Not So Book-Smart

(I am waiting in line to get coffee when I hear two girls talking behind me. Note that I have been employed by the college library for four years.)

Girl #1: “Ugh, I have to check out a book from the library. How do you even do that?”

Me: *thinking* “Like they taught you during orientation?”

Girl #1: “I wouldn’t even know how to find a book.”

Girl #2: “You can ask at the desk and they’ll tell you where to find it.”

Girl #1: “Ugh, that’s so much work. Can’t they do it for me? Isn’t that, like, their job?”

(No, that’s not our job. We will tell you how to look up a book and where to find it, and help you if you can’t find it, but it’s not our job to look up, find, and retrieve your books for you. That’s why they’re called ‘open stacks.’)