Sticky 'Brary

Beware: Side rant ahead. Goals. Every library system seems to have them. Every annual evaluation that I've had has included a "What are your goals for the coming year?" component. That's great -- we should have goals. But here's the thing: it seems we frequently confuse goals with duties. If I say that my goal for the coming year is to provide good reference service to my community, that's admirable but it isn't a goal -- it's a duty. It's part of my job description. How lame is it that we routinely are allowed to say "My goal is to adequately do my job"? Managers out there: please give your staff members some clear guidance on the difference between goals and duties. Duties are expected and required. Goals are things that include the coordinating of pieces that lie beyond my immediate control. If I can do it today, it isn't a goal.

Seth Godin's posted the following on his blog : Who are you marketing to? Strangers are customers to be, but not yet Critics are those that would speak ill of you, or need to be converted Friends are those that might have given permission, or even buy now and then Fans are members of your tribe, supporters and insiders For the bulk of my outreach efforts, I'm looking for strangers and friends. Critics of the public library? If they are out there, they are a very small and/or quiet group. If I can get strangers and friends into the library (or using our resources), I'm happy to leave the cultivation of transforming those folks into fans to the fabulous reference and circulation staff members of the Spokane Public Library . I'm coming to find that it isn't necessarily the information that folks are wowed by, it is the availability of a human to help connect them with the information they need. That's the important part.

Amen, David Shumaker: http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2013/11/reference/reference-on-the-road/ I like the phrase "embedded librarians."

I'm trying out a new line. When people ask that inevitable, American question of "What do you do?" I've changed my answer from the standard reference librarian response to this: Sales. The inevitable follow-up question tends to be "Sales of what?" to which I reply "the Spokane Public Library. I sell the library."* It's fun and it immediately gives you the opportunity to pitch your collections, services, awesomeness, etc. You should give it try. *You may want to substitute your library's name for fear of getting some really strange looks if you aren't from Spokane.

I don't know about y'all, but my recollection of library school reference training went something like this: Customer asks a question/states a need. Librarian asks clarifying questions, generally open-ended questions at first and then follows up with closed-ended questions. Librarian determines the information need, takes the customer to the stacks or computer, shows them the relevant material and asks them to return to the reference desk if they have any other questions. All fine and good. Sort of. There needs to be a step 1.5, which would sound something like this: Yes. When a customer asks if we have information on China, avoid immediately launching into a reference interview -- this just makes people defensive. It may be unclear to them if we are just stalling because we don't know the answer or if we are mocking them or who-knows-what-other story the might be telling themselves. If we start with yes, then a number of things start to happen: the customer knows that w...

Good grief, has it really been since November? Latest "Eureka!" moment: I'm part of a sales leads group through Greater Spokane Inc. and I've made myself the personal librarian for the ~25-30 folks who are in the group. They love it. They love having a personal face to put on the library and the longer I'm in the group the better sense they have of just how much we have to offer. But the real beauty of participating in the leads group is that when people from the group refer others to me, they are usually sending them my way because they know that I can help this particular individual with their particular problem. The end result is that those being referred to me (after not being in a library for a number of years) come to me with softball questions that I can crush out of the ballpark. It makes a good first impression and makes it likely that they will come back with other questions when they arise. So the nugget to remember here is this: get a group of fol...

In addition to learning that I need to give audiences time to sign up for a library card at the end of presentations, I've also learned that I should ask the group to "share the library love." When I find myself in front of a group of people (especially volunteer-based organizations like Kiwanis, Rotary, etc.), I've found it productive to make myself available to present to other organizations. Folks who volunteer are often involved in more than one organization and through this simple networking mechanism I've got presentations lined up and on the calendar for the next several months to come. