Communication is one of the most important human skills, at ours or any other desk. Sometimes there are language barriers to overcome. There is a large Hispanic population in our town, as well as Asians and Eastern Europeans. They have varying levels of English ability; everyone is very earnest and they try really hard.
Other times, it is handicaps or illness of various kinds that make people struggle to be understood. A woman with cerebral palsy who drives her cart like a race car is very patient with me as I try to figure out what she wants. Teddy Bear man usually comes in asking for pictures, but some days cannot speak at all, only wave and groan.
I looked up from the desk the other day to see a deaf man doing sign language to his computer screen. I was pretty sure he was in Instant Messenger, but I knew his computer didn’t have a camera on it. Suddenly, he was signing furiously, then slapping his hands to his head in frustration, then typing madly.
I was helping a line of people, then realized the next person in line was him. He started squealing and waving his library card at me. He made cutting hand motions. I do know the sign language alphabet, but his hand motions gave me a pretty good idea of what he wanted to know. I held up one finger, said, “Just a minute,” took his card, and checked his number.
Sure enough, he had used his time for the day. The computer must have kicked him off. I turned the screen so he could read it, pointed and said, “No more today, I’m sorry.” I didn’t know if he could read lips, but he squealed again a few times.
“Come back tomorrow,” I said, and he shrugged his shoulders, nodded his head, and put his card in his wallet. He seemed resigned and cheerful about it. There was no doubt he understood me.
As on many other occasions, I realized that this kind of communication is something you really can’t prepare for. We like to inform the public of our services, hoping to help more of them, but how to describe it? Perhaps a new sign:
“Reference Desk. Human spoken here.”
