Thursday, February 28, 2008

The "Little" Mistakes

Last night we realized, too late, that we had forgotten to order a black ink cartridge for the printer. This was the MAIN printer for the building (the one that does the fancy stuff, like print instantaneously, print in color, etc). The staff, fortunately, was able to use another printer - but the public was not. Oops.

Don't you love those moments, the ones that make you look so great in the eyes of the public (?!). We all have them, because we're all human and we're all going to make mistakes. It's true, too, that many of us are too busy thinking about the obviously big aspects of our work (like answering reference questions and planning programs) to remember that the ink cartridges have to be replaced. In this case, the staff member who replaced the cartridge the last time didn't realize that he was using the last one, or he would have informed the staff member who is responsible for ordering supplies (or perhaps he became so occupied with assisting the public that he simply forgot).

But the fact that this happens to all of us doesn't ease the discomfort when it does happen, because we know that we've disappointed our patrons. We can't provide them with a service that they had assumed they would have when they drove to the library. We appear negligent and careless, less than professional (to say the least).

So how do we save ourselves, our reputations? By being apologetic and courteous when we have made mistakes. By being professional the rest of the time, when our printers are filled with fresh ink and ready to run. And when we do both, our patrons are calm and understanding. Like they were last night.