Hermann Hesse once wrote that “nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.”¹ This is a story of self-critique, about finding a problem in myself and fixing it. This is also a story about changing the culture of libraries.

Imagine a team of alien anthropologists visiting libraries across America, including yours, to study the relationship between public libraries and patrons. They secretly watch your meetings, your water cooler banter, your interactions, your emails, your Staff Days. Clipboard in hand, they observe a depressing and paradoxical state of affairs, something we allow to happen every day in our public libraries all the time: patron bashing. They do a quantitative analysis on how we talk about patrons. They logically conclude that we must secretly hate the very people we serve.

Patron bashing—i.e. venting, ruminating, gossiping—might be the greatest failure when it comes to customer service and perhaps the greatest barrier to excellent customer service in libraries. It creates a toxic, negative environment that stunts innovation, wastes time, and waters down service. If that isn’t bad enough, patron bashing is a drain on our mental and organizational health.

Failing

I didn’t always care about patron bashing. In fact, I was pretty darn good at it, if I do say so myself.

My first job at a public library was as a security guard. I was a young, bright-eyed future librarian who simply wanted to work in the sacred space that is the library. Growing up in a small town, I remember being surprised and shocked that security guards even existed at libraries. An optimistic person by nature, I thought it would be the most peaceful job in the world. Imagine my surprise at seeing people get drunk at the library, watch porn, overdose, and fight. I quickly and naturally devolved into the odd behavior that is patron bashing. Or rather, I simply adapted to my environment and followed the crowd. It became a ritual, something to kill time, something to laugh at, something to talk about with coworkers, friends, and family. Conversations began with common phrases: “You wouldn’t believe. . . ” or “So this patron today. . . ” or “Did you read that incident report?” Patron bashing is fun not only at work and work events but even at personal gatherings. At family Christmas, I would tell my latest crazy patron story. I was a propaganda machine, peddling a false narrative: that the library is a crazy place with crazy people. “I didn’t know that happened in libraries!” people gasp. “Oh yes,” we reply with a grin, “all the time.”

Learning

But that’s simply not true. The whole thing is a crock, a sham, a failure in thinking. As a philosophy major, I’ve always been interested in fallacies and the psychology behind flawed thinking. Perhaps that’s why I began to notice that something was wrong with me. Why was patron bashing suddenly a feature of my personality, part of my daily job description? I was supposedly an optimist. I had a patron bashing problem and I knew it. I began thinking more deeply about the phenomenon. Why do we do it? Is this healthy? We don’t hate patrons. Most people that work in libraries are good people. How did we get here?

After becoming a librarian and serving patrons in a different capacity, I thought about the issue deeper. Complex phenomena usually have complex causes. I came up with a few broad explanations, all having to do with flawed thinking and unconscious bias. All of these are well studied and affect our lives on multiple levels.

Negative Bias

To start things off, consider negativity (memory) bias. Psychology tells us that our memories much prefer negative events to neutral or positive experiences. This is a hard-wired evolutionary survival feature. Memory is not a truth machine or logbook. It’s interested in survival, which means giving more weight to negative memories. It was more beneficial to remember the time our cousin was killed by a lion (lion = danger) rather than the time he wasn’t killed by a duck, gazelle, or rabbit. Translation: we tend to remember negative patron experiences, we tend to forget positive patron experiences, and we rarely register neutral patron experiences (unmemorable by definition).

One day, I decided to put my negative memory to the test. I started a tally sheet with three columns: good, bad, and neutral experiences. I took it out to the reference desk for a couple shifts. Not surprisingly, the results were clear: life at the public service desk is quite pleasant and usually uneventful. My tally sheet had a significant number of good experiences, zero bad experiences, and mostly neutral experiences. I understand this tally fluctuates based on public service desk, but you get the point. An objective look at what really happens on a day-to-day basis is an enlightening exercise. It’s not about forgetting, but remembering what you constantly are forgetting.

Confirmation Bias

The next explanation for patron bashing is the evil cousin of negativity bias: confirmation bias. The classic example is the researcher who only sees evidence that supports his theory and ignores evidence that contradicts it. In the library, after being tricked by our negative memory, we begin to form a philosophy or worldview about patrons: that in fact, these negative things are always happening and that patrons really are naughty. Equipped with that assumption—patrons are naughty—we selectively pick experiences that confirm that perspective while ignoring the ones that don’t, bolstering our worldview, letting it slowly infiltrate our souls. At this point, we have fallen into the abyss, and it only gets deeper. Negativity bias and confirmation bias are powerful defects, affecting all aspects of personal and professional life.

I began to notice the interesting phenomenon of staff members obsessing over reading incident reports, that beautiful log of everything weird at the library. This is juicy patron gossip for the most part and, like reading the National Enquirer at the grocery store, it’s kind of a guilty pleasure. Safety is one thing—and it’s informative to know which patrons are banned—but religiously reading about the latest drunk person or torn-up book seems unproductive to me. I question the motive. This could easily lead to confirmation bias and the idea that tons of patrons are constantly transgressing. But statistics tell us that an infinitesimal amount actually break the rules. Ninety-nine percent of our patrons behave. What if we spent 99 percent of our time talking about those 99 percent? How would that affect customer service? Consider how many patrons are in your ILS right now. Consider how many people walk through the doors each day, each week. Now consider how many banned patrons you have (we have eighty-six).

Social Aspect

Next, I thought about the social aspect of patron bashing. Talking crap about patrons always involves co-bashers, coworkers, “co-ruminators” (as the literature would say). We need dance partners, and they are available, ready, willing, and part of the problem. I actually thought the social aspect was the point. I thought that patron bashing was good for camaraderie, relationship-building, or feeling better about an incident. I was wrong (more on that later). Sociology provides us with the concept of groupthink, the tendency of people to go with the flow rather than going against the grain or speaking up.² Listening to someone bash patrons is an exercise in groupthink: person A bashes, person B listens awkwardly, person C follows suit. Nobody wants to be rude, understandably so. But repeat the process, and patron bashing becomes the workplace culture, spreading like wildfire throughout the organization.

Society

Lastly, I thought about larger societal problems, many of which stem from flawed and biased thinking. These are unconscious biased perceptions shared by an entire culture.

Patron bashing reminded me of various –isms. Prejudice is fueled by false narratives and stereotypes about certain groups of people. Patron bashing is fueled by false narratives and stereotypes about patrons. More directly, patron bashing can be a form of disguised racism, a way to talk about ethnicities without seeming to. Lastly, patron bashing has an underlying hint of classism, of snobbery, of paternalism, of “I’m a smart librarian.” You certainly see that in academic libraries as well.

Patrons are people. They are entitled to the empathy and respect that all people deserve—the more the better. Some people are homeless and poor and undereducated and struggle with mental illness, and that’s important to understand as public servants. Patrons represent that same spectrum. But here’s the point: it shouldn’t matter when it comes to patron bashing. Treating people with respect and dignity is categorical and universal.

A New Path

The movie Vanilla Sky has a memorable line that speaks to the beauty and horror of free will: “Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.”³ Scary, but true. The effort to end patron bashing is a good opportunity to take advantage of that statement.

Learning about my flaws was enlightening to me, like I’d solved a problem or uncovered a secret. It was a small moral victory. The behavior made sense now. Understanding, for me, was a huge step towards changing my thoughts and behavior. Patron bashing doesn’t have an on/off switch. In my case, I gradually stopped doing it (although to be honest, occasionally I still do). The more I thought about it, the less I did it. Armed with a little bit of knowledge and inspiration, I began to do speaking gigs and Staff Days. I became “that guy that talks about patron bashing,” a reputation that I awkwardly but humbly embraced. I talked to library staff, who agreed: patron bashing is killing our spirit of public service. We need to fall back in love with patrons.

What Science Says

The theory of venting, or letting off steam, has been with us since the Roman gladiators. Watching brutal sports was said to have cathartic effects, to release the aggression within us. Freud promoted the same cathartic model, imagining we were hydraulic machines, filled with fluids that build up. Today, the virtue of venting is common sense, a kind of folk psychology that everyone intuitively believes.

Except the hydraulic model is false.

To take my understanding to the next level, I collaborated with Samantha Minnis, a passionate and brilliant librarian from Grand Valley State University. Together we dove into the literature and learned more about the psychology of venting and what science had to say about it. We learned that science is oddly but overwhelmingly in agreement on the issue: venting and rumination is not good for anyone involved—not the person you are venting against, not you, not your coworkers, not even innocent bystanders that you could potentially harm. Article after article, study after study—we were actually shocked at the depth of treatment. Ruminating with colleagues is not a good way to build relationships, and it’s not a healthy way to recover from a patron interactions.

Patron bashing comes in two different flavors. First, passively talking about patrons in a negative light. This is general and not tied to a specific negative experience or patron. Second, having a negative experience with a patron and subsequently ruminating and venting about it. The former is more prevalent but much easier to deal with—in fact, you can simply stop doing it. The latter involves emotions and is harder to deal with.

When it comes to dealing with negative patron interaction, we learned that not venting is a viable and simple option—anger can subside in as little as ten minutes.⁴ We learned about cognitive reappraisal, or thinking constructively about a negative interaction rather than resorting to bashing. We shared our knowledge and experience and got great feedback from librarians throughout Michigan and Indiana.

Conclusion

When dealing with negative patron interactions, I find a lot of wisdom and solace in the old ancient moral philosophy of Stoicism, which teaches (a) controlling negative emotions with our mind and (b) not worrying about things that are beyond our control.5 The perfect Stoic would never get angry at a patron—the emotion simply wouldn’t trigger—but sometimes that’s not realistic. We work on the emotion after the fact. We step aside, take a few deep breaths, and we let the emotion run its course. Venting is not required. We also understand that a patron’s behavior is beyond our control. Whether a patron had a bad day or bad upbringing, we have no idea. We compassionately give them the benefit of the doubt, as we do for ourselves.

The easiest way to stop patron bashing is to stop bashing patrons. That’s not enlightening or deep, but that’s what I’ve come to believe personally. It starts with you. You don’t have to go cold turkey. The most important thing is to never judge or look down upon your fellow colleagues for patron bashing or gossiping. Remember that it’s a completely normal and natural thing. Compassionately refrain from it, politely have real conversations with people, even have respectful debates. Be real. I’ve had many friendly debates with colleagues; some still patron bash, some don’t, and that’s okay. Some agree on an intellectual level, others on an emotional level, others on a moral level. It’s going to happen. At least my colleagues know where I stand, and that’s all I can do.

References

1. Hermann Hesse, Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth (Frankfurt, Germany: Fischer Verlag, 1919), 134.
2. James K. Esser, “Alive and Well After 25 Years: A Review of Groupthink Research,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 73, nos. 2–3 (1998): 116–41.
3. Vanilla Sky, dir. Cameron Crowe (2001).
4. Mo Wang et al., “Can’t Get It Out of My Mind: Employee Rumination After Customer Mistreatment and Negative Mood in the Next Morning,” Journal of Applied Psychology 98, no. 6 (2013).
5. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, trans. George Lang (New York: Prometheus Books, 1991).

Further Reading

B.J. Bushman, “Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28, no. 6 (2002): 724–31.

B.J. Bushman et al., “Chewing on It Can Chew You Up: Effects of Rumination on Triggered Displaced Aggression,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88, no. 6 (2005): 969–83.

B.J. Bushman, Roy F. Baumeister, and Collen M. Phillips, “Do People Aggress to Improve Their Mood? Catharsis Beliefs, Affect Regulation Opportunity, and Aggressive Responding,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 81, no. 1 (2001): 17–32.

Elizabeth Bernstein, “Venting Isn’t Good for Us,” The Wall Street Journal: Health and Wellness, Personal Journal, Aug. 11, 2015.

Jennifer Byrd-Craven et al., “Co-Ruminating Increases Stress Hormone Levels in Women,” Hormones and Behavior 53 (2008): 489–92.

Cheryl Gould, “A Facilitative Mindset: Five Steps to a Customer-Service Culture,” Public Libraries Online, Feb. 25, 2015, accessed Feb. 9, 2017.

Subha Govindarajan, “Effects of Stress and CoRumination on Creativity and Performance” (master’s thesis, San Jose State University, 2012), accessed Feb. 9, 2017.

