We Try...We Try Really Hard

I remember the Christmas I gave my mother a new canister set. Her old canisters had the flower decorations worn off from many years of handling; one lid was dented, one little handle was off the top. The new set was silver and shiny with black lids, no dents, perfectly beautiful. I was so proud to give her that Christmas present that I had saved months to buy.
But when she opened the box and saw those canisters, she said, "What did you do that for? I have a canister set." And that just broke my heart.
The Christmas I gave my husband a beautiful pen and pencil set for his desk at his new job, I could hardly wait for him to open it. I was so proud of it. Even had his name engraved in gold on the marble base.
But when he opened the box, he said, "You didn't need to do that. They gave me a pen and pencil set at work."
I tell you this not because I seemed at one time to be terrible at giving gifts, but because those memories flooded my mind the other day when two of us staff members tried to help a patron who was using the auditorium for a
meeting.
He needed some way to put up a poster and wanted to hang it on the wall. But he needed some thumb tacks or tape. Our staff member told him items were not to be posted on the walls, but we had an easel he could borrow. He wanted to know what it looked like. So, I got one from the janitor's closet and set it up in the hallway for him to see. He said his poster wouldn't be able to stand on the easel because it was only paper. I found a poster board he could attach his poster to, but he didn't have a way to do that...no tape, no tacks...
and his poster was too big anyway. It appeared we just didn't have what he needed and he was rather upset. Well, we tried to help...we tried really hard.
That incident reminded me of another time when a patron found out an evening event would not be over until late and he had to use the auditorium at nine the next day. He was very concerned that the room would not be set up early enough for his program. It took a great amount of reassuring to convince him that when the janitor came in around 8 a.m., he would immediately vacuum the room and set up the tables and chairs for the meeting. The patron was somewhat calmed, but still appeared rather doubtful.
Sure enough, the next morning the room was ready by 8:30 when the patron arrived. But he never said a thing. Well, we tried...we tried really hard...to make it nice for him.
When a patron complained that we didn't have any hand soap in the men's restroom, we had to tell him it was because someone was taking the soap. We also told him that we have bottles of hand sanitizer at the front counter for our patrons' use, if he cared to use that. He thanked us for telling him.
We try really hard to be of help here at our library. We care very much about our patrons. Sometimes things go wrong that we're not aware of and we appreciate being told about it. But we really try to go the extra mile...in providing hand sanitizers, in setting up the rooms appropriately, in keeping our "home away from home" neat and clean, in smiling as we wait on our patrons, in helping any way we can. Once in a while it doesn't seem to be quite enough.
But we try...we try really hard. Thanks for understanding.