Library life lesson #1
Staffing the reference desk at a big academic institution is first of all, Interesting and Enlightening. People ask all sorts of weird things that you wouldn't expect (the other week someone used our virtual reference chat to ask for a good coffee place nearby) and you get to see a diverse cross-section of university life.
One of the big things I've learned, though, is that 'radical empathy' (as one of our mentors phrased it) is by far the best approach to dealing with people.
Like, as a person it is totally okay to feel like a patron is being rude or lazy or silly or whatever, but as someone trying to help people it costs you (usually) nothing not to pre-judge them or their situation. Apparently it also works really well on trolls too, just ignoring whatever part of their question that's supposed to be shocking or annoying and answering it like you are a Super Helpful But Also Oblivious Librarian.
Obviously there's a huge emotional labor component to doing reference work (similar to other customer service jobs) and you have to make sure to take care of yourself first and foremost - but I've also found it to be super freeing to just take things on face value?
Someone wants to know where the color printers are even though there's a sign 3 feet away that says where they are? They probably didn't see it and our resources should be better labeled (very very true).
Someone is having trouble printing and threw their blank pages across the ref desk and then stomped away? They're probably having a very stressful time right now and might have a class to get to, it sucks that our technology isn't always great and it *is* super frustrating when you're trying to print in a hurry.
It takes a surprising amount of mental effort to take a step back, because we're basically set up to judge first and ask questions/re-evaluate later. It's not always easy, but I think I like *myself* more when I try to think positively about other people instead of wallowing in my more innate cynicism/pessimism?