Paul Rozin and Edward B. Royzman, “Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5, no. 4 (2001): 296–320.

The post How I Learned To Love Patrons Again first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

CHELSEA DODD COLEMAN is Information Services Supervisor at Montclair (NJ) Public Library. EMILY GRACE LE MAY is the Youth Services Librarian at Mt. Pleasant Library, Providence (RI).

Contact Chelsea at chelsea.dodd@gmail.com. Contact Emily at emilygracelemay@gmail.com.

Chelsea is currently reading Tudors Versus Stewarts: The Fatal Inheritance of Mary, Queen of Scots by Linda Porter. Emily is currently reading Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver.

When it comes to making changes in the work­place, most of us already know to look for inspiration from other libraries and librarians, and even other nonprofit groups, but there is much to be learned from the for-profit world. If you’re looking to improve your statistics and create a new, vibrant environment, check out some corporate strategies and adapt them for your library. Adaptation is crucial—what was popular and worked well before may be passé and ineffective now, and a service or medium of communication that seemed like a passing fancy may be here to stay.

A good business trend that public libraries can jump on this year is customer experience management (CXM), a proactive approach that focuses on delivering value to customers. An ef­fective CXM strategy drives brand advocacy, sales, and revenue. When adapted for libraries, the evaluation of brand advocacy remains largely the same. However, libraries should look at the sales component in terms of circulation and program attendance, and revenue by way of increased fiscal support from local/federal government, donations from community members, and partner­ships with other organizations. It is a mistake to assume that enhancing our operations with business practices will detract from our public service mission. Corporations spend millions of dollars to understand what makes a customer tick, and we should take advantage of their knowl­edge. Only libraries willing to step out of their comfort zones will thrive in the twenty-first century.

Customer Service

Providing good customer service is important in almost every line of work. While there are many amazing companies to learn from, let’s start with three from the 2015 Customer Service Hall of Fame.[1]

Amazon

Why they’re great: The company recently patented their anticipatory shipping service, which uses “order histories to predict what a customer will need, and then ships to nearby warehouses and hubs before they even purchase the item.”[2]

How this can be applied to libraries: Get to know your patrons. Use the inevitable small talk that occurs at the circulation desk to your advantage, and take notes if you need to. Make collection purchases and plan programs with patrons in mind, set new materials aside for them when they arrive, and always offer to order an item for them if it’s unavailable. You should also consider reaching out to neighboring libraries to get an idea of what materi­als they have and what programs they offer that could be of interest to your own patrons. The patron will probably relish the attention, you’ll know what sort of programs to offer in the future, and the books you purchase will have readers waiting upon arrival. Win/win/win.

Apple

Why they’re great: They believe that good customer service stems from “employees who are motivated, who take ownership, [and] who take pride in what they do.”[3]

How this can be applied to libraries: Managers need to make good hiring decisions, pursue change-makers, and al­low existing staff to implement changes to make their work lives easier and improve upon the lives of patrons. Staff members are the face of your library and should be included in the decision-making process.

Marriott

Why they’re great: The first of their core values listed online is “take care of associates and they will take care of the customers.”[4]

How this can be applied to libraries: Hiring decisions are just the first of many steps. Man­agement should continue to be responsive to, supportive of, and engaged with their staff. When employees feel that manage­ment has their back, loyalty to the library and the services it provides is assured.

Listening and responding to patrons is a key component of sophisticated customer service. For example, the museum pass program at Montclair (NJ) Public Library only has enough museum passes for a twenty-four-hour checkout, which means that most patrons must pick up the pass on the day of their visit. This became an issue for those wishing to visit a museum in New York on a Sunday when the library does not open until 1 p.m. After feedback from patrons, the policy was adjusted so that museum passes are checked out for an entire weekend—a minor adjustment that improved the program.

But was this feedback only given to the department that handles the museum passes? No. The fact is that “customers don’t care what channel or department you work in,”[5] and patrons probably won’t know or care if you’re a clerk or a director.

If a patron takes the time to ask you a question or provide feedback, you should take the time to provide an answer or acknowledge the input regardless of your position in the library. Should the ques­tion require greater resources of time or expertise than you can provide, don’t just physically point in the direction of a coworker—take the opportunity to intro­duce them and bring them up to speed with the patron’s query to ensure a fluid, polished experience. This is a potentially golden moment—a chance to make the patron feel catered to and increase his or her sense of familiarity and security with the library.

The Adult Services area of Knight Memorial Library, Providence (RI), has lots of natural light, open windows, a bilingual information board, and oversized, clearly visible, and inexpensively made signage to help patrons find what they need. (Photo by Troy B. Thompson Photography)

Physical Space

If you can’t afford to make major reno­vations, small and mindful changes can still make an enormous difference. Try to maintain a pleasant environment with the scent of (unlit!) candles strategically tucked on shelves, or crack a window to let in the fresh air. Consider serving coffee and pastries not only for their aroma, but also to turn a small profit and encourage your patrons to linger and browse the shelves while they enjoy their afternoon pick-me-up. Even investing in a coffee machine can go a long way.

Be sure to eliminate musty smells from books and rugs and dust your shelves whenever possible. Provide clusters of comfortable seating, ample table space, and cozy, welcoming lighting for solitary reading or small group socializing. Think about all the students who opt to study in coffee shops and the accompanying background noise; while people have traditionally come to libraries for quiet places to read, the majority of your com­munity may actually be happier with light background chatter or even some soft background music during non-peak hours. Consider asking for your patrons’ input again, and then experiment and adjust accordingly.

When making any interior changes, observe your patrons’ migration patterns and know your high traffic areas, then make use of that space with dynamic, aesthetically pleasing, and relevant displays, filled out with informational handouts that connect to the community. Consider investing in a few shelf lights to highlight popular collections or new materials, as “illuminated displays receive twice the attention of non-illuminated displays.”[6]

Even more specifically, pay close at­tention to the area immediately inside and to the right of your doorway as this is naturally where people initially gravitate, and why you’ll find some of the most exciting stuff at Barnes & Noble located there (bestsellers, staff picks, glossy magazines, topical/themed displays, and so on).

Digital Space

A library’s virtual presence is just as important as its physical space. While a building has a limited capacity, there is no limit to the number of visits to your web­site and social media pages. The extent of services offered online is growing, and it is crucial that patrons feel comfortable ac­cessing and interacting with your library in every dimension.

The first place to evaluate is the library website. Is it cluttered with unnecessary buttons? Does the content structure make sense? Do menu labels make it dif­ficult to determine where a library service can be found? Is the language representa­tive of your brand, whether it is friendly and casual or professional and formal?

It is never the best idea to rely on the perceptions of library staff in assessment. The primary audience for your site is cur­rent and future library patrons. Most librar­ies struggle to find time for proper surveys, but make it a project for your staff on the frontlines to gather feedback. Count ques­tions about where specific content can be found. Look at your website analytics to determine the pages most frequently visited and the ones perhaps too hidden. Provide staff with introductory talking points to gain insight into how patrons feel and use the site, and then record their responses. This mix of hard and soft data will paint a picture of areas of success to replicate and areas to improve.

When it comes time to make changes, website overhauls are a thing of the past (unless your site is in real trouble). Few loyal customers like change, even when it is in their best interest. Take a tip from online retail giants like Amazon and make incremental changes while keeping the big picture in mind. The Amazon of 2013 is relatively different than what we see today, but the transition was smooth and customers rarely took note of the changes.

The next place to assess in the virtual realm is your social media presence. The level of community interaction on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat means that libraries cannot af­ford to ignore social-media strategy.

Many noncommunication profession­als are aware of Hootsuite and its ability to enable scheduled posts to up to three social media accounts for free. While this is helpful to guarantee regular postings, interaction is the most important part of a good strategy. Regularly scheduled, multiplatform posts should serve as the backbone and limbs of your social media presence, while the individualized atten­tion of likes, comments, and the use of newly relevant hashtags are the heart and soul. Like and follow other pages, com­ment on their posts, share their posts, and tag other people and organizations. Get a conversation going.

Community Relations

What do customer service and physical and virtual spaces contribute to? Commu­nity relations. A subset of public relations, true community relations activities aim to be mutually beneficial. Community rela­tions is one of the more important efforts to which library staff should contribute time. Engaging locally builds strong networks and support when done with sincerity.

Take for example the case of Dawn dishwashing detergent. Most recall the Dawn commercials following the 2010 BP disaster that showed crude-covered birds being washed clean of oil. Its maker, Procter & Gamble (P&G), donated thou­sands of bottles of the product and much of its revenue from Dawn sales to the wildlife cleanup effort.[7] Wildlife organi­zations got what they needed to help rectify the situation, and Dawn revenues jumped. This tactic wasn’t new, but fol­lowed decades of engaging with wildlife and bird rescue organizations that already insisted on using Dawn. The built-in rela­tionship made it easy for P&G to swoop in (pun intended) at a moment’s notice.

Librarians give to the community ev­ery day, which makes our Dawn-like sto­ries even more readily available. Libraries build connections with organizations that can help tout library usefulness.

Each staff member can play a part re­gardless of his or her level of involvement in outreach. By being present at local organization meetings and events, and by recording details of activities in these organizations, staff will gain a better un­derstanding of how to place themselves in the community.

One way to record and track data is by using a customer relationship manage­ment (CRM) database. Used by compa­nies both large and small, CRM databases capture data and enable seamless sharing with colleagues. Most companies use CRM as a selling strategy, but libraries can easily tweak its purpose to enhance com­munity relationship initiatives.

At Montclair Public Library, Bitrix24 is the CRM database of choice. The free account can be used by up to twelve indi­viduals and allows users to create custom fields to make it more applicable to library contacts and projects. Using Bitrix24 en­ables staff from all departments to share contacts and the status of projects and partnerships. The biggest obstacle en­countered thus far is encouraging staff to utilize it. When regularly put to use, staff members are able to easily find contacts for programs and services, and depart­ments can avoid duplication of efforts.

Other great web-based CRM databas­es that have free account options include Insightly and Zoho. For smaller libraries, staff members can even create a Micro­soft Access database or use something as simple as a spreadsheet to track relation­ships. Or, if a library has the resources, it can build its own database to track patron demographics like the Charlotte (NC) Mecklenburg Library did.[8]

Monitoring relationships is just one part of healthy community relations. The other is responsiveness. The most re­spected companies in the world respond to their customers quickly. If you ever want to evaluate the quality of a business, voice a complaint and see how they ad­dress the situation and with what speed.

As Peter Shankman advocates in Zom­bie Loyalists, grow your “zombie” army. Remember that true community relations aims to be mutually beneficial—that is, “the loyalty of your zombies is directly proportional to your loyalty to them.”[9] Responding to your patrons within twenty-four hours and being a consistent voice on local social media groups is the easiest way to start.

When local residents and businesses start promoting library services for you, you’ll know that you’re headed in the right direction. Take for instance a resident who decides to voice, in a closed group, that he believes the library is irresponsibly weeding materials. The greatest joy is seeing other community members stand up for the librarians. The same goes for questions about places to donate books or to find senior activities, and seeing multiple people comment that the library is the place to check. When citizens promote and defend the library without solicitation, the zombie infection is on its way.

Conclusion

The most difficult part in evaluating your library’s customer experience is your objectivity. A great example of a business gaining perspective comes from Gary Shapiro’s Ninja Innovation. When the Ford Motor Company was struggling, it did what “a true ninja innovator would do: [it] brought someone in from the outside to shake things up.”[10] The new CEO rede­fined Ford as a tech company rather than a car company. Libraries have been in the book business for so long that perhaps the time has come to go back to our roots as an information services business, regardless of format.

While bringing in fresh employees with clean slates is ideal, secret shoppers are free and can be just as effective. Ask family, friends, and colleagues from other libraries to visit and evaluate your library’s customer service, physical atmosphere, and online presence. Encourage them to voice anything that stands out to them, good and bad.

Remember that as librarians, we don’t necessarily have to know everything—we just have to know where to look to find the best answers. Don’t be afraid to broaden the scope of your search to the for-profit sphere when considering best nonprofit customer service practices. And don’t be afraid to try something new. As you know, “we’ve always done it this way” can be a dangerous mindset.

