The Secret Shopper

Well, I must say my experience with secret shopping belongs in the R.A. hall of shame. I went to my hometown library where I have not been for a long time to see how things are progressing. I was in hope that the Shelbyville/Shelby Co. Public Library would be further along since my last visit. I was sadly mistaken.

I entered the front door looking for any sort of brochures that might discuss certain genres or collections. There were none to be found. I did come across the library newsletter which featured a read with the community program. The featured book is Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr. The movie October Sky was based on the book. Within the newsletter they did feature other books dealing with space travel, rockets and astronauts that were age appropriate for school age children.

After looking around a little more I approached the sole staff person at the circulation desk and said "Hi, I'm looking for a good book to read." "Do you think you could assist me?" I thought the staff person might respond with "Well, let me think a minute." or possibly "Do you have a favorite author?" All hope was lost when the response I received was "No, no I don't think I can help you, I really don't read books anymore because I can't see." I thought to myself, you can't see but you're working the circulation desk. Does the director know about this? Then the staff person went on to say that they did listen to books on audio. I asked if they could assist me with a good audio book. The response I got was, "Well, the last audio I listened to was a Carol Burnett biography." "It's over there about 3 shelves down." Well, I went and looked "over there" and had no luck.

After that fiasco I pretty much left the scene.