Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Cover Pages for Patron Faxes
At some point, you are probably going to work in a place that allows patrons to use the fax machine for a small fee. This is a great service and very helpful to the homeless population in your library who want to harass "the Man." HOWEVER, you should NEVER NEVER NEVER allow them to fax unsupervised or without a cover sheet. Here's why:
A friend of mine is the director of a small county law library. She often works the reference desk in addition to her director duties. She called me yesterday to announce that from now on, all faxes sent from her library will include a cover sheet saying, "This fax and the opinions herein do not represent X Library or its staff. This is a personal fax being placed by a sender at X library."
"That's a good idea," I said. Then she told me why she had to make up that policy.
Last week, one of the regular crazies came in and asked to use the fax machine. Since he had the $$ to pay for the faxes, she couldn't deny him usage just because he's got more bats in his belfrey than Batman. So she agrees, takes his money, and then turns her back while he faxes to give him a bit of privacy.
That afternoon, she got a call from NASA. Yes, as in the agency that sends people into space. Seems the crazy man du jour had faxed a letter to NASA asking them to quit making it hail. He was tired of the noise and wanted them to reschedule the hail for later in the week when he would be out of town.
My friend was embarassed and explained the situation to the NASA person, who probably got a huge laugh out of it and now has that fax pinned to the employee bulletin board. Thus, from now on, all fax users have to use a cover sheet.
She and I speculated on how to make sure that someone sending a fax wasn't harassing people or telling the President about an immanent invasion of martians.
Moral of the Story: Always cover your ass and the ass of your library. You never know what your patrons will fax or to whom they will send it.
A friend of mine is the director of a small county law library. She often works the reference desk in addition to her director duties. She called me yesterday to announce that from now on, all faxes sent from her library will include a cover sheet saying, "This fax and the opinions herein do not represent X Library or its staff. This is a personal fax being placed by a sender at X library."
"That's a good idea," I said. Then she told me why she had to make up that policy.
Last week, one of the regular crazies came in and asked to use the fax machine. Since he had the $$ to pay for the faxes, she couldn't deny him usage just because he's got more bats in his belfrey than Batman. So she agrees, takes his money, and then turns her back while he faxes to give him a bit of privacy.
That afternoon, she got a call from NASA. Yes, as in the agency that sends people into space. Seems the crazy man du jour had faxed a letter to NASA asking them to quit making it hail. He was tired of the noise and wanted them to reschedule the hail for later in the week when he would be out of town.
My friend was embarassed and explained the situation to the NASA person, who probably got a huge laugh out of it and now has that fax pinned to the employee bulletin board. Thus, from now on, all fax users have to use a cover sheet.
She and I speculated on how to make sure that someone sending a fax wasn't harassing people or telling the President about an immanent invasion of martians.
Moral of the Story: Always cover your ass and the ass of your library. You never know what your patrons will fax or to whom they will send it.