Suggested Reading

Connected by Design: 7 Principles for Business Transformation through Functional Integration by Barry Wacksman and Chris Stutzman

“The Difference Between CXM and WCXM” by Irina Guseva (EContent, Jan./Feb. 2013).

Oracle 2011 Customer Experience Impact Report.

“Service Standards Are the Key to Becoming Like the Businesses You Love” by Marsha Lindquist (American Salesman, Nov. 2015).

“To Improve Your Customer Experience, Engage Your Employees” by Bruce Temkin (Customer Relationship Management, May 2015).

“The Year of the Customer: 16 Customer Service And Experience (CX) Trends For 2016” by Shep Hyken (Forbes, Jan. 2016).

References

[1] Michael B. Sauter, Thomas C. Frohlich, and Sam Stebbins, “2015’s Customer Service Hall of Fame,” USA Today, Aug. 2, 2015.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Adam Metz, The Social Customer: How Brands Can Use Social CRM to Acquire, Monetize, and Retain Fans, Friends, and Followers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012), 118.

[6] Chris Rippel, “What Libraries Can Learn from Bookstores,” Web Junction, Sept. 11, 2003.

[7] Elizabeth Shogren, “Why Dawn Is the Bird Cleaner of Choice in Oil Spills,” NPR, June 23, 2010.

[8] Andrew Dunn, “How Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Convinced 13,000 People to Come Back,” Charlotte Agenda, Sept. 8, 2015.

[9] Peter Shankman, Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans (New York: St. Martin’s Pr., 2015), 4.

[10] Gary Shapiro, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses (New York: William Morrow, 2013), 160.

The post FEATURE | The Imitation Game: Applying For-Profit Strategies in the Nonprofit World first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Fast forward 1 ½, 2 years.  My Gene Simmons patron walks by the desk, and I say, “Hi, Joey” in a friendly, professional way.  He gets a haunted look on his face (he is with a woman) and disappears. About half an hour later he sidles up to the desk, looks left and right, and in a lowered voice says, “Um, I am sorry, but how do I know you?” I start to tell him that he has come in the library to use the public computers and I have worked with him, but he continues, “Cuz, you see I am in a BAND and…” and then he looks at me with sort of an embarrassed look.  I look back, and the penny drops. He is trying to figure out if I am somebody whom, after a concert, in a substance-filled haze, he may have had sex with but cannot remember.  He is worried because, even for rockers, this is bad form.  I take mercy on him. “Sir, every interaction we had was right here, and of a reference nature.”

“Oh, GOOD!” he exclaims.  He does not wipe his forehead, but comes close. I try to keep my poker face on.  Then a realization dawns on him that expressing heartfelt thanks that one DID NOT have sex with someone—to the person that he is grateful he did not sleep with—is probably also bad form, and possibly insulting besides, so he attempts to amend the situation: “Not that you’re not cute and all…” This is quite outside what I have read in Emily Post (my mother made me purchase a copy as a young adult), but saying “thank you” is never amiss, so I thank him for the compliment. He goes on to comment on my “cool pants.”  Then a thought strikes him. “You remembered me. How?”  I reply “this town is kinda Mayberry. How many six-foot-plus men with long blue-black hair do you see in the library?”  He says “Just me.” I smile and nod and he leaves again.

A couple months later my patron comes in to see if we have a biography on Eric Carr. We do not and I get it via interlibrary loan. While entering the ILL I comment idly about his period with KISS, and Joey is impressed that a librarian has heard of–and indeed knows a little bit about–this musician. In a week and a half he comes in to pick it up. Since he has called it a “hold” rather than an interlibrary loan, Circ has not been able to find it, so he comes to me and I find it, remembering the title. Given that Joey is the lead singer in a KISS tribute band, remembering the book is no real feat, but he is impressed. He tells my boss I am awesome and his “main reason for coming in.”

A few weeks later…
Joey enters the library and comes up to me at the desk, and I ask if he enjoyed the book. He looks very serious and says, “can I speak to you in private?”  I am not sure how private I am ready for, so I step away from the desk and into the mysteries.

“How can I help you?”

“Will you go out with me?”

Having expected a request for information or advice of a sensitive nature rather than an invitation, I am thrown, and pause for a moment.  Carefully I respond. “I am really flattered, but I am not in a place where I am dating right now.” He looks a little crestfallen and says “Really complicated, huh?” I shudder to think what a rocker who has hazy or no memories of his interactions with female fans might think was “complicated” so I give a little more detail than I might otherwise. “I am recovering from a breakup and not really feeling like jumping into the dating pool.”  He straightens up and says, “well, don’t let that make you get down on yourself. He was dumb. You are friendly and nice and smart and HAWT!” Emily Post would only have one response to that—I think—though it was not covered at all in the book I read: “Why, that is very sweet. Thank you.”

“In fact, I probably should not tell you this, but I do not want you to be down on yourself and have low self-esteem—I have had wicked fantasies about you.” And he shakes his head and fans his hands dramatically in the “way hot” gesture. “Well, thank you. Again, I am flattered.”

He leaves the mysteries, saying “Goodbye, and keep positive!”

The things they don’t teach you in library school…

The post No, Sir, Our Interactions Have Been Purely of a Reference Nature first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I work at a public library was started by librarian Gina Sheridan in 2010 as a way to remember and share the interesting encounters she had at her library. Before long, she had shared the blog with other librarians who in turn shared their own stories to add to the site. Now thousands of readers, from librarians to library lovers, read and share these stories on Tumblr.

Posts to the site are filed, in true librarian fashion, into various categories based on the Dewey Decimal System, including “028.9 Reading Interests and Habits,” “302.2 Miscommunication,” “745.5 Found Objects,” and “808.879083 Children’s Humor.”

Recent submissions have included humorous word mix-ups:

“Same, Not the

Patron: I need books on gynecology.

I begin to walk to the section.

Patron: Yeah, I really want to know about my ancestors.

I quickly change course.”^[1]

And adorable children:

“Blues, Library

A little girl was taking her time picking out books when suddenly she sighed heavily.

Girl: Coming to the library makes me sad.

Me: Oh dear! Why does it make you sad?!

Girl: Because it reminds me of school and school is out and I miss it terribly.”^[2]

Sheridan says that I work at a public library gets about ten story submissions per week, some of which go up right away if they catch her interest. Not every story makes it to the site, though; Sheridan works to give the blog the right tone.  “I work at a public library isn’t about making fun of people or venting about work. It’s meant to be an objective celebration of the mundane–a reminder to stop and observe the weird and wonderful things that happen every day in a place where everyone is welcome,” Sheridan said.^[3]

Fans of the site can also find great library stories in print in Sheridan’s 2014 book I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks, which features some popular stories from the Tumblr blog but is comprised primarily of book-exclusive stories from Sheridan’s library life.

Sources:

[1] I Work at a Public Library. Accessed July 10, 2015. http://iworkatapubliclibrary.com/.

[2] ibid.

[3] Sheridan, Gina. E-mail interview by author. July 10, 2015.

The post Thousands Enjoy Public Library Stories first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What I’ve been pondering is the difference in reference interviews. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: there are really two types of reference interviews, advising and coaching/counseling. The advising type of reference interview is when a patron comes to seek our advice and help in finding answers. Counseling interviews, on the other hand, are not where patrons come to seek answers from us, but come to get us to help them figure something out. In other words, advice is when we, librarians, tell patrons what we think; counsel is when librarians help patrons figure out what they are thinking.

While they may seem very similar, they are not, and if we use the wrong approach we can actually cause great harm (that statement may or may not be hyperbole). Let me illustrate with the same question. Let’s say both Patron A and Patron B come to your desk asking to help them find a book about becoming a veterinarian. Seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? But through a solid reference interview you hear Patron A say, “Oh yes, I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian, even when I was a little kid,” but Patron B has a different answer, “Well, I’m guess I don’t know what I want to do with my life, but I like dogs.”

Now, in both cases we can answer the question. We can give both patrons the same book. But does Patron B really leave with the answer they are looking for? No. Patron B is really looking for help on what the heck to do with their life. What Patron B really needs to hear is that it’s OK to not have it figured out. Maybe share a little of your story, or the story of someone you know. Then you can provide them with resources on taking the next steps. And if you have the resources or training, perhaps you can help them figure out what point on the compass they should pursue.

What is really important is to know the difference between the two types of questions. Sometimes patrons are just looking for an answer, but other times patrons are looking for much bigger answers. Many times patrons seek answers that don’t address the issue behind the question. And often times, patrons are looking for someone like us to validate their feelings, doubts, and fears.

May you remember that you can give great advice or great counsel, but know when to provide it. May you remember that we all don’t have this whole life thing figured out, so give your patrons great empathy, and may you remember that sometimes the answer the patron is really seeking is the ear of someone kind, much like YOU.

Photo Credit: Francesca Launaro (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The post Advice vs. Counsel first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

There are two components to our everyday speech that affect how people perceive our tone: the words we use and their inflection. Choosing the wrong words to speak—those that discount the service you’re trying to sell—can leave patrons feeling poorly about your library, even if they are communicated in a happy tone of voice. Similarly, speaking only in positive language but sounding unsure or impatient will make it difficult for patrons to trust what you’re saying. In short, when we speak to patrons at a service desk or anywhere within the walls of our library, we are trying to sell them on a particular service—using a database, signing up for a program, or requesting an item through ILL, for example— or the library itself. This is now the case more than ever thanks to the library’s changing role in its community.

So how can we tweak our everyday language to sell ourselves better? Avoid negative phrases like “I don’t know.” Instead say something like “Great question! Let me look into that.” or “Let me connect you with…”  It’s perfectly fine not to know something, but offer to find out the necessary information, or direct the patron to someone else who can help. Further, avoid overly formal expressions such as “Please be aware…” and “I just want to make sure you know…” A more personalized alternative to very formal speech such as will make each patron feel valued as an individual rather than a number. No need to state that you’re going to tell them something. Just tell ’em!

Also, never say your library does not offer something without offering an alternative. This could be something as simple as “Birdman is checked out right now, but I would be happy to place a reserve for you” or “We don’t subscribe to Database X, but you can get similar information from Database Y; would you like me to show you?” One phrase that I find myself repeating almost weekly at my library is, “Unfortunately we do not offer passports here, but I know the post office does. Would you like their phone number?” Ending every conversation in a positive way will empower patrons to leave your library feeling optimistic, even if you could not provide them with exactly what they hoped to find.

Which phrases have you found particularly helpful –or detrimental—at your library?

[1] Do YOU Have a “Happy” Voice? (2015, February 11). Retrieved February 17, 2015, from http://zarbmeansbusiness.com/2015/02/11/do-you-have-a-happy-voice/

The post Finding Your “Happy Voice” first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Here is some background on Salt Lake City Public Library’s 24/7 proposal. The idea of remaining open all night came out of a discussion with Jason Mathis of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance; Bill Evans, former director of government relations for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Bruce Bastian, one of the founders of WordPerfect software. The three of them were concerned with Salt Lake City’s teenage homeless problem, and inquired if it was feasible for the library to provide space for the teens at night. SLCPL Executive Director John Spears did not want to open the library up at night for only the homeless teens, but instead suggested keeping the library open at night for everyone. When queried , the library board was receptive to a formal assessment of this possibility as well.

For those of us working in public libraries we may be thinking that this 24/7 proposal seems like a potential logistical nightmare, but Spears has clearly put a lot of thought into it. He aims to keep only the bottom two floors open at night, while utilizing runners to fetch items from floors three to six. Security will also be on hand to alleviate concerns over drug use, prostitution, and patrons camping out.  He hopes to use a grant to fund this initiative, and the grant will pay for a permanent set of staff to work the night shifts. The period of the grant as proposed is for two years. After that time has elapsed, the program will be evaluated to see if it will be made permanent.

As expected, there are some concerns from the community. These concerns are primarily about security, the homeless, and alcohol/drug use. Anybody who has ever worked in an urban library knows something about each of these issues. One way to alleviate these concerns is Spears’ desire to fund the two year grant solely with private and corporate donations—no public money will be involved. Regardless, these are still some serious considerations to factor in. Along with. . . Who will really use the library at these hours? Will it be the desired late shift workers, night owls, hipsters, and college students? Or will it instead be a haven for those with nowhere else to go and those looking for trouble? We keep hearing how libraries need to adapt or risk becoming obsolete, but is there really a demand for our urban libraries to be open 24/7? I suspect the majority of patrons who will take advantage of this new implementation will be the displaced, and those looking for a last minute movie rental. For now, this is getting the library some publicity, and creating many conversations in the media. We will all have to stay tuned to see what happens.

