Friday, May 13, 2011

Staplers, Repairing

A polite librarian should never underestimate a patron’s ability to find new, creative ways to destroy the library’s staplers.

Ask the readers: Do you have a story of an exceptionally durable stapler, an epic repair job you performed, or a memorial to one that is no longer with us?  Please share in the comments below.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had one where nobody knew how to open it to add new staples. We discovered that if you dropped it while standing on a desk or chair it usually opened. I tried to find a more reasonable method, but ended up stapling a heavy-duty staple straight into my thumb. From then on, dropping it from the heights was the approved method.

Anonymous said...

I once had to get security to walk me out after I refused to unchain our heavy duty stapler from the WALL that it was bolted to so a patron could use it at his computer instead of while standing. He was livid, screamed, had to be escorted from the building, and I was worried I'd run into him outside.

Anonymous said...

I took a library stapler home to put inside a Jello mold, "Office"-style, and the stapler didn't survive it.

fifilaru said...

ah staplers, why would something so simple to use cause so much fail? I mean really people, you put the paper in and press, volia! stapled paper. But no, it defeats you every time.

And people, we chain them down for a reason. So stop asking for us to unchain them.

Anonymous said...

Somebody actually managed to take apart the stapler that was changed to our reference desk. I don't know if they managed to reassemble it and get it to work without the small bit that was still chained to the desk, but I've always wondered.

Anonymous said...

we had one I affectionately called the Ninja stapler b/c you barely had to touch it and it sliced through the paper like a katana through silk. BUT! you barely had to touch it and some ding bat hit it as hard as they could and broke some small vital metal piece, and thus it became no more. I loved that stapler.

Julie @ Read Handed said...

This is so true. We have a heavy-duty stapler that I keep on my desk for safe-keeping. Still twice now I have come back to work after the weekend to find the stapler jammed beyond repair. They somehow jam it and then break the spring part of the spring-loader. Not sure how.

Anonymous said...

Somehow someone got SEVEN staples jammed in one of our staplers. I'd blame the patrons but I think it was one of my coworkers.

Anonymous said...

Our new stapler came with an instructional DVD, coworkers still manage to jam it.

Anonymous said...

Not a stapler, but people abuse our three-hole punch all the time by stuffing it with way too many sheets, then claiming that "it needs oiled".

Anonymous said...

At a library I worked at in the past, stapler and tape dispenser theft happened so often that I used to hide tattle tape strips on the bottoms of all our desk things so it would set off security if someone tried to leave the library with them. I even found a way to un-noticeably security strip the library scissors.
It worked a few times in keeping library supplies in the library.....usually it was other staff members walking out with them!!! It's rough when co-workers can't afford their own staplers.

Anonymous said...

We actually had a stapler graveyard at my library for a time, simply because no one could bear to part with anything. There were 2 heavy duties, three hole punchers, and about 10 regular staplers in our office supply cemetery.

Anonymous said...

Over the years I have broken two pairs of heavy duty scissors and three letter openers getting papers with too many pages out of our three-hole punch. However, I never lost a paper. Alas, it finally went to the office supply grave yard this semester. Thank goodness I have so much “free time” now, because the concept of stapling with the new heavy duty stapler is apparently impossible to grasp. I now devote all my hole punch repair time to the stapler, in addition to normal "stapler repair" time.

Anonymous said...

We got an electric stapler so students would not be pushing anything on it. Unfortunately, we did not think that it has to be loaded from time to time and failed to put a lock on that one moveable part. Patrons broke it and bought a new one. If this one breaks the director is not getting another.

Anonymous said...

At a friend's library a patron borrowed the stapler from the ref desk to use as her weapon of choice in a cat fight with another patron.