A patron came in to the library… I like an email, from an anonymous librarian, that starts that way! Here goes: A patron came in to the library No library card. Resident of our town. No proof of residency to obtain card. Wanted to get on the internet for “5 minutes” Policy: Out-of State people $5.00 to get temporary internet card. Good for 30 days. (must have photo ID) Reciprocal borrowers, $5.00 to get internet access, good for 12 months, or exp. date on home library card, whichever is soonest. (must have home library card & photo ID) We have […]
Categories Engaging Library Users
183 posts
I’ve been reading I Shush lately from Woody E, a Librarian from Texas, and this caught my eye: This all leads to reader participation in the organization of information. Librarians no longer have a monopoly on this. Computers and people are finding new, sexier ways to it for themselves. For librarians to stay in the game, we’ve got to incorporate self-organizing, bottom-up, grassroots, folksonomies into the very careful and rather inert records we create. We need moveable records (or, to clarify: portions of records) that make library materials dynamic for our users. iBistro is a step toward Amazon, but we’ve […]
Via The Social Customer Manifesto: Guy Kawasaki posts a Top Ten list: The Art of Customer Service. http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_art_of_cust.html This might be good to read and apply to our libraries: how does the administration feel about customer service? How does the director/dean/head librarian feel about users? What levels of trust are their in your institutiuons between management and front line librarians and support staff? Who blames who when things go wrong? Are we hiring the right people or pormoting the right people to the right jobs? Here’s the full list: Start at the top Put the customer in control (Ding Ding) […]
One are Jenny and I discuss in the Roadshow is content. Generation C, the young folks growing up with the knowl;edge, tools and desire to create, remix and mash up stuff, will figure into future library services in ways we haven’t even pondered yet. Add this piece in to the mix: http://www.webmonkey.com/06/10/index1a.html “Preserving Our Rights in the Mashosphere” by Michael Calore covers some fascinating ground. The driving philosophy behind mashups and other Web 2.0 technologies is that data should be open, exposed, and sharable. This so-called “Right to Remix” doesn’t mean that people should be required to give up their […]
Just a link for now: http://www.yalibrarian.com/2006/02/library-20-services-to-teens-listing.html Lots of cool stuff to explore and good ground for imagining what your library could do! Take a look.
http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/archives/2006/02/being_truly_tee.html We need to ask ourselves which of our policies really are not working for us and which one’s need to be made positive and friendly. Let’s make sure we don’t extend our authority control issues with information to authoritarian control foci with users. Not good. Then let’s run our policies through a discussion with our teen advisors. Adventurous and visionary libraries know the value of this through experience.
Great post at OPL Plus! http://opls.blogspot.com/2006/01/just-give-customer-what-heshe-wants.html That’s just what I’ve been saying. Our customers don’t want books or articles; they don’t even want information. Our customers want answers to their questions, solutions for their problems. If you provide answers and solutions, you’ll thrive. If you don’t….polish up that resume.
So, you may be sitting in a planning meeting and an idea comes up to add or change a service at your library. One of my key points in planning for technology, and one I think applies to all types of services in libraries is to make sure you are being user-centered. For example, use this checklist to tell if you are proceeding down the wrong path: Does it place a barrier between the user and the service? Is it librarian-centered or user-centered in conception, i.e. is it born from complaints from librarians about users? Does it add more rules […]
http://www.teachinglibrarian.org/weblog/2005/03/early-adopter-of-sms-reference.html I apoligize if this made the rounds back in March — maybe because I was at CIL I totally missed it! But this is intriguing. I wonder what their numbers are? How the librarians feel about it? And what the student perception of the library might be because of this innovative service? Take a look at their info page for the service: http://www.selu.edu/Library/ServicesDept/referenc/textalibrarian.html
This is a cross post from the Online Social Network Conference going on now: One thing that has really impressed me is the use of subject-guide categories at Kansas City Public Library. Their site is full of pages that are often updated with local information and general interest stuff as well — and many of the pages have specfiic RSS feeds. ? Take a look at: ? http://www.kclibrary.org http://www.kclibrary.org/guides/computers/index.cfm?article=read&articleID=109 It’s ingenious and I believe they hit on one of the strengths of creating an OSN for a community via the library: highlighting local information. Back in the day — 🙂 […]