Hardening off Yggdrasil

Library Volunteer's training today.  First on the agenda was Service Dogs.  A lady came in recently w/ a dog she said was her emotional support animal.  It turned out not to be housebroken.  This was the day after  all of the carpets had been professionally cleaned in the library.  I'm not sure what we were suppose to get from this agenda item except to question who needed the emotional support more - the dog or the lady.  Next on the agenda was checking out books to people w/o their library card.  It is a common occurrence.   Recently at another library in our system, the desk person keyed in the patron's name and there were a number of people in the system w/ the same name.   Unfortunately the desk person just picked the first name that appeared and it wasn't the correct person.   It was the name of someone on our library board and she wasn't pleased.  So ...  make sure to match patron to the correct name.  The next item was a little confusing.  First a reminder  that non-fiction books are organized by their Dewey Decimal Systm (DDS) number, then by author name, and then by book title.  OK, that I knew.  Then the librarian went on to say that we wouldn't care about the DDS number past two decimal places.  So if a book is numbered 500.0036 and another book is numbered 500 they could be placed next to each other.  I see no advantage to this change so will continue to shelf  by full DDS/author/title.  Next on the agenda was a spreadsheet on book damage and what to do about it.  Finally, the librarians are recognizing that books that have been checked out by over 10 people or are three years old can't be expected to be returned in pristine condition.  Older books will just have a mark or stain noted and no further action taken.  There were some cases where if it was another library's book, we should call them.  That had a bunch of people's "panties in a twist".  We aren't to use the library's phone for long distance calls and using our own phone would use up a volunteer's  minutes on their phone plan.  Plus the person you reached might be a volunteer like us that has no idea of what to do.  Librarian relented and said to just make a note of the damage  and leave that and the book on her desk.  Finally we went over the different programs the library promotes.  One is the Summer Reading Program and this year's theme is "Ocean's of Possibilities".  I asked one of the coordinators if she'd like the library decorated w/ things from the ocean?  "Great!" she said.  "Great!" I thought too - can finally get rid of my squid hat.