Library Service Win

We really didn't do anything special.  It was just the Adult Services staff doing what we always do.  But we made a difference...
Last Tuesday an older woman came to the desk asking to use a public access computer.  She was shaking like a leaf.  And she told us her story. 

The night before she'd gotten a phone call from someone claiming to warn her that her PC was in danger of crashing.  When she went to her PC her cursor was moving seemingly by itself.  The man on the phone said he could "fix" the problems with her computer, but she'd have to pay him.  She pulled the plugs on her computer, hung up the phone, and called the police!! 

And now she was in the library hoping to access her email and online accounts to make sure everything was okay.  She asked if we could recommend someone to help her with her computer, so we gave her the number for the local Geek Squad.  We also recommend Norton Anti-Virus.  Then I logged her onto a computer.  And when she was too nervous to log into her email account, I helped her get there, too.  When she opened her email and everything was still there, I could see her visibly relax.  Later one of my co-workers helped her with something else, and then I was with her again helping her print some documents. Every time we worked with her she told us her story again.

So that's it.  We did our jobs and we listened.

Yesterday, when I got to work there was a gift bag addressed to me on the counter.  It was from our patron.  A thank you note to me and the rest of the staff (my name was the only one she remembered) and a delicious box of cookies, to let us know she appreciated our efforts.

What a great feeling. 

Helping the Mentally Ill Patron

Found this on LinkedIn this afternoon.  Mental Health First-Aid an excellent article by Kelly Bennett at the blog Library Lost & Found.  Kelly offers some sound advice on how we can better empathize with and serve our patrons who may be suffering from mental illness.  This is something we all have to deal with in a public library setting.

Do Surveys Matter?

Here's a great article from Illinois Libraries Matter discussing the need for surveys at the library.  How can we possibly know what our patrons know about their library or want from their library if we don't ask them? 
But how do we get them to fill out and return a survey form?

Welcome to the Library

There's a great discussion going on at the Marketing Public Libraries Think Tank group at Linkedin.  Do we send out welcome emails to new card holders?  If so what do we include in the message?  Some libraries give out welcome packets with each new card including the latest newsletter, library hours, etc.   No consensus yet on what the goals are and if you're not sure what you're going to accomplish how can you measure it?
We try to get an email address for each new patron who signs up for a library card.  It comes in very handy for email notifications about holds, upcoming due dates, programs and the like.  And, of course, all the notifications from Overdrive about downloads go through the patron's email address.  But we don't send out a welcome to the library message.  What would we say?  Should we have a welcome packet?  I like the idea of a refrigerator magnet complete with our web address, hours, and phone number. 
But what about an email?  Will they read it?  Or will they just hit delete and toss it out with the spam?

This Just In! Libraries Very Important Say Americans!!

The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project (Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) conducted a survey to find out what the average American thinks about public libraries.  You can see the article, Library Services in the Digital Age, describing the survey results  here.  The findings are very encouraging, and in those cities where councils are making a mad dash to slash budgets on the backs of library funding, please note:

"Fully 91% of Americans ages 16 and older say public libraries are important to their communities; and 76% say libraries are important to them and their families."  Now THAT is a mandate.

Respondents cited borrowing books and free access to computers and the Internet as "very important" in almost equal amounts.  Librarians too are considered a valuable library asset. 

But "just 22% say that they know all or most of the services their libraries offer now."  This looks like a good place for some creative marketing ideas.

This is a valuable piece of research and a useful tool for libraries and librarians, to see where we are doing well, where we are falling short, and where we should be headed for the future. 

The end of Reference?

I visited a local library yesterday that has done away with its Reference collection.   The books are gone, the space has been repurposed.  There is a small ready reference collection behind the Information desk.  I noticed several copies of the most popular college guides in the circulating non-fiction collection.  I hope some of their other reference works have also been moved to circulating non-fiction.  There is a print encyclopedia in a corner of the YA department.  The head of Adult Reference explained that she felt the collection was unused and therefore unnecessary.

I wonder.

The Reference collection is the most underused collection in the library.  But does that mean it is unnecessary?  I don't think so.  I think it is time to re-think the Reference collection.

To that end I did a little (very little) research and found this blog post from Brian Herzog, the Swiss Army Librarian (cool library blog), about the overhaul he gave the reference collection in his library in Massachusetts. In brief, they weeded the heck out of the collection, moved many of the single volume books into circulating non-fiction, and converted the remaining reference collection into small, free-standing, easily accessible subject collections.  The circulating reference is 7-day, non-renewable, and non-requestable (by other libraries). They converted the space into three 8x8 quiet study rooms.

I like it.

I like that there's still a Reference collection.  If we dump the entire collection aren't we throwing up our hands and saying 'Google wins'?  I like the fact that Herzog recognized that patrons want more access to the books not less.  Is it scary to let a big, expensive reference book walk out under the arm of a teenager?  Absolutely.  But isn't it scarier to let that kid go home thinking the library is a pain in the butt and it's easier to find his answers on Google?

I think it's time to reintroduce our patrons to the Reference collection.  Tell them what we've got.  Show them how it can help.  It's time for a little good old fashioned marketing.  Maybe some subject heading signs next to the Dewey numbers.  Maybe a display of some eye-catching Reference.  Could we make the first 5 photocopies free if its a Reference Book?  And maybe, just maybe it's time to let them check a few of our babies out.

Keep calm and apologize

Yesterday, I got a call from the circulation desk, the clerk was transferring a call.  It was a very disgruntled patron who was convinced that the circ clerks had not checked in two DVDs he was certain he had returned.  So I took a deep breath and picked up the call.  Mr. M. was certainly cranky.  He was convinced that he had been mistreated by the circ staff and that they had bungled his transaction.  I apologized.  Not for any wrong doing, but just because he felt that he had not received the service he deserved.  I repeated what the circ clerk had told me.  They had checked for his items.  They would check again, but the desk was very busy and they couldn't do it right now.  I took his name, his card number, his phone number.  I confirmed the titles he was concerned about.  I told him I'd get back to him.  I said I was sorry for the inconvenience and assured him we would get it straightened out. He calmed down.  He said he'd check again to see if he still had the items.
Five minutes later he called back ... to apologize.  His wife had found the DVDs under the front seat of the car.  A favorite hiding place of missing items.  I let him off the hook and said we all have moments like that. 
It's amazing what an apology can do.