In relation to my previous post about elderly patrons and technology, this post has to do with the younger generation. Kids generally know more about computers, because they have grown up with the technology and have developed an innate ability for it.  When I was work this afternoon, the children's librarian had a heated discussion with a child's mother.  The mother asked the librarian to monitor her child's web time while she browsed in the adult section.  The librarian peeked over once and saw some inappropriate pictures on the child's screen.  The mother was called and she began to yell at the librarian.  There were firewalls loaded onto the children's computer to block "bad' webpages.  Somehow the kid overrode them and the mother blamed the librarian for the kid's actions.  It took about an our to reprogram the computer.  Kids know too much for their own good sometimes.

Since I work in two libraries, one would think I have the opportunity to work with a lot of patrons and their computer troubleshooting.  That is not so, most of my time is spent either archiving materials or organizing them.  The librarians handle the computer troubleshooting. One day I did find myself sitting at a computer terminal trying to explain to an elderly woman how to right click on an icon.  Her mind was one a five minute loop, because she kept coming back to me asking how to right click with the mouse again and again.  I know you have to be patient and respectful to the elderly, but where is the fine line between annoyance and patience drawn?