Net Librarian

I break some of these rules all the time, but here are some best practices I try to follow for phone reference questions.

ask permission to put callers on hold before actually doing so - most people want to wait, some don't.

hear it the first time - this can sometimes be impossible with static, volume, background noise, speaker phones, etc. but it's my goal to not have to ask people to repeat themselves

remember the details - type up titles, authors, etc. in notepad or word or write details down on scratch paper so you don't forget as you're working the question

avoid interference - you don't want to talk at the same time as the your caller. Don't overlap: let them talk, then take your turn, then let them respond... It's like radio call-and-response communication.

if it's taking a while to find something, either let them know (and put them back on hold and continue working to find it for them), or take down their number to call them back

warm transfer - if you have to transfer someone to a coworker, different department, etc., let your coworker know any details of the caller's question before hanging up

maximize post-call work - if you have to place a hold or do something like filling out an ILL request that will take a while, let the patron hang up as soon as you have enough information to complete the request. I don't want to take any more of the caller's time than necessary to serve them.

“Let’s hope the library’s quiet.”

No, no, no. Seriously. Do you want libraries to fade into obsolescence? if so then this is the type of attitude to have.

“Hopefully it’s a quiet shift on desk.”

Being a librarian isn’t about working somewhere quiet, AKA not busy. Being a librarian is about helping people. All businesses and organizations need clients using/paying for their services in order to have any reason to exist. if the library is quiet, the library doesn’t have any clients. Extrapolate out from there what eventually happens. 

“It won’t be too busy and I can get something done on desk.”

Libraries being busy allows us to take the pulse of our communities. Being actively aware of what is going on in/around public service desks is ‘getting something done’. Take those lessons learned while on the desk into your back office hours and iteratively innovate to improve your libraries.

One of the libraries I work at lists the following standards of service (which I think are very good):

Serve the customer first. Nothing we do is as important as the customer who is waiting for service.

Always deliver service in a friendly, open, and professional manner.

Go the extra mile. Practice the value-added approach; give more than is expected

Take an active rather than passive approach when assisting the customer. Be aware of your surrounding and acknowledge the customer, instead of waiting for the customer to approach you.

Develop a “can do” attitude. If a customer’s need is outside the scope of your department, let the customer know that you will find the appropriate staff member to assist them.

Walk the customer to the location or the item whenever possible.

Keep the facility attractive and inviting by filling displays, straightening areas and removing clutter.

Working reference desks, I run into a lot of problems like this:

PATRON: I’m looking for a book on nutrition for weight lifters, it was the one that came up first, but I forgot to write it down... LIBRARIAN: Ok, let me take a look. [LIBRARIAN then goes on to use a backend staff catalog like Syrsi Dynix WorkFlows when the patron front end system is different. The two different systems surface entirely different results first.]

The short term solution is for librarians top open up their web browser to go to the online catalog. But, thinking long term:

EITHER

we need to get rid of reference desk staff backend catalog systems and build certain features back into special staff OPAC accounts, OR

the front and backend algorithms need to be exactly the same.

Library staff definitely need more information than the public related to circulation, holds, etc. while working public desks. At the same time, in terms of searching for items, patrons and library staff need to be seeing the same things in the same orders for the same keywords. It’s really that simple.

Illinois Tumblarians! Come hear me and other 3D printing-savvy librarians talk about 3D printing at the Recharge Committee’s 3D Printing Summit at the Naperville Public Library 95th Street Library.

There will be 30 minute presentations by each of the librarians and then time for open Q&A.

It’s gonna be a blast.

Public librarians do a ton of on-the-fly teaching. Sometimes people unfortunately simply can’t learn what they’re obviously interested in. They can’t wrap their heads around basic math to do spreadsheets, they’re physically unable to control a computer mouse, they have mental issues, etc.

But oftentimes, people learn quickly. I think the reason for this is naming, ontology.

the customer’s always right, even when you know they’re wrong

when it’s slow, it’s S  L  O  W.

when it’s busy, it’s CRAZY BUSY!

Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong will eventually go wrong.

that obscure policy you don’t know or can never remember? Someone’s gonna ask about it.

offer two similar services? You’ll definitely confuse in front of a patron.

your useless coworker will manage to get by without doing much of anything while you bust your ass and still feel as if you’re not doing enough.

the question everybody asks repeatedly? Not likely its frequency will decrease any time soon.

Directions: New patrons will never figure out where the washroom, etc. is on their own.

Initial questions often aren’t what patrons really mean - probe deeper to be even more helpful!

My boss is a positive role model, an excellent leader, and a fantastic librarian. I’ve noticed a particular way that she handles mistakes that encourages growth in her fellow librarians. Here’s an example:

We were working the public reference desk together a couple of weeks ago, and I incorrectly applied one of our policies. She didn’t yell at me, she didn’t talk down to me, she didn’t embarrass me, but she didn’t let it slip. I learned what I did wrong and what to do the next time.

Being treated in this mature way shows she trusts me. She knows that I’m not complacent and that I want to improve. When good librarians screw up, they should expect to be called out in order to improve. 

Handling mistakes this way makes me not want to screw up. And when something that I control goes wrong, big or small, I feel as if I’ve let my boss down.

The best teachable moments are right after screw ups. Take advantage.

I process reference desk statistics at the library I work part time. Every month, I work hard to make sure the data is valid, that there’s nothing wrong, no unintended duplications, etc. Most of the time I nail it, occasionally I screw things up (and then fix them).

But this month I realized something: it’s impossible to fully track what libraries and librarians do.

How do you quantify recommending someone what becomes their favorite book? How do you quantify the gratitude of someone who can open up email attachment pictures of their grandchildren? The patron you helped land a job? The one you laughed with when technology screwed up and there was nothing you could do? The new skills gained by someone leaving a computer class?

I’m still a fairly new librarian. After starting in a couple of smaller libraries, I took jobs at larger public libraries. And I noticed that library size itself changes things.