Until then, what do you think? Would a 24/7 schedule help serve your community?

The post Up All Night at the Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The PCLS process improvement process (yes, it’s an awkward mouthful) grew out of methods of evaluating services that PCLS began using during the economic downturn. “With the recession,” said PCLS Executive Director Georgia Lomax,¹ “we became very focused on evaluating how we do things. We started tracking how we were making improvements, particularly to save money to save staff so we could get through the recession.” Even as the economy improved, Lomax felt it was important that the library not lose this momentum. “We’re never going have all the money or all the staff that we want to do the things that our communities need,” she said. “Taxpayers appreciate us not wasting money, not wasting time, all of those things about being good stewards!”

Due to the recession, revenues for PCLS had dropped five years in a row. The system reduced operating expenses by $6.4 million between 2009 and 2013. Reductions had been taken from every area. In considering how to improve things, PCLS was wrestling, as almost all public service organizations are, with the Triple Constraint (also called the Iron Triangle). All projects, including the daily undertakings of work, hinge upon time, quality, and money.² If you want things faster and cheaper, quality will go down. If you want things faster and better quality, the cost will go up.

The more Lomax learned about various process improvement models and their impact on the business world, she realized “that’s what we’ve been doing, without in effect calling it that.” Lean is the umbrella term for a practice of eliminating waste in manufacturing processes that was pioneered by Toyota and other Japanese car manufacturers in the 1970s and ’80s.³ Lean aims to provide the best service to customers while reducing or eliminating waste. The “waste” it wants to eliminate is not people, skill, or quality. The waste is that seemingly immovable side of the Iron Triangle: time.⁴

Lomax wanted to take PCLS’s work with process improvement further, and an opportunity presented itself. PCLS’s Reading & Materials (R&M) Department is a large department with many moving parts. The department has thirty-two staff members, eighteen full-time and fourteen part-time. Under the umbrella of R&M are Acquisitions, Processing, Cataloging, Collection Development, Interlibrary Loan, Delivery, Circulation for the Processing & Administration Center, and Audio-Visual Mends. In 2013 the R&M Department added 195,000 new items to the collection and, as of November 2014, the department had added 185,000.

“Our Reading & Materials staff works very hard, but they were struggling with increasingly complex processes and managing workloads,” Lomax said. Staff was asking both management and each other if there were ways they could do things better. “They were saying ‘We can do things better.’ and they were saying ‘We want to be a part of doing things better. We have ideas.’”

Lomax worked with consultant Catherine McHugh, PhD, to create a tutorial on process improvement for staff. “Catherine comes from an industrial background and a production line environment,” Lomax said, “and this is an area she has expertise in. So she was able to support us, and helped us develop this tutorial that taught us all the key principals about customer supplier partnerships.” Lomax was concerned that the process improvement methodology used by the library not be overwhelming. “We didn’t want to be bureaucratic. We didn’t want to create a new process that overwhelmed us. We just wanted a really grassroots, effective, day-to-day thing that we could do. . . . [W]hat we ended up with is what our staff found worked for them.”

Beyond the tutorial, the library’s next step was to form a steering team responsible for applying process improvement to the R&M Department. Team members included R&M Department staff members, the Library Materials Supervisor, the R&M Department Director, the PCLS Deputy Director, and McHugh. Department members included staff from various sections and levels, including a cataloging librarian, cataloging specialist, collection development librarian, library assistant, and virtual experience librarian.

Before the R&M Process Improvement Steering Team got started with the task of process improvement, they spent the first several meetings receiving training, both about process improvement and about participating in successful meetings. The training was fundamental to their success.

The group was given a charter outlining the specific task they were to accomplish and the parameters of the project. The task before them was to evaluate the whole department and identify the section to begin implementing process improvement. Of the charter, Steering Team member Clare Murphy, virtual experience librarian, said, “[Process improvements] had to be staffing neutral and had to be within the budget. It had to be within the computer system that we have available to us. We had to look at every area within our department and figure out which areas could actually accomplish something of value [with process improvement] given those parameters.”

They also established ground rules (see figure 1 on previous page) for the meetings, which helped create a safe space. One of the challenging aspects of the team was that it was made up of staff from very different levels. Cataloging specialist Cathy O’Donnell said, “The rules and the charter emphasized that everyone was on a level playing field. There was not a boss, not a deputy director. We were told that in that room, in that meeting, everyone’s words had the exact same value.” Library assistant Sheri Kurfurst said, “The work we did could never have been done without the pre-work, without the charter, the ground rules. It took all the personality out of it [and] it allowed us to move forward and start being able to communicate and talk because we knew what the rules were.”

The training on process improvement methods cleared the way for success. O’Donnell said, “Catherine first taught us how to look at process improvement. She gave us the tools we would need, and the most important thing she taught us is that we are looking at the process. We are not looking at the person in the job. To remove ourselves and just look at the process and ask if anything can be tweaked. It’s not about how somebody does their job. This is how we do it now. Maybe if we try this, it will work out a little better, it will be easier to do it.”

Process improvement training included learning about customer-supplier partnerships, a key component of process improvement. Customer-supplier partnerships (see figure 2) are the link each department has with another. At any point in time, a department may be a customer, or they may be a supplier, depending on which hat they’re wearing.

Library assistant Sheri Kurfust said, “My biggest thing was learning about the customer-supplier roles. [We learned] that we wear these different hats all the time. It’s really important for us to communicate to the branches, and for them to communicate to us. So they can be aware that sometimes I am acting as their customer and sometimes their supplier.” Learning about the “changing hats” of customer service was vital to the success of the project.

Public service employees are always aware of the importance of customer service. We focus on providing the best service we can. Challenges arise when we forget that the people we serve also serve us. In the case of an administrative center serving many branches, the service they provide to us is almost invariably information—information that we need to serve them the best we can. Service can break down when it appears we’ve received a request to do something we can’t do. In a “customer is always right” environment, do we move heaven and earth to do it anyway, despite the problems it will cause? Do we toss it to a “problem pile” and hope they forget they asked? Or, as suggested by the customer-supplier roles, do we put on our own customer hat and ask them for more information? Do we discuss limitations and discover an alternative solution? Do we work in an environment that encourages this kind of communication?

Another key concept that was vital to the Steering Team in choosing which section to begin process improvement was the concept of low-hanging fruit, “which are the things that would be very easy to take care of but would have a major impact on what we were doing,” said O’Donnell. Identifying sections that had a bounty of low-hanging fruit helped the team ultimately decide which section would be the first to experience process improvement.

The Process Improvement Team

The Steering Team chose the Audio-Visual (AV) Mends section of the R&M Department. The AV Mends section deals with a variety of issues relating to the care of AV. They clean discs and mend or replace damaged cases and artwork. They match up cases and sets with lost and misplaced discs. They order replacement discs to complete sets with missing discs, and they manage a “boneyard” of discs from incomplete sets to complete sets when possible. The work in AV Mends also feeds into the weeding process. O’Donnell said, “We chose them first, and part of that was we saw that there was a lot of low-hanging fruit that would be easy for us to change, it was totally within our control, we didn’t have to rely on any outsider vendors.” Within the self-contained section, it would also be easy to see and measure the impact of process improvement.

Another part of the Steering Team’s role was acting as ambassadors of the process to the rest of the department. “Coming in, there was a lot of paranoia,” said team member Matt Lemanski, collection services librarian. “Morale was low.” After multiple years of budget cuts, staff was very concerned about job security. Doing more with less at top speed, while continually feeling behind, left staff exhausted and disheartened. Sally Sheldon, library assistant in the AV Mends section said, “I had reservations. I was thinking it was a point of cost cutting. I was thinking as they make things ‘leaner’ they’re going to eliminate different things that people are doing, and that will help with the elimination of positions.”

Sheldon’s feelings are not at all uncommon when staff starts hearing terms like lean and efficiencies. Terms like these and others, like trimming the fat or being nimble, have been used for years as polite euphemisms for eliminating staff and positions. The implication of using terms in this way is that staff is made to feel like they’re the problem, not the solution. An organization that wants to take on process improvement needs to open their minds to thinking about these concepts in a new way. It is not staff that needs to learn how to do the old way more efficiently with less people. Organizations must embrace the idea that it’s the process that needs to become lean so that staff can do it well, quickly, and with high quality. “Ultimately what you want is people working at the highest level of their jobs,” said Lomax. “Doing what is the most interesting to them. So the more you can process engineer the tedious stuff the more you can have fun at your job.”

“We worked really hard to be as transparent as possible,” said Lemanski. “Because we realized very quickly that the goal of this team was not to fire people.” The Steering Team sent out communications to the department after every meeting, providing a digest of the proceedings and their action steps for the next one. Full notes of each meeting were also posted on the library’s staff website. “Our end goal was to establish a safe environment within our team to [learn about] process improvement and then extend that safe environment outward,” said
Agnes Wiacek, cataloging librarian.

Team members reached out to department members about their fears. Tris Bazzar, supervisor of the AV Mends section, said, “One of the real turning points for my people was when Cathy O’Donnell came over and said ‘This is not to have the higher ups come in and tell you how to do your job. This is to empower you to do your jobs the best you can.’”

Once the AV Mends section had been chosen, The AV Mends Process Improvement (PI) Team was formed. In addition to some of the members of the original Steering Team, the new team included Bazzar, Sheldon, and Julie McKay, library assistants in the AV Mends department; Kati Irons (that’s me!), AV collection development librarian; and Kathy Norbeck, supervisor of the Buckley-PCLS branch. Original Steering Team members included Lomax, McHugh, Lemanski, and O’Donnell.

The AV Mends PI Team began with the same training on how to participate in process improvement and how to participate in effective meetings. Despite the groundwork that Steering Team members had done ahead of time, there were some rocky moments early in the process. As the AV Selector I had worked closely with the AV Mends section for years and had been asked several times over the years to lead evaluations of the department to determine ways to streamline it, and had been stymied every time. There were simply too many moving parts. In addition, since part of my professional charge is weeding, my head is full of packed branch shelves. “One in, one out” is my clear charge from the library, but my push to weed items had sometimes seemed to the AV Mends department as disrespectful to their work.

In addition, every time conversations came up about how to “fix” things over in AV Mends, the staff who worked in the section felt defensive. They were working tirelessly every day, moving hundreds of items in and out. They were being budget conscious by attempting to fix things rather than throw them away. But here they were again, being asked to fix things instead of being acknowledged for their hard work.

As the AV Mends team worked through the early stages of the process, including building ground rules (see figure 3) and clarifying the purpose of the team, the tension was obvious. Eventually a conversation revealed the different perspectives at play, which was an eye opener for both sides. Lemanski said, “I didn’t realize how many hurt feelings there were in that area and I didn’t realize the background around it. I think once people were able to talk about that and clear the air, it was a major road block removal.”

As hard as it is to experience, having those uncomfortable conversations is an important part of the process. One of the key components of looking at workflow through process improvement is “It’s the process, not the person.” When emotions are running high, that has to be acknowledged before team members can set the personal aside and start looking at the whole dispassionately.

After the AV Mends team worked through the training, it was time for the group to move on to the nuts and bolts of process improvement, the Value Stream Map (see figures 4 and 5). Value stream mapping, which could also be called a workflow map, is the actual mapping of every step in a process. It’s easy to explain, but it’s very hard to do. “It’s hard for people who do a job to recognize their own steps,” said Murphy. But the breaking down of a task into the component parts is essential to process improvement, and essential in coming to understand that it’s not the person, it’s the process.

As the process owners (those who actually do the work being mapped) worked on the map, other members of the team who were not familiar with the process pushed them to be more specific. O’Donnell said “Julie [McKay] and Sally [Sheldon] were saying ‘Okay, we have the different categories of things [cleaning, mending, etc.] and they get set here.’ Well, how do they get set there? ‘Well, Wayne [Taylor, a library assistant] goes and gets it.’ Well does he get it all at one time? ‘Well, no, some come in envelopes and some come in crates.’ Well, does he get it all at the same time, or throughout the day? And they were realizing they didn’t know that Wayne was doing all this stuff.”

