Where's the Recycling Bin?

He burned through his yearly allotment of 50 interlibrary loan requests months ago. He complained about that. A lot. You know, maybe I'd feel bad about it if he needed books or articles for research of some sort, but I just can't bring myself to care when all he's doing is ripping CDs onto his computer.

Soon after he submitted his 50th ILL request, he started filling out our "Suggestions for Purchase" forms. At first, he would submit 5-10 requests every couple weeks. Only days after submitting a request, he would start to complain that we hadn't purchased the CDs yet. We told him we place an AV order once a month, then it takes time to get the items shipped to the library and listed in the catalog.

This apparently didn't register, as he started to submit the same requests in multiple manners: via paper forms, dropped into the suggestion box; via paper forms, handed to staff at the reference desk; via paper forms, handed to staff at the youth services desk; via our online comments form; via the library's main email address; and via several staff members' personal email addresses. Did he think we wouldn't know they were all his requests? Just how many of our patrons does he think want the complete Cheap Trick catalog?

It eventually got so ridiculous that we were getting requests for the same CD up to 4 times a week. The kicker? Half of these CDs weren't even out yet. And we're not getting them fast enough? C'mon, Disturbed, get that CD out faster, man! It's for the library! Right.

So we told him to stop. Completely. And he did.

For approximately two weeks. Then we started getting requests for the exact same CDs, in various poor attempts at disguised handwriting. Are we supposed to be that dumb? Really?

So we told him to stop. Again. And he told us it's a free country so he's going to submit as many requests as he wants. Well, gosh, he sure showed us.

So now he's mailing his requests to the library, with someone else's name written in the return address spot on the envelope. If he keeps up with this, he's probably going to waste enough money on stamps to buy several of these CDs he so desperately wants.

And I don't feel bad about that at all.