Yesterday, a patron came to me for help with finding a book. She said she thought it was checked in, but she wasn’t sure. I looked it up, found it was checked in, so we went to the shelf and got the book. On our walk through the stacks, she said to me that libraries are intimidating. I simply reassured her, and said that they’re really not.
WHAT?!?! That was the wrong response. I should have asked her “How can we make the library less intimidating?” I could have gained a lot of insight had I just thought to ask that question.
The moral of the story: Never stop questioning. When you hear something you don’t like, ask why. Or ask how we can do things differently. Much understanding can be gained by just asking a few questions.
–Post by Carrie Straka, Tame the Web contributor