Explain This, Young Person!

Ugh. EBooks.

I mean, hooray for reading and everything, but eReaders are not my thing. (For more on this, see an earlier post of mine: In My Day, a Nook Was the Corner Where You Read a Book.)

Unfortunately, it appears that they are taking over my life.

Because, guess what? Everyone and their mother received an eReader for Christmas. At the library this week, we who are "special" enough to be on the Digital Support team were bombarded with emails.

"My grandchildren just gave me a Kindle for Christmas and I'm not very good with computers..."

Ahhh! Now I get to help everybody figure out their eReader issues! I have successfully downloaded eBooks from our library catalog to both a Kindle and a Nook. I've even created instructions for library patrons to use. But if something goes wrong, I'm stuck.

If all goes well, it's very simple. But when I'm on the phone with "Bob," for twenty minutes, trying to figure out an error message without seeing anything he's doing, it can get frustrating.

It's flattering to know that people have this blind faith in me as a young person. They think, obviously I know what I'm doing. And I must confess, I do speak in a very confident tone. Really, though, I could say almost anything.

"Ah yes, your ecatalog system is not compatible with the Internet feed of your source code. The informational vortex appears to be scrambled. This is beyond my expertise!"

Full disclosure: I don't know what I'm doing. And I don't like eReaders. However, I will help you because it's my job. And I am nice. And I love books. And I love that people are reading.

So let's do this!