Not So Hypothetical Hypotheticals
I've omitted names in all cases and slightly changed circumstances in some cases so that the very guilty are in no fear of growing a conscience.
This is also the turning point in the lecture where Wes will shut off all of the technological doo dads so that your take on these situations and any new topics you might broach won't be subject to recording.
You're queued up at the local ATM. The chap ahead of you tries to withdraw money, seemingly without success. You know that this particular ATM is *very* slow in dispensing money. Sure enough, several minutes later, the transaction is compleat. 450 quid is happily residing in the cash slot. Looking around, yer man is nowhere to be found. You do have the receipt associated with the transaction. You are starving. What do you do?
There's a 5 dollar bank or scanning error in your favour. The mistake was made by a large corporation, and you're almost positive that it's under the total tolerance allowed the clerk. What do you do?
One of your colleagues is rather abusive of company resources. Of late, they've photocopied hundreds of fliers and whiled hours away on the telephone running their child's hockey league. What do you do?
Your supervisor is terribly predisposed towards paying for dinner, and will sometimes take offence if they are not allowed to foot the bill. There is no formal policy to guide your actions, but increased work load has caused dinner out with the boss to occur with a striking amount of regularity. What do you do? Would your actions differ if this were a coworker or if it were your junior instead?
You overhear an exchange a particular group of teenagers is having. They seem to be under the impression that copying Library CDs for use in their permanent home collections and swapping amongst friends is okay. What do you do?
A husband and wife are working with you. All three of you are operating in middle management. Votes at supervisory meetings often go the way of the couple involved as they essentially constitute a voting bloc. What do you do?
It's 9.11.2001 and the world around you is changing by the minute. Many staff members are understandably shaken and wish to return home. The phone connections are miserable, making checking in with loved ones nearly impossible. State Offices have closed. Your supervisor is literally in tears. Even though you aren't a manager, you approach the director about dismissing your supervisor early given the state of affairs. The director declines to do so. What do you do?
Your Town imposes a pay system that is at odds with State Law in that the frequency of the pay periods fall too far apart to be in compliance with statute. The same people that imposed this system are the ones that approve your budget. Your employees want to do their holiday shopping, but lack the means. What do you do?
You work in a private Law Library. You notice that some of the Senior Partners are less than dutiful in returning their materials on time. Other barristers need these to make their cases. You're new on the job, and your predecessor has counseled you that the powers that be probably won't even notice if you were to just come into their offices from time to time and just take back the materials. What do you do?
A parent and child are perusing picture books in front of the circulation desk. The child, a little girl, picks out a book about a female hippo mechanic and is obviously entranced by it. Her mother scolds her saying "No honey! Car books are for boys!" What do you do?
You've witnessed your boss allowing certain employees to slide when it comes to claiming personal time on their timesheets. In fact, in the past, you've been the beneficiary of this slack. What do you do?
As you're reshelving, you notice a title in a vein of your interest. Waiting for your break to come about, you go back to the shelf and issue the book out to yourself. When you've finished, you've found this title to be particularly upsetting. There are serious factual flaws of a racial nature within its pages. What do you do?
You've noticed that the Director of your Library has a tendency to contract with friends. For instance, your Library contracts with a lawyer working at the same firm as one of the Trustees. On a different occasion, a Trustee served as the real estate agent for the sale of the Director's house. What do you do?
You work at a public library governed by elected Trustees. During a regularly scheduled meeting, the Board swap petitions with one another to ease the workload of obtaining signatures for their ballot slots. You think that this action might be illegal if conducted on Library grounds. What do you do?
You work in a Government Documents repository. You're troubled by the current administration's tendency to classify documents that you feel oughtn't be classified. Recently, the decision to remove a given item from the depository system has been handed down. The information is widely accessible on the World Wide Web, albeit in scattered form. Your orders are to destroy the relevant CD. What do you do?
Late in the day, you receive a phone call from the local newspaper inquiring about an upcoming ballot that will feature the Library's Budget proposal. As a paraprofessional, you frantically phone about the Library trying to find anyone higher in the chain of command than you are. Unfortunately for you, no one is available. The reporter begs and pleads for a quote _now_. You feel for the reporter and get the sense their job might well rely on this scoop. In the past, you know that Librarians have been able to speak to the press, even in a negative light mostly without repercussion. You are not aware of any formal policy governing comments to the press. What do you do?