As finicky as that seems (discussing who goes to get envelopes and when) it was while working through that very part of the map that led to the first process improvement breakthrough for the AV Mends section. During the discussion, I mentioned that, in my role as the AV collection development librarian, I often get CDs and DVDs sent to me from the branches that really should go to AV Mends, but I just walk them over. It’s not a big deal. O’Donnell, in her role as a cataloging specialist, then said that she gets things that should go to AV Mends too, as does her supervisor. Murphy, the virtual experiences librarian who also works with our DVD vending machines, then said that, actually, she gets them too.

Initially, I had considered not saying anything. I didn’t want to complicate things, and, really, so I have to walk envelopes over to the AV Mends section several times a week. What’s the big deal? But by bringing it up, in an attempt to make the Value Stream Map as accurate as possible, we uncovered that at least five different people were receiving materials from branches that should be sent directly to AV Mends. Five different people were walking dozens of envelopes across the building every week thinking to themselves, this is a pain, but it’s no big deal. I don’t want to make a fuss.

The Results, So Far

The Value Stream Map quickly reveals the complexity of a process, and reveals the low-hanging fruit. The AV Mends PI Team ended up mapping four different processes for which the AV Mends section is responsible, and there are still more to map. In reviewing the maps created so far, several changes have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented.

The team created a new AV Mends slip for branches to use when sending in AV problems. The old one, which hadn’t been updated for years, was a two-sided slip that included questions the section no longer needed answered and didn’t include information AV Mends could really use. The slip has been edited to be one-sided, instead of two, and the space to indicate what’s wrong with the item has been moved to the top. This removes the need to pull out the slips and search for information. The new slip has a place for branches to indicate if the item has holds, so now mends with holds can easily be identified and pushed to the front of the line.

The team also began to set criteria for when items go to AV Mends for cleaning or repair, and when they should be weeded instead. Circulation thresholds have been set for DVDs, CDs, and Talking Books, and the branches have been informed that items that have circulated beyond these thresholds should be weeded, not sent in for cleaning.

The next process improvement came from the envelope discussion. Previously, when branches needed to send items in to AV Mends, they used a crate or an interoffice envelope. Too often the crates arrived with little to no information about where it was directed and envelopes were addressed to the wrong people. Although it would have been easy to say the solution would be to train branch staff better, the team recognized that we’re a large system and the easier we make this process for the branches, the better it’s going to be. We are now in the process of implementing an AV Mends bag, created from repurposed fabric bags formerly used by our Youth Services department. Branches can stick any and all AV problems into the bag and it will go directly to AV Mends. If they are sending in a crate, they can lay the mends bag on top of the crate, and it will be delivered to AV Mends.

Sheldon and McKay both have identified areas of day-to-day work in the department that they are working to streamline. McKay said, “Walking through the mapping makes you look at all the steps you do in your job, and it makes you want to find ways to get rid of some of those steps.” After going through the process improvement training, Sheldon immediately saw a good place for change in the disc cleaning process. “Wayne would put the discs on the top shelf, and I would move them down lower, so he would have room to put more discs, instead of just moving them over by the machine to be leaned. I was moving them to the top to the bottom to the left to the right,” she said. The work of the team made Sheldon realize she wasn’t sure why they did it that way. “I was thinking what a waste of time. Why am I doing this? Just because that’s the way I’d always done it,” she said.

Branches have been excited to participate in the changes from the AV Mends PI Team. The new AV Mends slip was launched as a trial for one month, after which we asked for feedback from the branches. They asked for a few tweaks, but expressed satisfaction with the changes as a whole. When the team asked if any branches wanted to volunteer to be “guinea pigs” for the trial run of the AV Mends bags, half of them immediately volunteered. The really exciting thing about process improvement is how much people want to be a part of it when they see the results.

The work in the AV Mends section is still in process. More analysis of the items that move in and out of the department needs to be done. Training for the branches in how best to handle AV Mends requests and weeding is being created.

As the AV Mends PI Team continues its work, Lomax has plans to continue the spread of process improvement through the system. Based on the experience of the AV Mends PI Team, the Steering Team will decide which section will make up the next process improvement team within the R&M department. “As things continue in Reading & Materials, we need to start finding other areas that want to take on the process,” Lomax said. Norbeck, who served on the AV Mends team, would like to be the first volunteer: “I think one of the biggest things I took away was looking at how to streamline everything you do.”

Starting your own process improvement process may seem daunting. It’s not a fast process, and it’s not an easy fix. It requires a mental shift, a realization that this isn’t a project with a beginning and end date. It’s a new way of operating. “Make sure you’re willing to commit what it takes to get it started, and that you’re going to sustain it,” said Lomax. “If this is going to be a one-time thing I don’t know if it’s worth it. You need to trust your staff to participate and believe, truly, that they know what they’re doing and that they can do this. And then be flexible. Adjust as it goes. Focus on the process, not the people. People want to do a good job. You have to design a process that allows them to. That is so critical in how you approach things. Everyone wants to do a good job, but you have to design a process that allows them to. It makes you approach problems in a whole different way. Everyone is trying to the best they can. If you haven’t designed something right, how can they?”

Conclusion

At the end of February, the AV Mends Process Team will be reporting back to the Process Improvement Steering Team about its work so far. Training classes for branch staff on AV Mends will also begin in late February. In addition to the practical improvements, the AV Mends Process Improvement Process is having a positive impact on employee interactions and morale. Within the department, as areas of responsibility have been clearly defined, the relationship between AV selection librarian and the library assistants is much more cheerful and productive. Helping our customers has become much easier, too! From my personal perspective, I find that instead of worrying that branches are going to ask for something I can’t give them, I now see each customer as my partner in finding a solution that works.

References and Notes

1. Georgia Lomax served as the PCLS deputy director from 2006 to November 2014, when she was appointed PCLS executive director.
2. Project Management Knowhow, “Triple Constraint,” accessed Dec. 31, 2014.
3. Lean Enterprise Institute, “What is Lean?” accessed Dec. 31, 2014.
4. John J. Huber, “Prologue: The Power of Lean Transformation,” Lean Library Management: Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Customer Services (New York: Neal-Schulman, 2011): 1-3.

The post Low-Hanging Fruit: Learning How to Improve Customer Service, Staff Communication, and Job Satisfaction with Process Improvement first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

A Facilitative Mindset
There are four common mindsets around customer service in libraries. They range from an intense scarcity model to a positive abundance model that focuses on success.
1. It’s my job to protect the material we own.
2. It’s my job to enforce the rules.
3. How can I serve you [both internal and external customers]?
4. I care about people’s success. How can I help people be most successful?

Mindset number four is a facilitative mindset, where staff focus on helping people be successful in whatever ways they define success. A facilitative mindset is achieved when staff members feel valued and confident in their ability to serve. In a facilitative mindset people are thinking, “How can I make it easy for this person to meet their needs?” Good customer service is a behavior. We act based on what we believe, our prior experiences, and how we feel in the moment— which includes our status in relation to others. Therefore, internal culture must change. People can’t achieve an authentic facilitative mindset without trusting that they are valued and supported by their coworkers and the administration. They need to know, for instance, that they aren’t going to get in trouble for forgiving a fine or misunderstanding a rule and that their ideas will be heard and considered. Additionally, people need to become aware of the habits that aren’t working, and learn the skills and behaviors of good service.

A foundation of trust in the internal culture is needed before you can expect staff to feel safe enough to be creative with customer needs and confident enough that they can help. Supporting the professional and personal development of staff in any way possible—through trainings, conversations, conferences, and time to practice or learn—will help them feel valued. All of these things will contribute to staff members achieving a facilitative mindsest. This is a key underpinning to ensuring a vibrant customer service culture at your library.

A Customer Service Culture
Whether customer or coworker, we each have a deep human need to feel significant, important, and unique. How then can we help people feel like they matter? Here are five steps to building a customer service culture:

1. Decide to do things differently. Decision is the ultimate power when it comes to culture change. We know that simply telling people what or what not to do is ineffective and does not encourage creativity or risk-taking. All of us know things intellectually that we do not apply in our lives. Before change can happen, we must each decide to be respectful of others’ perspectives and have more open conversations.
2. Engage, don’t spend. Excellent customer service isn’t the result of buying more things. Too often little to no input is sought from the people delivering the service and most affected by changes. Staff members have ideas about improving service and their workplaces. They want to make a difference. People are most often resistant to change when they feel their opinions and ideas aren’t heard and don’t matter. There is a lot of talk in libraries about engaging the community; we need to start by engaging our staff.
3. Help people understand their sphere of influence. Give your customer-facing library staff a sense of control. Give them clarity over rules, responsibility, and decision making.
4. Practice empathy. A lot of improving customer service comes down to understanding the other person’s perspective. Have conversations with the intent to understand, not to be right. The value is in actively listening, without judgment. It’s just as important with coworkers as it is with customers.
5. Make the connection between internal and external service. Very often, the least valued people and the people we treat the worst in an organization (financially and otherwise), are the ones facing the customer. Many are the lowest in the internal hierarchy, so what is left but for them to lord the scraps of their power over the customer? Anything you can do to make staff feel significant will enhance service to the customer.Libraries are community-centric by definition; we need our values around serving the community to be mirrored internally. Help your staff connect their piece of the work to the bigger picture and model the behaviors internally that we want used with customers.

In my workshops over the past eighteen years, I’ve found that these elements are most helpful when asking people to open up to learning about themselves and thinking differently:

• Be playful. Get people to laugh. Find ways to play together to break down barriers.
• Don’t judge. Believe and model that it is safe to take risks, and okay to share worries, fears, confusion, frustration, and misunderstandings. Nobody is wrong; we’re all learning together.
• Practice and reflect. Help people become aware of their habits. Practice new behaviors in a safe environment so that staff feels confident using them under pressure with customers. Allow time for group discussion and individual reflection.

Impacting cultural change requires individual behavior change. Will Durant summarized Aristotle brilliantly in his 1924 book, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Excellent external service is the result of an internal culture that has a facilitative mindset and focuses on the success and significance of people. It needs to happen at every level of the organization. Decide now to make the change to positive customer service—internally and externally. It’s simple, though not necessarily easy. Start practicing a facilitative mindset with your coworkers and your customers, and watch your communication, interaction, and dynamics change to produce a culture of excellent service.

The post A Facilitative Mindset: Five Steps to a Customer-Service Culture first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

If anyone doubts that libraries respond to their communities in times of emergencies, the Ferguson Municipal Public Library remained the one calming and stable constant in this Missouri town’s tumultuous life as schools, businesses, and other government agencies closed after the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown.

Even when sometimes violent protests erupted, the only librarian on staff, Scott Bonner, kept the library doors open. And when he reached out for help via social networking, many volunteers as well as supporters around the nation joined him in preserving the one glimmer of light during a very dark time in this community.

Although Bonner had only assumed his position in July, he had already developed a relationship with local businesses and the community by opening the library as a meeting space. During a recent interview Bonner explained he had “a very broad definition of librarianship.” [2] That’s why the Small Business Administration, through Bonner’s invitation, had previously used the Ferguson Library as a staging point to meet with business owners affected by storm damage in order to offer emergency loans.

As Ferguson’s sole librarian with a staff of several part-time librarian assistants and one part-time administrative assistant, Bonner operates in much the same way as many small public library directors.  Bonner wears many hats, library director, children’s librarian, reference librarian, all rolled into one.

In August, however, he could never have anticipated how broadly he would define that concept of librarianship, and as a result, elevated that concept, too.

As SWAT team police officers swarmed the streets of this divided community, the news media from around the world occupied every inch of space in this small town, and the Governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency, Bonner made the decision to keep the library open and hung this sign in its window instead:

During difficult times

The library is a quiet oasis

Where we can catch our

Breath, learn and think

About what to do next.

Please help to keep our oasis

Peaceful and serene.

Thank you.[3]

When area schools closed, with the help of volunteers, the library offered classes to up to 200 school children with nowhere else to go.[4] It offered computer access to residents who had none. It offered the news media a place of respite. With the help of some volunteers, Bonner created healing kits for children.

