Time Can Recommend the “Careful” Whisper of a Good Friend
If I were writing a recommendation report for an audience that doesn’t know me, I would use the indirect approach, focusing on logic. This type of report can be used by companies to gather an opinion about a product or method after research or testing has been done.
The director at my library decided he wanted to get self-checkout stations. Now, the concept was completely bonkers to us circulation staff. There are usually three of us up there, there’s one floor level, and it’s a fairly small library. People rarely have to wait too long to get their books checked out or ask questions. But, we have learned that these stations come in handy during the summer reading program. It’s our busiest time and having extra places for people to checkout their books has been helpful. I believe the director asked around at a couple other libraries and did some research on companies that produced these before deciding what to get. He then had to create a report and a proposal to the Library Board Committee to request funds in order to purchase the self-checkout. However, the Library Board knows the director. If it had been me writing the report, I would have approached it in a way that showed the benefits and cost of this self-checkout so the board would have facts and evidence for them to make a decision on whether or not this would be a good addition to our library. I would leave my opinion out because they don’t know me and whether or not I have the knowledge and experience for them to believe I would have an influential opinion.
Another example of this is the cataloger at my library, the person who buys books for us. She’ll do some research on them such as reading reviews and summaries of books that have made best-seller lists or books that have been requested by patrons (or us). She doesn’t know who these people are that compile the lists of bestsellers but when they give a synopsis for each book and then what they think made it worthy of attention, she is able to gauge whether or not it could be something that would do well in the library. Their opinions don’t truly matter to her because she doesn’t know whether they have a history of choosing the best books for the general public, but if they give information about the book and what it contains in a way that conveys its strongest selling points, she can decide for herself. I recently went nuts and requested a graphic novel titled “Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer” because reasons, and I like classic characters rewritten in unique, or fun, ways. Pinocchio killing vampires by lying so his wooden nose grows, breaking that off, and staking them sounds like a grand old time to me. We’ll see how that goes.
