「刁難」常使人聯想到麻煩、難以溝通，服務此類型之讀者，對館員而言頗具壓力。而流通館員乃是圖書館組織中的第一線人員，其接觸刁難讀者之機會較其他部門為高，然對於流通館員面對刁難讀者之相關研究卻較為缺乏。爰此，本研究採取質化研究取向，針對臺灣地區大學圖書館之23位流通館員，進行半結構式深度訪談，以瞭解受訪館員所遭遇之刁難讀者的類型與行為特徵為何，繼而就研究結果分析刁難讀者之成因，最後提出面對刁難讀者之服務策略，藉供圖書館界同道參考。

The phrase “difficult patron” is often associated with troubles and habitually abnormal behavior from patrons. From the viewpoint of organization, the existence of difficult patrons might signal dissatisfaction with services, collections, facilities, or with specific individual librarians. But difficult patron’s complaints may also be regarded as valuable opportunities to improve customer service and satisfaction. Hence, for the circulation librarians, learning how to interact with difficult patrons is quite important. This article reports findings from a qualitative study which investigated types and behavioral characteristics of difficult patrons in university libraries in Taiwan. Semi-structured interviewing method was used to investigate 23 circulation librarians’ experiences with difficult patrons. Based on the findings, this article discusses why some patrons are difficult as well as service strategies for dealing with difficult patrons in university libraries.