In one of many interviews, Bonner conceded that “if I had any sense, I should have shut down.” Yet he has continued to deliver an important message about libraries and being a librarian.  He emphasizes that what he did was “not notable, just noticeable”.[5]

In interview after interview, Bonner reveals the character, values, and strength of conviction that shaped his decision to remain open and that also shape his role as a librarian.  As he responds to the many questions asked about his decision, his responses always speak to the need to serve the community, to provide information services, and to foster free and open communication.[6]

In an interview with BuzzFeed, he explained that “this is totally, exactly, right in the wheel house of what any library does, what every library does. We have a dramatic moment, and a dramatic circumstance caught the nation’s attention, but this is exactly what libraries do every day.”[7]

Ashley Ford of BuzzFeed tweeted that the Ferguson library would be open and solicited donations.  “We all know that books save lives, please donate…”  Saves lives.  That resonated with the world in the midst of a town infuriated by the loss of life. Authors Neil Gaiman and John Greene joined her as did Reading for Rainbows.  It seemed that everyone admired this little library’s courage.

Donations keep coming in. Right now, donations exceed Ferguson’s $400,000 yearly operating budget. Bonner looks forward to hiring a Children’s Librarian this year.

Angie Manfredi, head of youth services for Los Alamos County Library System, NM, started a Twitter campaign soliciting books for the library. She created a wish list for FMPL on Powell’s,[8]

“Thanks to her efforts, we’re going to have one of the strongest collections in the state for civic engagement, civil rights history, and recovering from trauma,” beams Bonner.

No one can dispute his courage during the chaos and conflict in Ferguson.  Buildings burned several blocks from the library building and the doors still remained open.

As a librarian, Bonner’s courage extended well beyond physically opening those doors.  His actions, along with his insights about librarianship might have opened minds about the role of libraries.  It certainly highlighted the important role the Ferguson library played in the lives of that community in crisis.

One little library, one big librarian, one shared vision and dream:  Libraries can transform lives. They serve communities.Every day.

References

[1] Bonner, Scott. 2014. Twitter message from Ferguson Municipal Public Library. (#Ferguson Library@ferguson library). August 15, 2014, 6:07 PM.

[2] An Interview with Scott Bonner. (2014, January 1). (2014, January 1). The Magpie Librarian: a librarian’s guide to modern life and etiquette. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from Magpielibrarian.wordpress.com

[3]Ibid.

[4] Axelrad, J. (2014, December 10). Ferguson library, a community pillar during unrest, gets $350,000 in donations (video). The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/1210/Ferguson-library-a-community-pillar-during-unrest-gets-350-000-in-donations-video

[5] Miller, R. (2014, September 15). It’s What We Do: Service and sanctuary in Ferguson. Library Journal. Retrieved December 17, 2014 from http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/09/opinion/editorial/its-what-we-do-service-and-sanctuary-in-ferguson-editorial/

[6] An Interview with Scott Bonner. (2014, January 1). (2014, January 1). The Magpie Librarian: a librarian’s guide to modern life and etiquette. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from Magpielibrarian.wordpress.com

[7] Ford, A. (2014, November 25). Buzz Feed Books. Retrieved December 17, 2014, from http://www.buzzfeed.com/tag/books

[8] Axelrad, J. (2014, December 10).

Cover Photo Credit: Loavesofbread (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The post The Little Library That Lent a Hand: Ferguson Municipal Public Library first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

1. Gather a Team
If you already have a Customer Service Committee, that can be your team. Or consider starting one. Lower than 6 members might be too small, but more than 10 members might stall decision making (we had about 10). Make sure several members represent various public service desks. Pick a regular meeting time. Start talking about the concept, spread the word, and saturate the culture with your new catchword. Start talking to managers about it; you will need their support. By the time you are ready to formally start training, staff will already know about it. You will be surprised to hear your catchword—One Point of Service—used in causal work conversations. This worked very well for us.

2. Choose your “One Point Services”
One Point Services—defined as fast, simple, frequently asked about services that all staff can do—are the nuts and bolts of OPoS philosophy. First comes empowerment,  then comes training. You are obviously not going to train every single staff member on every single service that the library offers. But what you can do is focus on those services that are frequently asked about by patrons and that are easy to train (hence fast and simple).  Identifying these services took us a while.  Yet after analyzing various public service desks, we ended up with eight One Point Services: simple library card renewal, add money to card, renew materials, place hold and hold position, basic account info, giving out PIN and library card number, simple searches and basic understanding of collection, and local business address and phone numbers. Those made sense for us. (Notice: some of these services involve patron privacy issues. For example, if a patron wants their library card number, do they need a photo ID? Make sure you have this conversation in advance, so that everyone is on the same page.) To summarize what was expected in regards to OPoS, we boiled it down to three fundamental skills:  staff knows basic ILS functions; staff knows how to use library website to find information; and staff knows basic library policies. That pretty much encompasses the eight “One Point Services” and indeed the entire OPoS philosophy.

3. Write a Plan
It was important for us to submit a short, written One Point of Service Plan to a team of managers for approval. This spelled out what One Point of Service meant, what the One Point Services were, and how staff was to be trained. Keep it simple. It enjoyed unanimous support and was called a “game changer.” The Board of Directors was happy with it. Perhaps most important, OPoS generated a lot of excitement from staff (for some skeptical staff concerns, see below Common Myths).

4. Train
When you are dealing with a large amount of employees, plan carefully and allow for several avenues of training. First, to introduce the OPoS concept, we created a really fun video and played it at a required staff meeting. The video was humorous, illustrated the problem we are trying to solve, and described the solution (that is, OPoS). Following the video, the Customer Service Committee led a nice discussion, which organically brought up good talking points and dispelled some myths and concerns about OPoS. Finally, for the actual training we offered several opportunities:

1. Two mass trainings, where we went over the procedures and policies of each One Point Service one by one
2. “Department Deputies,” staff within your department that you could get training from
3. A department could host a training session by inviting a “deputy” to their regularly scheduled meeting
4. All procedures were posted on our intranet (Sharepoint), which is easily accessible and includes videos.

5. Measure Success
First make sure that every staff member is trained in OPoS: substitutes, catalogers—we even had a special meeting with custodians. We had a Training Log document that was accessible onlinealso that the Department Deputies could check off as needed. Also, make sure all new employees are trained as a part of their orientation. And last but certainly not least, figure out a way to measure success (or failure). Success has many meanings, no doubt, but let’s start with real data. We decided to count the number of library card renewals that were performed in a week—renewals that would not have been performed under the old way (that is, we counted all renewals except those that happened at the Circulation Desk). This is hard data, meaningful data and frictionless. We didn’t want to burden staff by doing tally sheets or surveys (although they are valid options). As of writing this, we are working on getting these numbers.

Success means reaching goals. From the beginning, OPoS had three goals: (1) to uphold our Code of Service, which is essentially the Patrons’ Bill of Rights, posted on our website, (2) to reduce the “runaround” that patrons experience from service point to service point, and (3) To reduce departmental silos, increase interdepartmental communication, and foster a holistic view of the organization. In other words, consistency of service.

Looking at these goals, I’m happy to report that OPoS is a success at KPL. Staff is more empowered and therefore patrons are more satisfied. I have personally noticed a decrease in giving patrons the “runaround.” Most importantly, the organizational culture has changed to a more holistic, interdepartmental, service-based philosophy.

In theory, you can become a One Point of Service library in five easy steps. But in practice, this is a large project.  It took much longer than I thought, it involved some compromise, and nothing’s perfect (not to mention human nature resists change). Perhaps we didn’t do enough. But, as someone who works at multiple service points myself, I felt the benefits immediately. The very same day of training I found myself on the Reference desk helping patrons pay fines through our website and renewing library cards. Helping patrons. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for, and that’s what we love to do.

Three Common Myths

Myth One: Even so called “simple services” can get complicated. What do I do then?
A: Yes, we agree; refer them to another staff member. There is no shame in that; in fact, knowing when to refer is essential to good customer service. A simple search sometimes becomes a complex research question. A simple library card renewal sometimes becomes a complex question of whether they live “in district” or not. That’s okay. We agree. Refer them.

Myth Two: When everyone knows everything, service will get watered down.
A: Everyone will not know everything. Everyone will know One Point Services, which are fast, simple, frequently asked about services. When everyone learns just a little bit more, it’s a lot less work for everyone—including the patron (don’t forget the patron of course). To repeat: this is not anti-specialization (I work in a Law Library—talk about specialization); nor is this anti-union (I’m part of one); nor anti-librarian (I’m a librarian). Also, what assumption is this myth based on?—that the human brain will explode if it learns a few new things? I don’t think so. Rather, I think not learning is much more dangerous.

Myth Three: So “One Point of Service” is a fancy term that really means more work for me, right?
A: Simply put, referring a patron to multiple desks takes more time than helping the patron first, both for us and them. Giving them the runaround, if we think about it, takes a lot more work for us. In “Lean” terms, if you’re into that sort of thing, it’s called the “first touch principle”: doing something first is always better than leaving it for later. We need to think holistically. Perhaps the question is: will this be more work for my public service desk? Or for my department? Disregarding the inherent flaw in this way of thinking, I’m actually curious about how patron behavior might change as a result of OPoS. Will patrons start going to different desks now, “spreading” the work out more? Will we no longer have long lines at the Circulation desk? Will the Reference Desk feel less pressure? Those are all open questions. No matter how this shakes out, however, I’m confident of one thing: there will be less total work and more happy patrons.

To see the KPL “Code of Service” mentioned in this article visit http://www.kpl.gov/about/code-of-service.aspx  To get more information email matts@kpl.gov.

The post Becoming a “One Point of Service” Library in 5 Steps first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

“The BookMatch program launched quietly about two weeks ago. [This quote is from August 2014 – Ed.] It’s completely free: just fill out the online form telling the nice librarians what you like to read, and they’ll come back to you in about a week with a list of five or six recommendations. You can even specify what type of format you prefer (book, ebook, audiobook, or large print)” (Merlan, Village Voice 2014). In addition to filling the requests, the lists are also anonymously posted on the library’s website, allowing other patrons to browse at their own convenience. Among the topics that already exist are:

• Drama/Suspense
• Historical romance
• Great Gatsby read-alikes
• Father and sons
• All kinds of books/no mushy stuff
• SciFi-Fantasy with strong females and diversity

Since the beginning of this program, the 35 librarians who maintain the website have been inundated with patron requests. This has been a successful launch of a new program, and it may actually prove to be too much for just the 35 librarians to complete each list in under a week if it keeps growing in popularity. This watershed moment of customer service shall work as a tableau for public libraries at large.

I began to think of how this may grow while researching this topic. Many public libraries have more items than books. I’m thinking about music, movies, and even periodicals. This program could increase its scope and therefore its ability to accommodate more patrons. It’s an amazing idea that truly comes from the basics of librarianship and adapting to the current times. Haven’t all librarians at one time or another given recommendations based on one book or movie? This is just taking that customer service to a new and more convenient level for patrons who may be living a hectic lifestyle and don’t have the time to browse the stacks.

This is definitely a program that can work in public libraries all over the world. Thanks, New York; you managed to inspire us once again with your indefatigable efforts at cultural programming!

Works Cited

Merlan, Anna. “A Brooklyn Librarian Will Now Make You a Personalized Reading List, and You Don’t Even Have to Put on Pants.” Village Voice. August 26, 2014.  (accessed September 20, 2014)

The post I’ll Tell You What to Read: Online BookMatch Program Connects Readers to New Books first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

If I’ve written about this before, sorry, it needs to be stated again: materials don’t just magically appear on the shelves.  I have a staff of 9 people whose job is to buy, catalog, prepare and process materials for a library that circulates over a million items each year. At least 3 (sometimes 4) people have touched that book the patron pulls off the shelf. This doesn’t even address the many hands (and a truck) for items we don’t own and must acquire from a member of our resource-sharing consortium into the patron’s hands.

We are always looking for ways to make processing easier.  Whether it is standardizing and streamlining processing procedures, migrating to a new ILS, or floating items to a branch, the goal is to get the patron what they want as soon as possible, while still upholding discovering and accessibility standards in the catalog. Sometimes the changes are apparent, sometimes the public doesn’t even know.

