I was in the library yesterday in Brighton and the library lady told me I owed them $2 for a CD. I said that I'd never taken a A/V recording out of the library, ever. She then said if one of my family might have used my card. No, no, they're in Wellington.
"Well, someone put this on your card."
"I'm really pretty sure they didn't. Are you sure you didn't process it from the guy before me?" (Who had checked out 4 CDs)
"No! That can't happen in this system. It's on your card. You owe us $2"
"Can I just see... (bending over desk to look at screen) ... um, according to your system, the CD was checked out here, today, about 3 minutes ago."
"What?! Where?" (Frantic searching through book pile)
Then she got her supervisor. It took, between the 2 of them, 10 minutes to make sure I hadn't pocketed a CD, there were no CDs in the books, and to remove it from my card.
Then I checked my receipt and said "Oh, Mawikai isn't on the list."
"Really?"
It took another 5 minutes for the supervisor to work out that book had been listed as lost. She tried to unregister it multiple times, then tried to re-register it, which didn't work because the number was already in the system.
In the end I had to leave without the book.
The most frustrating thing was, though, during that 15 minutes, I could see the screen. I'm not claiming to be an expert with library systems, but it sure was difficult to keep my mouth politely closed as I watched her miss, try after try, a little checkbox that said 'This book is lost'.
(I have a policy of only correcting one computer/user error per person. The first time is helpful, the second time is just gloating.)