Here’s my newest presentation, given today at INCOL (Inland Northwest Council of Libraries). It was a fun day – and I was able to hang out at Coeur d’Alene Public Library in Coeur d’Alene, ID.
Here’s the Slideshare version of the presentation!
We’ll Answer Within Two Business Days
Here’s a pic of the reference desk at Anywhere Public Library in Fakeola, USA. As a service to their customers, they decided to create a sign letting their patrons know that their questions might not be answered right away.
After all, some questions simply aren’t answered instantaneously – staff might need to wander out in the stacks to find an appropriate resource, or the question might lend itself to a lengthy reference interview. And once in a great while, questions really DO take up to 2 days or so to get answered, so it seemed like the right thing to do to post this sign.
When asked about their sign, here’s what library staff said:
- “in my experience, most questions do NOT take 2 days to answer, but isn’t it better to give a max time in the event that a question needs more thorough research? Librarians actually DO have other things to do with their time after all.”
- “While it’s nice to say “We’ll get back to you as soon as possible, some patrons want a definitive time frame.”
- “We posted the actual limits and the 48 hour turnaround to buy ourselves wiggle room and to avoid the open-ended questions”
- “Why does every question have to be answered right NOW? Honestly, if you need an answer right away, there’s this lovely invention called a telephone.”
OK – obviously, I’m fudging a bit. My reference desk pic is fake (my Photoshop skills astound no one). But the answers from “library staff?” These are all quotes from real librarians, commenting on my two previous posts about electronic reference service needing a reboot.
Some readers who thought my post was a bit over the top said one of three things:
- you have to give patrons a time frame [even though we mostly answer these questions pretty fast].
- you simply can’t answer lengthy reference questions via email or IM.
- We’re not discriminating and how dare you suggest we are! [OK, you’re right. I used that word on purpose – made ya look! 🙂 ]
So – what do you think? Do you have to give patrons a time frame online? Are most of your email/electronic reference questions answered pretty fast? Do you think that long or detailed reference queries can be handled online?
ALA2008: LITA President’s Program
Title: Isn’t it Great to Be in the Library (wherever that is)
Joseph Janes, presentation
Panelists: the “It’s All Good” bloggers: Crystie Hill, Alice Sneary, George Needham, and Eric Childress
First, Joseph Janes:
Showing pics of libraries – showed a pic of a reference desk from around 1906, and said we probably recognized it as a reference desk. That’s not good. We’d have a different viewpoint if we were doctors – we’d hope that a doctor would NOT want a current operating room to resemble one from 1906!
Then he said librarians have a strong sense of tradition – what should we keep, what should we get rid of?
information environment evolves
- as it always does
- technology
- competitive and volatile information marketplace (publisher and consumer)
- societal/demographic changes
- political, legal, cognitive domains
Highly dynamic environment!
What does it mean to be in the library?
- physically, this is easy – you’re in the library when you cross the threshold and enter the building
- except… branches, bookmobiles (are you “in the library” in a bookmobile?)
Virtually
- follow the same line of reasoning
- in the library when they cross the digital threshold, hit the web site, search, ask chat reference Q, downloading an audiobook, etc.
- in the library anywhere, anytime, any way in which people interact with information organized, provided, supported by their own community via their library staff
by implication, the library
- is the place
- as well as the stuff
- and the support
- and the interaction
- and the values
all this implies:
an extended notion of library, librarianship, etc
there’s lots of potential with both ideas
somewhere and everywhere – you need a physical presence (you need the puppet closet) when you have physical objects, you need a physical place
but you have to be everywhere – be where your clients are when they want to use you
presences and identities are tied to environments – you can be in multiple presences at the same time. In each, you can have information needs.
be where they are
- wherever they are (physically and virtually)
- and whatever they want to do, or be
- we must be available, positioned, and ready to support, assist, etc – on their terms
- visible presences
- in all the various places they are
- not unlike building new branches or bookmobile routes
Plan services for these people in new digital communities!
We have to be better online
- we do a great job in person
- online, we have to be better
- customers get frustrated fast online – and will go away just as fast
basic human urges
- communicate, be heard
- to learn
- to organize, make sense of the world,
- search for and make meaning
- etc
- We help in those areas
How do we get there?
Move beyond the building
******************
Discussion Panel (interesting snippets):
what matters is why people use these tools – not how a library can use the tools
A priest – is ALWAYS a priest – at church, on the plane, at the cookout. In the same way, a librarian needs to be a librarian in all these emerging digital outposts.
What will make the difference is the experience around the stuff – not the stuff itself. If other places provide a better experience than the library, our customers will go there instead of the library.
We are doing the work right – but are we doing the right work?