[PW] Thank you gifts

[Marian Drabkin]

The gift that may have meant the most to me -- other than the handful of 
flowers picked from our volunteer-tended border by a kindergarten kid, and 
handed to me in a very wilted condition with a huge smile -- came from a 
mentally ill patron.
He lived in a residential care facility and came to the library every day to 
read magazines and sit in a comfortable chair in a safe environment.  I 
answered a simple reference question for him about
baseball history, and the next day he came in with a tattered, dog-eared, 
but very precious copy of a poetry chapbook
of poems he had written when he was young, before his illness took away his 
creative abilities.  He insisted on giving me the chapbook.  I still have 
it. This was at the Dimond branch of the Oakland Public Library.

Marian Drabkin

----- Original Message ----- 
________________________________
>
> From: Nancy Jo Leachman
> Sent: Wed 4/9/2008 11:26 AM
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Thank you gifts
>
>
> This is for me.
>
> Inspired by some stories we were telling in the staff room the other day, 
> I've decided to compile a list of presents reference librarians have 
> received to thank them for help with a question, or some kind of service. 
> I'd love it if you sent me your stories. You can send them off list, and I 
> will compile them and share the compilation with anyone who'd like a copy.
>
> I'm sure many of us have had people try to tip us. I'm not interest so 
> much in that.  And I wasn't thinking of things like cookies for the dept. 
> at Christmas. I'm going for unique.
>
> Here's a personal example.  I had a patron who was fired-on-the-spot for 
> failing a drug test. She tested positive for meth.  She tried to explain 
> that she was on a prescription drug for a respiratory ailment, but they 
> wouldn't listen.  She called the ref desk and I found a site that 
> mentioned the exact drug she was taking and it said that it could cause 
> false positives for meth.  She took the print-out back to work, threatened 
> a law-suit, and was re-hired on the spot. She sent me flowers that 
> afternoon.  Recently a patron walked in with a milk shake f(rom the Dairy 
> Queen across the street) for a staffer for getting some hard-to-find books 
> on ILL.(We've been watching for that same patron ever since and will 
> probably fight over who gets to help her next time:)
>
> If you send me a story, I will put it in the compilation. So if you don't 
> want it shared, don't send it.  Thanks in advance. I think this will be 
> great fun.
>
>
>
> Nancy Jo Leachman
> Salina Public Library
> 301 W. Elm
> Salina, KS 67401
>
> 785 825-4624
> _______________________________________________
> Project Wombat
> list at project-wombat.org
> http://www.project-wombat.org/