Sometimes we need to break with the past, which I have learned isn’t as easy as I would hope. Often, my lets-see-what-happens-attitude is mitigated by one of my staff asking questions or a manager indicating a concern. Indeed, a colleague is fond of saying, “This is a big ship to turn.”  This concept has helped me be more thoughtful and deliberate, and it stops me from making hasty decisions.  There comes a time, however, when we need to pull the trigger on a change.  Staff may not be happy. Patrons may be confused, at least in the short term. With a little hand holding and clear communication, we help them through.

The mystery of the library world isn’t really a mystery. The mystery is that being a librarian and working in a library takes work. Our work may not be visible and you may not see us (you probably never see my staff), but we do work; we are the engine that drives us. Tax payers aren’t wasting their money because someone needs to get materials on the shelf.

So, when I heard the comment, “I had no ideas how much work you guys do,” I was proud.  We do work hard and everyone should know.

The post Librarians Work Hard and Everyone Should Know That first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

New Americans Welcome Here

The Queens Library services what some might consider an almost impossible task—the most ethnically diverse population in the United States.  47% of the Queens Library’s patrons speak a language other than English.

How that’s done has been QL’s challenge since the 1970s when the library initiated its New Americans Program.  It has strived to develop a multilingual collection, a multilingual database and to provide multilingual services. It is a “user-friendly in any language” library in all of its branches.

According to the Queens Library, it’d be almost impossible to find someone who speaks every language in every local branch.  However, they explain that the library conducts extensive staff training in non-verbal communication and cultural awareness to help patrons and staff. It has even developed a library linqua franca—an adapted universal sign language/pointing guide to target key areas of service in the library.

Multicultural Services—More than Books

The library’s community branches offer ESL classes, Citizenship and Naturalization classes, and Computer Literacy classes. The Central branch offers comprehensive newcomer services such as immigration form and application assistance, financial literacy classes, and other cultural orientation classes.

Presently, the QL maintains Multilingual Web Picks in 10 languages so patrons can find the best websites in their native languages on anything from Albania to Zen.  Queens Library explains that the multilingual media center is very popular,  since network links to foreign media sources and news services are very important for many individuals.

Over 26 Languages and Growing 

The multilingual collection now exceeds over 26 languages—this represents the largest collection in the US for general readers in Spanish (157,000 items) and Chinese (256,000) (both Mandarin and Chinese simplified), extensive fiction and non-fiction collections in Korean (53,000 items), Russian (53,000), and South Asian Languages (46,000 items in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu and Punjabi). (http://www.queenslibrary.org/sites/default/files/about-us/Facts%20Sheet.pdf)

Queens has the largest Asian population in NYC—49.3% of the population is either Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, or Nepalese.

Queens Library says that most of the library’s circulating material is popular reading—romance novels, mysteries, self-help books, and cookbooks. However, these aren’t necessarily direct translations of American publishers. The library takes great effort to access materials from overseas libraries and publishers in order to continue cultural contact and authenticity.

David Baldacci may be a household name to readers in the United States but for a Chinese reader, Keigo Higashino is more likely the name that comes to mind. This Japanese writer has been translated into Chinese and has been on the bestseller list since 2007 (http://paper-republic.org/news/newsitems/80/).

Serving the Whole Community: The First, Second, and Heritage Language Community

The flagship QL Branch in Flushing includes international newspapers, magazines, and books. It also includes the C.Y. Han collection on Chinese culture—a collection of bilingual English-Chinese books as well as reference books relating to Chinese civilization. 90% of these materials can be borrowed. The Window of Shanghai and the Window of Dynamic Korea are also housed here.

QL’s awareness and respect of first, second, and “heritage” language speakers embraces the spirit of multiculturalism that it fosters. QPL serves the immigrant populations of Queens as well as succeeding generations who want to preserve their language heritage.

The C.Y. Han Collection is a good example of a native language collection that preserves its past while still including culturally relevant material that interests contemporary Chinese speakers as well.

Multiculturalism as a Fundamental Characteristic of a Library

Queens Library serves its community’s changing demographic by consistently reaching out to newcomers, offering them services, and providing them reading.

Multilingual collections are a foundation of outreach services for:

• Family literacy
• Information services
• Citizenship classes and information
• Community services and access
• English as a second language classes
• Digital literacy
• Homework help

Introducing diverse groups to library services also assists these groups in linking with other agencies or services that might benefit them as they assimilate into a new culture and country.

The Eyes and Ears of the World

The community librarian is the eyes and ears of data collection. QL constantly monitors census data, citywide statistics, and even surrounding hospital birth records to track changes in neighborhood demographics in order to keep its local collections relevant to its community’s needs.

Queens Library shared a retired librarian’s insight into multilingual collection development: “You can map the world’s troubles by looking at the book collections in the Queens Library.”  In the early 1990s, Queens saw an influx of Chinese from Hong Kong as it was seceded back to China. As a result, there was a demand for , authors, which QL ably met. Last year, in Jackson Heights–nicknamed the Little Philippines– the library noticed a much greater demand for requests for books on typhoons after Typhoon Haiyan. Jackson Heights now has 9 copies of books on the subject in several languages; the Central branch now carries 44.

In a world connected by information needs, QL recognizes the multicultural role it plays. The library’s multilingual collection is the perfect hub for its community’s citizens to connect to their former residences as they make new homes here.

Lost in Translation

Multilingual collections do not equate to direct translations. Likewise, QL understands that assimilation does not equal instant citizenship. It is a process to become a new citizen in a new country. Respecting the cultures within our library’s communities by maintaining the languages they speak is the very touchstone of multiculturalism. The multilingual collections at the Queens Library embrace the unique character of each stone in the diverse mosaic of the Queens community that it serves.

The post A Library Can Say Hello in Almost Any Language first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Novel Engagement (NE) has four basic components: Authors, Books, Events, and Reader Zone. The best part of the app may be the Books section, which not only allows a search for books by title, but also by subgenre and theme. Keywords such as “cowboys” or “vampires” can be entered to narrow down a search. Looking for just a romance novel is often not enough for today’s educated romance reader. Romance novel enthusiasts have their own specific tastes and this app could help a librarian narrow them down.

The application also includes contests and giveaways, both online and live. In addition, readers can sign up to be notified through the app when their favorite author has a new release coming up. An author’s entry in NE often includes a bio as well as a list of titles, website addresses, social media connections, and any awards the author has received.

Allison Kelley, RWA’s executive director, strongly believes this app will be of value to librarians. “The app is a great tool for…romance readers to use to find books they can then go check out via their library or request that their libraries add to their collections. We think this will be a great resource for librarians to use for romance readers advisory.”

The app, which is free, is still in the process of being updated. “We have a website version on the way,” Kelley says.

It’s up to RWA members to apply to be part of NE. Some of the authors currently listed include Sandra Brown, Sylvia Day, Sabrina Jefferies, and Susan Wiggs.

According to a press release, the app lists 1,000 authors and over 5,000 romance novels. With RWA’s membership of 10,000 worldwide, those listings are certain to increase in the future. And with an estimated $1 billion in sales of the genre, this app is sure to help librarians and readers find the perfect romance reading fit.

To learn more about the app and download it, visit www.rwa.org or www.novelengagement.com.

The post Need More Romance? There’s An App for That first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Because of course a library would hire a social worker. It’s kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it?

As public library professionals, we do our best to serve whomever walks through our doors as ably and as knowledgeably as we can. If we don’t have the answers, we’re committed to finding them so our patrons leave happy, satisfied, and better for having interacted with us. That’s how we roll.

But despite our very best intentions, we can’t always work our magic. Homeless patrons sometimes need more immediate, skilled, or complex assistance than what we can provide during a single library visit. So kudos to DCPL for realizing it just makes sense to have a staff member on board who knows her stuff and wants to share it with colleagues.

Rather than working directly with homeless patrons like her counterpart in San Francisco, DCPL’s newly appointed Health and Human Services Coordinator (i.e. social worker) operates on a system-wide level to develop programs and partnerships that build awareness and sensitivity within the library. Better still, this smart cookie is involving staff in the process. What better way to develop workshops and trainings that adequately address real-life scenarios and questions about serving homeless patrons?

Insights and guidance from a trained human services professional could have made a critical difference in a recent interaction I had with a patron I’ll call Jeffrey. He visited the library on a sweltering evening this summer and asked to speak privately with me, the person in charge that day. After explaining he was homeless and in need of a meal and toiletries, Jeffery handed me what he considered his most valuable possession—his photo ID—and asked me to hold it as collateral in exchange for a loan.

I was stunned. What in the world was I supposed to do? Our library policies strictly prohibit patrons from asking for money and staff from giving it them. But enforcing library policies is one thing, and treating human beings with dignity is sometimes another. After all, I’m a librarian. I help.

What I ended up doing left Jeffrey hostile and me frustrated. I gently explained I’d be happy to help him, but I couldn’t grant his request for money. Instead, I could call a few of our local shelters and arrange for a free city shuttle to give him a ride. I thought I was doing the right thing by helping him find the meal and shower he said he wanted. I wasn’t.

Jeffrey replied angrily that he wasn’t interested in shelters because he’d already gone that route—what he really wanted was cash. You can probably guess things didn’t end well. Man, it all went wrong so fast, and even now I feel like just another person who let Jeffrey down.

Ever since that night, I’ve been thinking about some sage advice I once received: “Don’t try harder. Try different.” I tried my hardest with Jeffrey from within my comfort zone. What I really needed to do was step outside of it and try a different approach. Someone like DCPL’s social worker could have helped me explore more informed strategies that might have made me a better, stronger resource for Jeffrey before he even visited my library.

Now I’m wondering why more public libraries aren’t following the lead of San Francisco and D.C. I don’t know about you, but I could use a little help. I want to try different for Jeffrey, for my other homeless patrons, and for everyone who walks through my doors.

I still think having social workers in the library is a no-brainer. How about you?

Cover Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Danielteolijr

The post A Little Extra Help – Why Public Libraries Need Social Workers first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Along the way, we repeated our standard jokes on how we didn’t learn about this in library school and that this wasn’t really in our job description. The whole process got me thinking: particularly if you are a librarian in a small and /or rural public library, ‘other duties as assigned’ can take on a vast degree of meaning.

In addition to the recent chair, we’ve also assembled tables, desks, bookcases, speaker stands, a lawn bench, signage, and storage containers. I’ve chased bugs and chipmunks out of the library and snakes off our outside walk ways. I’ve cleaned bathrooms, weeded gardens, mopped up leaks, and trimmed hedges. I’ve driven across town to deliver materials and chicken soup to a patron recovering from surgery. We’ve helped our neighbors catch their runaway pet. We’ve cajoled the difficult and ejected the angry. We’ve disengaged as the babysitter, gracefully letting our patrons know that we are not their babysitters. We offered tissues to the distraught.

One might think these duties came about because I work in a fairly small and rural library, but I know that’s not the case. I have also worked in a large urban library, and the (mis)adventures were much the same. It wasn’t chipmunks I chased around the stacks with a trash can, but baby mice. Snakes were not sunning themselves on the walk way, but stray cats. I didn’t weed the garden; instead, I picked up trash from the lawn. But these things were in kind.

I don’t really mind these ‘other duties’ most of the time. They make the day interesting. So now, curiosity prompts me to ask – what has been the oddest thing you’d needed to do that was not mentioned in library school?

The post Who Knew? What They Don’t Teach You in Library School first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

One source of inspiration is the work of Rebecca Howard and Laura Raphael. In 2013, they offered Rethinking Readers’ Advisory: An Interactive Approach as an ALA online workshop. The presentation highlighted Your Next Great Read at the Tulsa County Library. TCL uses SurveyMonkey as a patron intake form. They then use the information gleaned from the form to develop personal reading recommendations. The patron receives detailed information about recommended titles, authors, and related library events. Patrons also receive the resources used to compile the recommendations.

Another option for enhancing your library’s services is by turning to social media. This spring, Your Next Book is on Facebook: Using Social Media in Readers’ Advisory, was offered as a PLA Virtual Conference session. The presenters described how they have enhanced reader services through social media like Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

In the session, Andrea Gough described how the Seattle Public Library has successfully coordinated social media campaigns to enhance reader services. Posting conversations on Facebook about books allows the library to “crowd-source” suggestions and create lists for others to use. They have hosted weekly chats to generate discussion and highlight areas of the collection. You can see examples on their Facebook page.

