Pet peeve

I'm sure this annoys anyone who deals with the public on any level. We close at 6:00pm on Mondays.

I watched the patron exit the elevator onto the floor at 5:45pm. He made a point to walk around the reference desk. At 5:55pm, just as the closing announcement was being broadcast, the patron approached the reference desk. He asked if I would help him find a book. I said, "You just had to wait until 5 minutes before closing?" He replied, "I thought I could find it on my own."

I look up the call number for the book, and it's a reference book. I informed the patron that he wouldn't be able to check that book out, but I told his where it was located. He then asked me to look up another book. That book was one that he could checkout. I took him to the shelf and handed him the book. I informed him that he needed to hurry up, if he intended to check the book out. He decided to browse the book. I then watched him return the book to the shelf at 5:59pm, and select another book.

He was looking for books on the occult. This happens to be the my order area. There is a high theft rate for books on that subject. The bulk of the books have been made reference because of this.