want by arguing or shouting or trying to get round you in some other way.

It's a stressful and badly paid job, which people do because they believe that libraries are valuable.

It's not brilliant when customers do their best to undermine you...

ElinorRigby · 16/05/2017 16:46

I've had customers coming in asking me how to contact Dignitas for example.

Customers who have come in asking for housing advice, who have nowhere to sleep that night.

People who come in who need to use the computers to claim a Hardship Payment because their benefits have been sanctioned, and they have no money for essentials.

BollardDodger · 16/05/2017 16:48

It's not brilliant when customers do their best to undermine you...
I don't think the OP intended to undermine the vitally important public service employee. The OP was just trying to help a vulnerable member of society. I'm sure if the OP had realised at the time, she wouldn't have offered assistance to the person, as she has unwittingly assisted some major criminal in their activities.

gamerwidow · 16/05/2017 16:48

Yabu they require all users to have a unique log in for their activity to ensure any illegal activity can be traced back to a specific user.
It's not her fault she has to follow the information governance rules of the organisation.
What do you really know about what he did under your login?

Mulledwine1 · 16/05/2017 17:21

In a previous life I worked in a library and this library assistant was a jobs-worth. You work in a library because you want to be helpful Yes you have rules, but they can be bent on occasion.

It is not that easy to join a library in some areas because there are quite draconian ID requirements, and some also insist that you live and/or work in their area (which can be an issue if you live in a border county area). So if you are not a member there needs to be a way for a non-member to use a PC.

Not quite the same, but related: sometimes people were using the library PCs and had difficulty printing documents for whatever reason. We would get them to email the documents to the library account and we'd generally be able to print them for them. We'd then purge the document from the library account, assuming it was something confidential.

Public libraries are a tax-payer-funded resource (and a disappearing one). Library staff need to understand what side their bread is buttered on, and that they are there to help where possible. If a customer effectively does their job for them, they should be thinking about what they could have done to help, not having a go at the customer who did help.

And those of you who are saying he could have done something illegal. Unlikely, as library computers generally have quite strict access restrictions. No chance of accessing porn. I guess if you get into your bank account you could potentially be money laundering, but that will be recorded on the person's bank account, not the OP's library account.

TheStoatIsStoatallyDifferent · 16/05/2017 17:58

Mulledwine you can access porn in a library. My sister manages one and has a repeat offender she has to deal with on a regular basis.

Badbadbunny · 16/05/2017 18:29

Being badly paid adds to the feeling of not being valued.

How is that different to any number of minimum wage jobs such as retail, hospitality, etc., where likewise you have to deal with difficult customers?

JudeeLevinson · 16/05/2017 18:38

Library staff need to understand what side their bread is buttered on
I need to tell that to my friend who earns £15k a year and has to make nice with a customer who has been convicted of downloading 28,000 images of child abuse and comes in at baby and toddler dress-up hour. Ho ho, she'll frigging love that.

angryladyboobs · 16/05/2017 18:39

She's a dick. You were being nice.

ElinorRigby · 16/05/2017 18:41

I think retail/hospitality is more straightforward commercial/customer care.

The mixture of helping customers access information, giving IT support, dealing with the people with people who have complex social needs and are coming in because libraries are free spaces makes it rather different. Sometimes more complicated.

In some ways think it's a bit more like working for the NHS. Working for a place that's underfunded, where there are fewer and fewer resources with which to deal with ever-increasing need.

This is what it's like in an urban area, at any rate.

NotISaidTheWalrus · 16/05/2017 18:43

Library staff need to understand what side their bread is buttered on

Library staff need to follow the rules of their job, same as the rest of us.

Jux · 16/05/2017 18:50

I bet they do have a provision for emergency use, she just couldn't be bothered with it. She was obviously having a bad day and took it out on you!

MyKingdomForBrie · 16/05/2017 18:50

Can't believe all the miserable unhelpful sods on here 'ooh he might have accessed illegal material on your account' yes because of course he's going to do that in a library for five minutes with a story about a breakdown having offered to sign up and pay..

Christ.

OP YANBU at all and I wish there were more people in the world who just feel humane about the rest of us.

Andylion · 16/05/2017 18:58

There are reasons why you cannot use other people's accounts. There are guest passes available for a reason.

Exactly. At our library, (academic library, not in the UK), there is no charge, unless you want to print. You need photo ID and an email address. One of my coworkers got in trouble for helping a member of the public set up an email account. Now we send people to the public library a five minute walk away. (They come to us because of our e-resources, journals, etc.)

onceandneveragain · 16/05/2017 19:01

Just piping up to say that I've also seen people watching porn on library computers. In two different counties, and quite recently.

Also while I can see both POV it's very evident from the posters weighing in on the jobsworth librarian that they've never had to implement a stupid rule they don't agree with created by somebody who'd never done the job.

If my job was already at risk from constant cuts I wouldn't risk it further to help someone out if it wasn't an emergency, no matter how bad I felt.

Bollarddodger your comment re: 'back you up,' was unnecessarily wanky. It's a very commonly used phrase and surely everyone understood what the poster meant by it

EduCated · 16/05/2017 19:02

Lovely, explaining the reasoning behind it makes me a 'miserable unhelpful sod'

You might disagree with the rules, or think they're stupid (heck, I might even), but the rules are there and there for a reason. By all means challenge them, but do so with those who have the ability to change them.

Given the vehement defence of cashiers who refuse to sell alcohol to adults because their 12 year child is with them on other threads,, because those are the rules/it's not their fault the rules are there, I'm surprised that the librarian following the rules here is apparently an inhumane jobsworth.

ElinorRigby · 16/05/2017 19:03

There's nothing to stop compassionate individuals lending someone in distress their mobile phone to do a little internet banking...

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