Thursday, October 13, 2011

Battle Copy Machine, Part Deux

Yesterday I went to the Clayton Library to do some work on a special project. I needed some copies of pages from books, which meant I had to go to the copy room.

The first-floor copy room and I have a history, as described in When Good Copiers Go Bad.

Since that post, Newman was sent packing and a new copier is in its place:


Think all my problems are over? Think again. This copier--which I call Damien--is set to automatically copy everything with 11x17 paper. You have to remember to change it to 8x11. As you can see from the rolled paper underneath, I forgot to change the setting. In fact, it happened three times.

Later on, I went back in the copy room and Damien malfunctioned. I tried to move to the copier to the left, but the copy card machine was not on. I waited for a man to finish using the copy machine to the right and got my stuff done.

Then I went into the copy room one last time. Damien was still not working. The copier to the left still wasn't taking copy cards. To the right, a sweet little lady was pulling nickels out of a coin bag--one at a time--in preparation of copying from a stack of books.

Not good.

So I did the walk of shame to the reference librarian explaining that 2 of the 3 copiers were wonky. He fixed Damien so I could copy. Then he looked at the left copier...which was mysteriously ON and working fine. Took my copy card and everything, making me look like a moron.

I made one last copy, and Damien rolled out another 11x17 piece of paper. That room is possessed, I tell you. Use at your own peril.

I bet that lady and her bag of nickles is still in there making copies.

11 comments:

  1. I can tell you, as a reference librarian, that we think all our copiers and printers (and now, our laminators) are possessed too.

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  2. It is so relieving to hear this from my library friends. I still can't believe that copy card taker was off, then popped on when the librarian got there.

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  3. Wow, couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Thanks for the chuckle.

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  4. I cant help but laugh with you Amy... I think I know their cousin EmilaLou...

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  5. LOL! This totally sounds like what happens to me! Which means we should probably never step into the same copy room together, as it might explode. You have my empathy! Thanks for the chuckle.

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  6. Amy,

    Maybe the lil' ol' lady was really an apparition that "Damien" created so that you would HAVE to use it!!! LOL!

    Great post.

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  7. The love/hate relation we have with technology, sighhhhhh.

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  8. Copiers can smell your desperation....

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  9. Sounds like quite a struggle. Thanks for sharing the story.

    I wonder if you could just pull out the drawer on the bottom that has the 11x17 paper in it to prevent it from using that paper. Even just pulling the drawer out an inch should work. I suppose they have it locked so you can't mess with it, but that would make sure it didn't use the big paper. Better luck next time.

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  10. I met Damien's cousins over the weekend-- the gas pump that wouldn't shut off and soaked my sneakers; the coffee machine in the waiting room that dripped coffee and THEN spit out a cup; and best of all was the ATM machine that took my check and then died (ate my card and the check!)... Arrgghh!

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  11. The copiers are "green" so they go to sleep if they haven't been used in a while. If it appears off and you can't copy try pushing power and it should come back on.

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