of mouse balls and such

[Wilton Library, Sandra Clockedile]

Years ago I worked with someone who couldn't do her own photocopying.  In
fact, she couldn't even be near the photocopier when someone else was using
it.  It would just stop.  A couple years ago we had a computer in the
children's section that would freeze almost every time one of the assistants
took over at the desk.  It worked fine for everyone else, and their
secondary circ PC worked fine for her.  Replacing the PC eventually solved
the problem completely, but I still wonder....

I have to say, though, that most of this "witchy" behavior can often be
explained.  Like the librarian whose laser scanner won't work except when
I'm there -- my presence simply makes her more conscious of how she's using
it (I'll take a less finicky CCD scanner any day).  The patron who complains
our Internet PCs are "crap" can usually be seen clicking hyperlinks after
hyperlink before the computer has had a chance to load half the current
page -- try that a few times and see if it doesn't crash the browser
(explaining this to him merely invites more invective about our machines --
perhaps they ARE responding to him).  After the better part of a day trying
to figure out why one of our circ PCs froze whenever one of the assistants
checked in a book with hold on it, I finally discovered that she wasn't
responding to the system's request for an acknowledgement of the hold (she
"thought that step was stupid").

Sandy (whose mother is one of those who stops watches -- I've seen it
happen)

PS. Graphical interfaces (yes, even ones that translate horizontal movement
to a vertical plane) ARE intuitive to a generation that grew up on video
games (the generation that happens to be designing computer interfaces).
How do you think we managed to kill all those space invaders and help PacMan
escape the monsters?  It came as quite a revelation to me when I discovered
that the whole desktop/icon/mouse "thing" was confusing to people, though
I'll take a command prompt any day.
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Sandra Clockedile
Systems/Reference
Wilton Library Association
wla at ct2.nai.net
http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/
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