Helping People at the Computers

Hey Y'all,

   I was just working Express and a lady came in and asked if I could type up her document for her.  I told her that I could not be off the Express desk long enough to do that for her, but she assured me another lady working the desk had done it for her in the past.  I told her I would set her up on the word processor and have whoever was on the desk after me check over her document once she had typed it up.

   Whenever you do something for a patron on the computer that is going to take more than 15 minutes, you are robbing that patron of the opportunity to attend one of our classes and learn to do what they need for themselves.  You also create a dependence on the rest of the staff to do the same thing for the patron the next time he or she comes in.  If a patron is computer illiterate by all means help them, but make it clear we do not type up documents on a regular basis, we offer classes on how to do so, then provide them with our class schedule.

Thanks,

Craig