Your area of responsibility for collection development includes the Religion range. You've noticed that many major Religions and even a fair number of minor Religions are represented in your medium sized urban Library. Islam is conspicuous in its absence. You inquire with your immediate supervisor about the absence of the Qu'ran, stating that many of your patrons are Muslim. This community has expressed its misgivings in the past and has offered to install copies at no charge to the Library. You are told that in past, copies were defaced and that it is not worth the Library's time to acquire new versions. You suspect that your supervisor's worldview might be tainting that response. What do you do?
A Patron requests that the Library acquire a book authored by the Marquis de Sade. Your Library interfiles adult and children's nonfiction. What do you do?
You work at a Law Library and hold a J.D. in addition to your M.L.S. A librarian friend of yours often petitions you for help that just skirts the verge of constituting legal advice. The issues that are raised are generally near and dear to your heart, and you worry that by not providing an answer, you'd be placing your friend in harm's way. In short, your J.D. and your M.L.S. are in conflict. What do you do?
A Patron routinely leaves her child unattended at the Library. The child is old enough to visit the Library alone and does not cause any disturbances. Library policy does not rule out children of this age visiting the Library unaccompanied. This visit, the Patron's mother decides to phone with a long list of materials her child is not allowed to be issued. Policy clearly states that parents must be the arbiters of their child's viewing and reading habits and that the Library will not act in loco parentis. You inform the parent of this policy, and are told that the child will simply not be allowed in the Library if that is the case. What do you do?
As a member of a Library Union, you're entitled to sick bank time. You've privy to the fact that one of your coworkers has a terminal illness and could use every hour that bank holds. You have already given the maximum contribution allowed and are furious when you learn that the employee in question has been forced to report to work when the Union contract clearly states that time drawn from the bank needn't be earned. What do you do?
Some of your Patrons point out that a minor is surfing for pornography in your Library. Not wanting to be hasty in this decision, you check the computer history and turn up some very interesting sites logged at about the time the Patrons complained. You know this minor's mother, and doubt she'd appreciate her child viewing this sort of thing on your watch. What do you do?
You're part of the Management Team. A member of your Staff has very strong religious values that sometimes cause conflict with collection development and issuing policies. In fact, there have been several occasions when you've had discussions about movie ratings since this particular Staffer will not issue a movie with a given rating to a child. This is clearly against Library policy. What do you do?
Sin City hits the DVD stores. Your Library is well known as a good place to go to get the latest films for free. Your children's collection is shelved separately from your adult collection, yet in the past, you've run across adult anime in the Children's Room, and have received Patron complaints when this has happened. So far, no one has made a serious challenge to your collection development habits. What do you do?
You're an employee. Recently, you've heard rumours that Management is having a problem with theft of the fine till. Being somewhat street smart, you have good reason to believe that a colleague may well be on drugs and draw the conclusion that this employee could very well be the culprit. You're worried for his health and for his young wife and small child. You've noticed some bruising on the wife from time to time. Testing the waters, you've consulted two other colleagues who know are wiser than you are. They confirm your fears. Things escalate to the point where it's very curious indeed that the thefts only seem to occur when this particular Staffer takes the night shift. Management is rather fond of the employee you suspect. What do you do?
You're heavily involved in Library Union politics to the point of being a Management target. You're strong in your convictions and have often spoken out against Management policies that you feel unfairly target workers. Most recently, Management passes a dress code and speech code that's highly restrictive. Your local ACLU contact informs you that your First Amendment rights may well have been infringed upon. You're very reluctant to sue the Library, feeling that legal action may punish the Patron ultimately. Desperate for some sort of support, you are put into contact with a very high ranking Intellectual Freedom Roundtable official. That person informs you that the ALA is more interested in pursuing censorship as it pertains to materials in a collection than in workplace speech. Essentially, you'll be alone on the professional front if you speak out. What do you do?
You notice a disturbing trend in the Upper Management of your Library. Discrimination and sexual harassment runs rampant. Slightly shady deals seem to transpire between Upper Management and certain Board Members. These dealings are often in conflict or at a very minimum questionable by State Ethics standards. Oftentimes members of Upper Management charge the Library with Tee Time and carry out hour long conversations about the field and brook at the water cooler. As an arm of the City, you're fairly certain that the Mayor or Attorney General would be receptive to your claims and investigate them in good faith. However, you're terrified of being linked to the incidents as it wouldn't be a long guess to place you. You might lose your job. What do you do?
Background image swiped from Paul Bourke "Texture, colour"
He retains rights, but you can read his copyright stuff here.
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/texture_colour
Image of Templars being burned from Wikipedia.org
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