Stephanie Anderson of the Darien Library in Connecticut described her library’s use of Pinterest boards to create book lists. One example is their Real-Time Book Recommendations board. Darien Library manages this board as part of the service desk workflow. They allow staff to add titles as they interact with patrons. They have found using Pinterest appeals to an audience that does not typically use the catalog. Darien Library also creates links to their catalog from Pinterest.

Other social media examples highlighted in the PLA Virtual Conference Session include:

• Tonganoxie Public Library Facebook
• Darien Reads on Tumblr
• Darien Library Vimeo
• Denver Public Library Teen Twitter

Even simple ideas can enhance the library user experience. Last fall, the library where I work, Great River Regional Library, launched an Educator Request Form. Through the webform, teachers and homeschoolers can request materials on a specific topic. We developed the form after hearing that this type of virtual service would be useful to educators. It allows our library to offer targeted services to this audience.

Regardless of which idea appeals to you and your users, virtual readers’ advisory is a new and growing area of public library services. Explore these examples to see what might be useful to your patrons.

The post Moving Readers’ Advisory Online first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Who values library services the most?
When over 6,200 Americans spoke their minds in Pew Research Center’s Library Services Survey published in December 2013, a group of strong library devotees emerged. Would it surprise you to know that although most Americans value the public library, only people who may be facing life’s greatest challenges consistently rated library services as “very important”?

People facing life challenges.
Although 67% of Americans claimed the closure of their local public library would personally “affect” them and their families[1], nearly one-third of library of respondents reported that a library closure would have a “major impact” on them and their families . The following respondents gave library services the highest rating possible, “very important.” They include: 1) Job seekers, 2) Older adults, 3) People living with disabilities, 4) People who live in lower-income households, and 5) People without internet access at home [2].

How do public libraries ensure that people facing life situations receive the amount of help and the level of personal assistance they need? Assisting patrons with online forms, job applications, along with being there to provide assistance for those with mobility or cognitive challenges—all requires extra staff time and patience, and usually in a busy library setting.

Reports of negative library experiences
The majority of people enjoy positive experiences at the public library. Despite librarians’ best intentions, job seekers and those living with a disability were most likely to say they’d received a negative experience at the public library[3], yet they steadfastly rate their need for the library, “very important.” Regardless of whether patrons are unhappy with the level of assistance they receive, they still acknowledge the importance of the public library in their lives. The following were more likely to report negative experiences: 1) Job seekers (13%), 2) People living with a disability (12%), 3) 16-17 year-olds (14%), 4) Students (12%), and Self-employed respondents (17%)[4]. Are these not the folks who often require more one-on-one help?

Personal help, internet and computers are “very important”
The Pew Study also explored responses based on life situations and technology use factors. Many of these factors strongly correlated with lower household incomes and lower levels of education[5]. Personal help for job searches and job applications, and assistance in applying for government programs, permits and licenses are “very important” to people who are unemployed, living with a disability, and for people who have health problems that make reading difficult[6]. In addition, Internet users who do not have home Internet access reported that all services linked to technology use or life situations are “very important” to them and their families[7].

In our busy libraries, how do we ensure that people facing life situations receive “very important” personal library service?

*******************

All citations taken from Pew Research Center, “How Americans Value Public Libraries in their Communities,” December 2013.

1. Page 1.
2. Page 3.
3. Page 28.
4. Ibid.
5. Page 18.
6. Page 19.
7. Ibid.

The post Big Impact Personal Library Service first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Certain ALA guidelines can help to craft some of the wording for your documents, like the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, and the Freedom to View. When you are working on writing your challenged materials policy, you will need to work with your governing board, especially since they will probably have a part in the process. Two important parts of this procedure need to be addressed: having a form for challenges and what the process will be for that patron request when it is received.

Having a form for patrons to fill out after they have had their initial discussion with a staff person is important because it gathers all the information you will want while working through your process. A sample Request for Reconsideration can be found on the Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Banned and Challenged Books site. Another example can be found on the website for St. Charles City-County Library, Mo.

You also need to decide who is going to be responsible for responding to the patron’s request once it is put forth. At Pikes Peak Library District, we start with a librarian discussing the complaint with the patron who brings it to the service desk. During that interaction, we try to explain that the library has materials for everyone and everything goes through our selection process or is purchased because of patron requests. If the patron wants to go forward with their challenge, they are provided with our request for reconsideration form. After that, two librarians review the material, search for critical information and awards, and put together a report for the associate director. The associate director then responds to the patron with the decision on what will happen with the material. If unhappy with the response, the patron can then take their request to the director and the board of trustees who make the final decision. Many libraries have similar procedures in place that are detailed on their websites, like Seattle Public Library, Denver Public Library, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. If you’re in the market for a Challenged Materials Policy, take a look at these and develop what works best for your staff.

I commonly hear people who work with me say something like, “It’s a library. If you can’t find something to offend you, you’re not looking hard enough.” While I don’t think it’s our goal to go out and offend people, as library workers, I do think that we try to have balance in our collections and to provide information for all parts of our populations. When you provide a variety of opinions to everyone, you’re bound to have some objections. Be prepared with a policy for any possible challenges.

The post Be Prepared with a Challenged Materials Policy first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

You know the scene in the movie Miracle on 34^th Street where Kris Kringle tells the little boy he’ll get the fire engine for Christmas? The one that his mom has been unable to find in any store?

“Don’t you understand English?” she snarls at Kris. “I tell ya, Macy’s ain’t got any. Nobody’s got any. I been all over. My feet are killing me. A fine thing, promisin’ the kid!

“Now you don’t think I’d say that unless I’m sure, do you?” Kris replies. “You can get those fire engines at Schoenfeld’s on Lexington Avenue. Only $8.50. A wonderful bargain.”

”Schoenfelds? I don’t get it,” she says in confusion.

“Oh, I keep track of the toy market pretty closely. Does that surprise you so?” says Kris.

“Surprise me? Macy’s sending people to other stores. You kidding me?”

“Well, the only important thing is keeping the children happy,” says Kris. “Whether Macy or somebody else sells the toy doesn’t make any difference. Don’t you feel that way?”

“Oh yeah, sure,” she says, “but I didn’t know Macy’s did.”

“As long as I’m here they do.”[1]

How does this scene relate to libraries, you ask? Is your library filled with Kris Kringle-ish reference staff? Are they doing everything they can to help their patrons, or are they only using the resources of their own library or brain and quickly pushing the patron out the door? To be like Kris Kringle, keep the following ideas in mind.

Ask the colleague seated next to you for help. It’s an amazingly sad thing to say, but we have been at libraries where colleagues at the same desk did not ask each other for help or advice when completing a more challenging reference question for a patron. Remember “phone a friend” from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? What keeps you from asking a colleague who is off desk for advice or suggestions of how to search when you are stuck? And this doesn’t even include the idea that sometimes it’s just nicer to have someone assist you in helping a patron so you can relax and think clearly.

Support your colleagues at other libraries. Even if you are sending a patron to a library you are not affiliated with at all, you are showing both the patron and your colleagues at another library that you respect them and the service they provide. There’s nothing wrong with recognizing the strengths and accomplishments of colleagues. And perhaps another time, they will do the same thing for you. However, more often than not, it appears that pride keeps a librarian from giving patrons the best service available. A strong information professional shows how strong his or her skills are by getting the patrons to the best information not the “close is good enough” information.

Know your library collection’s strengths and weaknesses. If you are primarily a popular materials collection, where is the closest library with a really strong reference collection? Is it at a library in another town? Is it at the main branch of your system? Is it at a local community college or a nearby university? If you are a more scholarly library, do you know what nearby library a patron would be most likely to get a copy of the newest David Baldacci book to check out? Patrons don’t always know or care about how libraries are or are not interconnected. They want their question answered or need met.

Aim to create a lifetime patron. This time your library may not have what a patron needed, but you made sure you helped them by sending them to another library you knew had exactly what he or she needed. Retailers know that people tell twice as many people about bad experiences than good. The patron achieved his or her goal and was happy! That person you helped leaves with a good impression of the library and hopefully will return for assistance another time.

As you watch Miracle on 34th Street this holiday season, think about Kris Kringle’s customer service ethos.  He went to great lengths to ensure customer satisfaction. In libraries, we want our patrons to be happy whether they’re five, ninety-five, or somewhere in between. Make sure to give them the best customer service possible!

1. A transcript of this scene was found at (accessed 12/19/2013)  http://wandervogeldiary.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/.

The post Miracle on 34th Street: Library Edition first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

I work for a museum and someone called to see if we could help her put together a biography of her Aunt. Her Aunt had contributed to shows at the museum, but she wasn’t sure when or how many. I did a little research in our archives and was able to tell her the dates of the shows and the titles of the pieces and even provide her with a few pictures. She told me I was her hero.  Likewise, one of the people that work at the front desk of the museum has called me her hero. She often calls with specific questions about the museum and its artwork. (i.e. What gallery has the Monet in it?  Where is the Picasso and when did we acquire it?)  She almost always ends the conversation with “Thanks again, you are my hero.”

Are We Heroes?

I don’t think for a second that this “hero” moniker is unique to me. I have actually said the same thing to librarians while I was in school. Librarians are heroes.  Often people come to us when they don’t know where else to turn. It’s our job to help these people gain the knowledge that they seek. Our jobs are so much more involved that just recommending the new David Sedaris book, or printing a list of all of the books written by Judy Blume.

Do I think we are in the same category as Superman and Wonder Woman?  No.  However there is something to be said for what we do.  We help people.  A hero is defined as “a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities1”  As librarians we are often admired for the achievements of helping our patrons.

Sooner or later, I may start wearing a cape to work.

_______________________________________________

1. Merriam-Webster. January 11, 2013. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hero (accessed February 25, 2013).

The post Superman Gets His MLS first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

The Longwinded Talker: You’ve built a good rapport with this patron, but now every time she comes in, you get drawn into a long, long conversation. It’s not that you don’t like talking to her – you genuinely do –you just don’t have the time for a ten minute chat. Plus, your colleagues are giving you the stink eye as they pick up the slack at the service desk.

The Goal: You want to exit the conversation gracefully without hurting the customer’s feelings or damaging the relationship.

How: Tackle the issue before you hear your internal clock ticking to take some of the pressure off.  Look for a natural break in the conversation, and then reiterate your enjoyment of the discussion. “I’m so glad you came in today, Mrs. Smith; I always enjoy talking books with you.” This statement may be all you need to part ways; if not, continue with something like, “I’d love to keep the conversation going, but I’ve got to get ______ done.”

The Personal Librarian: Maybe you recommended a great book to read, or expertly handed a reference query. Now, this patron thinks you walk on water and he will only come to you for all his library needs. At first, you’re flattered: hey, this guy thinks you’re the best librarian ever!  But it’s evolved into an issue, in that he refuses to be helped by other library staff except to ask for you specifically.

The Goal: You want to be rid of your personal librarian status without losing him as a library patron.

How:  Involve other librarians in your work with him so that he can get to know and be comfortable with them.  “Let’s talk to Felicity, Mr. Jones; she’s an expert at using this database.”   “I’m not able to assist you today, Mr. Jones, but you’re in good hands with Scott.” 

The Too Personal:  You’ve had several conversations with this customer, and may have shared information about yourself.   Now, your patron, with what you assume are good intentions, asks questions that are a bit too personal.  Maybe it’s your relationship status, your religious beliefs, or political opinions, but the conversation has crossed a personal threshold.

The Goal: You don’t want to answer questions that are this personal, but you don’t want to be rude, either.  Again, you like this customer, you just don’t want this level of intimacy with her.

How: It’s okay to say that you’re uncomfortable.  In fact, it may be preferable to be that direct, otherwise, you may find yourself in the same territory time and time again.  You can be gentle and firm, “I’m sorry Mrs. Adams, I just can’t talk about my personal beliefs at work.”  Or “I enjoy our discussions, Mrs. Adams, but in the workplace, I don’t discuss my feelings on _____.”

Got any helpful hints for the rest of us?  Please share in the comments section below!

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