When I had completed typing in the computer lab and finding the call numbers up in the reference section in the library, I went to the Information Desk to get someone to help me find the one book I couldn’t seem to get on MadCat.
After a while a foreign gentleman was able to help me. He began at one computer, but couldn’t seem to get what he wanted from it. I thought maybe he didn’t know his equipment. It was a rare book I was looking for.
He then tried MadCat on the Web interface, but got nothing. Finally he tried the WorldCat Web interface. He typed in about half the title to my book and came up with what I thought were related books to the book I wanted. Same Author; similar title.
I pointed these three books out to him as possibilities. He seemed irritated with me and gestured abusively to me to get away; the guy that wanted the book and was trying to assist him. I was upset.
I picked up my book and walked away saying, “You should be able to speak English if you are going to work in an American Library!!”
On the way out, I was mumbling to myself about librarians in an English speaking country, with mainly books written in English in the libraries, not being able to speak English. I had also noticed about the librarian that when I spoke to him in English, he acted like he couldn’t hear me or didn’t understand me. But he did know how to spell the word notorious. An angry large, big, threatening man stepped up to me looking like he was going to throw me out physically as I was leaving.
He bullied at me, “I think you better leave!*&#!!
I didn’t like him, but said, “I’m headed out the door right now!!”
He didn’t seem to want to back down.
I asked him, “Do you work here??”
He irritatedly said, “Yes, I do!*#!”
I said, “I want to file a complaint!”
He said, “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police!*%$##!!”
I said, “I’m leaving, I’m leaving!”
I went outside mumbling to myself.
I smoked for a while and thought to myself, “I really have a right to file a complaint. Doesn’t this guy want me, a student, to be able to file a complaint??”
I went back in to the library to file a complaint.
At the front desk, I met a nice girl and asked her if I could file a complaint with her supervisor. She said she’d get him or her. I said thanks.
While I was waiting, a gentleman came up to me and I told him about trying to find the book. Another man came up and I told him the same thing. I asked him if he was the supervisor because I had a complaint to file.
He took my Roxanna book, with the bibliography, and said he would try to find the book I was looking for. I showed him the book I wanted listed in the bibliography. He disappeared with my book.
Suddenly the angry thug-like man came up to me and said he was going to call the police. I told him that I only wanted to file a complaint. He continued to threaten me. I asked him if I could get his name. He wrote it down on a piece of paper. I told him my mother was worth 2 million dollars and that I really should file a law suit. He asked me if that was a threat. I said no. But now I’m not sure. I thought to myself that I didn’t want to deal with the police when it could be handled comfortably by him. He immediately got out a phone book and threatened to call the police.
I responded by saying, “I’m not staying…” and left for home.
They had my personal belonging, the Roxanna book. I couldn’t even get it back that day. They had effectively confiscated my personal book.
I went to Gateway to pick up my medications and thought that maybe they could file a law suit on my behalf.
My Case Manager came out. I told him the whole story. He said that I could file a law suit if I didn’t get the book back. I told him that I can’t get it back now. Every time I go to Memorial Library, they try to call the police on me.
He said to file a complaint. I think he is not very caring or intelligent.
I went home and called the Memorial Library lost & found.
They told me, at first, they didn’t have my book. Then they told me they had my book when I mentioned my name. A guy came on the telephone and told me he had called University Police when I left. He didn’t give me his name. He told me he had filed charges against me at the Dean’s Office. I said, “Thanks!”
I would recommend that, as a student, I be given the utmost meticulous respect when I am getting assistance looking for a rare book, and that in the future, the University and their Libraries not appoint supervisors who threaten to call the police instead of maturely discussing with students their problems and solving them. Also I would suggest that if a student wants to file a complaint that they be allowed to!
Richard S. Tolley
The next day I got my book from lost & found. They gave me a WorldCat record of a Daniel Defoe book entitled A general history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pyrates. This probably is the wrong book. The author listed in the Roxanna bibliography is Captain Charles Johnson. This particular book they got me was ascribed to him originally, but in 1939 was subsequently ascribed to Daniel Defoe. Probably my book was one of the three Captain Charles Johnson books I was trying to point out to the foreign librarian. I find it amazing that even the library supervisor gentleman that took my book Roxanna, before I was forced to leave and abandon my book, couldn’t find and list all the Captain Charles Johnson authored books along with the Defoe material. In Defoe’s book, the Captain Sharp in the Roxanna book is not even mentioned. I could have been allowed to help with the search, with all I knew about the Roxanna book, and vastly improved our chances of finding exactly the book I was looking for. Librarians, in the future should ask questions of the person asking for assistance. This policy would greatly improve the book search process and also improve relations with the student involved.
I received a letter from the Associate Dean of Students here at the University of Wisconsin. In it he outlined two laws of the University of Wisconsin and said he wanted to meet with me to find out if I had broken those rules and shouldn't be expelled from the University. I will meet with him today. I do believe that I am being monitored by Security even though I am off probation and am a free citizen of these United States and a student at this University.