Books, Libraries and Customer Service

I love books, my husband love books. My boys love books. We are a book lovin' family, it's a fact.

Yet I totally have a love/hate relationship with the library.

I love that I can read all sorts of books without having to buy them. Claudio and I have a lot of books already and we just don't have any more space on our bookshelves. I love that the boys can pick out lots of Fly Guy, Spider Man and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus books and when I'm sick of reading the same ones over and over I can just return them and get some different Fly Guy, Spider Man or Pigeon books.

But I hate that I constantly have to pay late fees. The last time I went to the library it cost me $15 in late fees, ugh! This is my fault though, I should be more organized *sigh*.

The second part I hate is specific to the library closest to my house. They have a self-checkout system in place which doesn't work half the time. It is so aggravating when you're at the check-out, Lemon Boy wants to do the checking out but it's not working, Googa is screaming because he wants his Fly Guy book but I can't give it to him because it just.won't.check.out and of course there is not a staff member in view! This has happened almost every time we've gone since this library has opened and has definitely made an impact on my desire to visit this fine establishment.

After the last visit I was so fed up I finally wrote them an email, not really expecting anything except the standard "we're sorry your having trouble, please speak to one of the librarians the next time you're in and they'll give you a lesson on how to use the self check-outs" form letter type email back. Imagine my astonishment when the manager of this particular branch actually wrote me back himself, personally and admitted that they are aware the machines don't always work properly, they are actively trying to fix the problem and he will speak to the staff again about monitoring the self-checkout so they can help people when they don't work. He said he totally understood my frustration but to please be patient and give them a chance to fix the system.

That email didn't fix the self check-outs, in fact, it didn't actually change anything about the library but it sure changed my opinion of said library. Amazing how a little customer service goes a long way.

Now off to the library for another round of Pigeon books. Seriously, if you've never read this book or another one of them (there's a whole Pigeon series) pick one up at the library today or check it out here.

Happy Tuesday folks!