The Illness blackboard

One thing that takes up a lot of time in libraries is explaining to staff members and patrons the status of a staff member's illness. At eleven the assistant librarian gives a long account of an employees illness to one of the volunteers. Then at 11:15 one of the patrons comes up to and says, I just heard Jack is sick. How is he? and the same employee has to give another account of Jack's illness while the patrons are all waiting patiently in line. My proposal to this problem is for all libraries to have blackboards similar to the ones fancy restaurants use to name the specials of the day.

They would give the name of the ill staff member, his/her current status, location, prognosis and be it good or whether it's time to bring the dark suit to the drycleaners. The illness blackboard would be located in front of the circulation desk. This way a patron could come in, look at the blackboard, and be brought up to date on Henry's operation or Mary's by-pass surgery without taking up the staff's time.

With the shortage of librarian positions, such a blackboard might also be helpful to the job hunter who wrote in the etiquettetiquette blog.