DVD and CD Suggestion Box

Normally our system does not do suggestion boxes for materials. We have a suggest a purchase link on our website and encourage patrons to use that. (It's so much easier for our selectors). When a patron can't or won't use that, staff might fill it out for them. Staff can also use it to let selectors know of gaps in the collection they notice.

However I have some grant money to spend for my location on DVDs and CDs. Instead of going through the normal media selector, I'm ordering the DVDs and our youth services librarian is ordering the CDs. So for just this location we placed a "Suggest a DVD or CD" box complete with papers or pencils directly on top of the (short) shelves that hold those materials.

Our patrons have been very happily giving us suggestions and I've been emptying the box every two days or so. There are the normal generic suggestions (more exercise videos, more PBS features) and that is very doable. Some of my favorites are for items that we own but were checked out when they asked. But that is neither here nor there.

For today's five things on a friday, I give you five unusual suggestions from our suggestion box:

1. Comments on staff member's bodies or suggestions of activities to do with them.
   I'm not surprised by this one. I knew this box would have some kind of abuse. But I've never been sexually harassed by comment card before.
   
   
2. A full page typed list (single spaced) of suggestions
   They were all anime. We've actually set aside some of our DVD money especially for anime. I'm really impressed by the amount of time a person took for this.
   
   
3. Vague insults
   One card said "your mom!", another "in your face" and a third "F you". They actually just wrote the F and not the full word which made me chuckle. We're adjacent to a middle school. These things happen.
   
   
4. Stuffing the ballot box
   We have one child who writes down every title he wants three or four times, on three or four different cards, and puts each one individually into the box. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it isn't an election.
   
   
5. "Akward chink"
   This was written twice (on two different cards), but not by the boy mentioned above. I tried that spelling, the correct spelling, and every possible variation and I can't find a movie, anime, TV show, CD, band name, song name, or anything that would makes it make sense. So I can't purchase whatever it was this person wants. (And I'm quite sure that this is not meant as an insult to any of my staff since I have no staff members of Asian-American ethnicity.) If anyone has any ideas, I'd like to hear them.