Channelling My Inner Patron

I'm getting in touch with my inner patron today. Patrons don't experience things the way we do: classification is a joke (especially LC or NLM--at least Dewey makes some kind of visual sense); databases and the citations they contain are obscure; IT restrictions keep them from doing the things they need or want to do. Libraries are full of barriers and hoops, and librarians aren't always the gentle guides they need to be.

I want to print a 48"x36" document across multiple 8.5"x11" sheets (tiled printing). I've done it a million times before, as it is a cheap way to print large documents which you then trim and glue together. The results are of decent quality, especially for a 30-minute non-competitive poster presentation for which you are essentially filler because no one else signed up. Plus, I get to cut and paste for a while, which is remarkably fun and soothing.

An aside: this is both the volunteer gene and my procrastination tendency (mentioned previously) getting to me at once. The issue here is that I got myself into this, so there's no one to address to alleviate the anxiety and get over the procrastination. I guess I'll have to have a stern chat with myself. I'll do it later.

I have tried every workaround I can think of to get this to come out. The issue appears to be a setting on the color printer that when the memory buffer gets full, it just stops printing. Yes, I could call the IT staff, just like a patron could ask a librarian, but it just seems like it should work. No offense to our IT staff, but they are hard to find, always "busy," and always question what it is I want or what I am doing. Just like we do when a patron asks a question, right? And just like a patron, I am definitely trending towards taking the easy way out (I'll print out handouts and take a projector and shine my poster up on a wall) instead of asking for help.

I sincerely hope the next time a patron comes up to me with one of "those" questions, I can draw on this experience and look at them with soft eyes.

WDT