Saturday, December 30, 2006
Terrill Ridge Pond
I haven't been real active on this blog lately. Work is keeping me very busy, as is family life. Yesterday was beautiful and I made a choice to stay away from my computer and get out into the woods. After about eight miles I came to this pond, up on a ridge in the Deam Wilderness.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Bear Flash Drive
So I'm helping this guy tonight, trying to explain to him what a flash drive is. I figure a picture of it will help so I bring up a few images on google. This one did not help.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Act like a special library
Special libraries exist within a more tenuous environment than public and academic libraries. Many are within businesess and are constantly under pressure to justify their existence. No wonder then that so much good writing about customer service has come from this area.
There is a great read from the SLA publication Information Outlook, an article called "Talking about Customer Service" published back in 2001. It covers a lot of ground in a short piece, from challenging the idea that no complaints means all is well, to the assertion that excellent customer service means survival for special libraries.
They also include a must-read quote from Ellen Altman's and Peter Hernon's article in American Libraries (I went back to the original article and tacked on another important paragraph):
Back to the topic of this post, I have found that some of the best reading on customer service in libraries has come from writers who have a background in special libraries. My guess is that their experience has driven them to differentiate themselves within their organizations, to market their services effectively and to generate good will and support among their clientele. I can imagine they live with the knowledge that there is no such thing as job security when profits are down which forces them to work hard to develop and demonstrate their impact.
Does this sound familiar? Substitute the phrase "tax revenue" for profits and it's exactly the situation that many, many public and academic libraries are in right now.
Judith Siess, another special librarian wrote The Visible Librarian (ALA, 2003), a great book about customer service, marketing and advocacy in libraries. Siess describes the steps to take in order to create services, experiences and perceptions that will stand out, that will create customer loyalty and that will help stakeholders see the value of a library. In the preface, she explains why she can presume to speak to public or academic or other libraries:
There is a great read from the SLA publication Information Outlook, an article called "Talking about Customer Service" published back in 2001. It covers a lot of ground in a short piece, from challenging the idea that no complaints means all is well, to the assertion that excellent customer service means survival for special libraries.
They also include a must-read quote from Ellen Altman's and Peter Hernon's article in American Libraries (I went back to the original article and tacked on another important paragraph):
Many librarians maintain that only they, the professionals, have the expertise to assess the quality of library service. They assert that users cannot judge quality, users do not know what they want or need, and professional hegemony will be undermined if they kowtow to users. Such opinions about service, in fact, are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the customers' opinions, because without users there is no need for libraries except to serve as warehouses. After all, customers (present, potential, and former ones) believe that the library's reason for being open is to meet their needs. Each customer evaluates the quality of service received and decides when (or if) there will be further interaction with that organization.
That some librarians reject the idea of users as customers is equally irrelevant. Most people do not focus on a label--customer, patron, or user; rather, they concentrate on their information needs and preferences, the services offered, and how the staff treats them. They also evaluate the service in terms of time and effort expended, and foregone opportunity to do something else. (Service quality and customer satisfaction do matter., By: Altman, Ellen, Hernon, Peter, American Libraries, Aug98, Vol. 29, Issue 7)
Back to the topic of this post, I have found that some of the best reading on customer service in libraries has come from writers who have a background in special libraries. My guess is that their experience has driven them to differentiate themselves within their organizations, to market their services effectively and to generate good will and support among their clientele. I can imagine they live with the knowledge that there is no such thing as job security when profits are down which forces them to work hard to develop and demonstrate their impact.
Does this sound familiar? Substitute the phrase "tax revenue" for profits and it's exactly the situation that many, many public and academic libraries are in right now.
Judith Siess, another special librarian wrote The Visible Librarian (ALA, 2003), a great book about customer service, marketing and advocacy in libraries. Siess describes the steps to take in order to create services, experiences and perceptions that will stand out, that will create customer loyalty and that will help stakeholders see the value of a library. In the preface, she explains why she can presume to speak to public or academic or other libraries:
"The way I see it, what makes a library special is its ability to know and customize its services to a specific user population, whether that population is a community, university, company, hospital or law firm. Therefore, all libraries are special libraries."
Monday, December 04, 2006
15 Ideas for supporting Businesses at your Library
More info from the IPLA Conference On Libraries & Economic Development. Nancy Dowell, Director of the Vigo County Library and Melissa Martin, President of Issues & Advocates made this great list of things libraries can do to attract interest from the business community. Here are some of their ideas:
- Host a Job Fair
- Become a Job Club site - get your local workforce development groups to hold meetings or conduct training at your site.
- Partner with a geek - get them to teach computer classes for you.
- Become a professional study site - develop your career collection, make it relevant to the needs of your community.
- Collect resources for start ups.
- Create Alliances - local Chamber, downtown business groups, arts organizations, the local economic development group.
- Form Partnerships - local schools, colleges and universities, local governing bodies and workforce development organizations.
- Support SBDCs.
- Enhance diversity - partner with groups that teach workplace spanish and other skills.
- Build a Resume Center.
- Provide Skill Training - computer skills, resume writing, soft skills, etc.
- Support education - be a proctoring site, purchase products like KeyTrain or Learning Express.
- Look for opportunities to help businesses excel.
- Support community initiatives - local arts, cultural and economic development projects, task forces and commissions. Get on the boards of these things.
- Get involved with ILF's Go Center Campaign - this one is specific to those of us in Indiana. ILF kicked off this pretty cool thing to help libraries become more involved in supporting businesses and economic development. It's a great idea, if you ask me.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Library Engagement in Economic Development
I went to a workshop over a month ago on Economic Development and Libraries, sponsored by the Indiana Public Libraries Association. Christopher Pfaff from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation led a discussion about what libraries can do to become engaged in the economic development of their communities. Here is a top ten list of things he thought libraries could be doing:
- Maintain on-going memberships and relationships with local chambers of commerce, the local economic development corporation, council, etc., and develop cooperative programs, services, and information resources with the local Small Business Development Centers.
- Conduct technology related workshops especially in the areas of Internet resources, software selection, basic accounting and business ethics workshops.
- Provide core business resources for the reference department including print and web based information resources.
- Make meeting room policies open to businesses for staff training, planning sessions, client counseling, etc.
- Develop strong partnerships with any local business incubators.
- Provide training to library staff to meet the demands of business reference inquiries and to anticipate the diverse information needs of business.
- Make available in library facilities the latest technology hardware and software to facilitate their use by small business entrepreneurs.
- Provide telephone, e-mail, and instant text messaging business reference service.
- Actively market and publicize public library services, resources, meeting rooms, computer labs, workshops, etc to business.
- Develop a method of referring patrons to corporate, special, academic, or state agencies for inquiries that the local collection cannot answer and make available interlibrary loan services.
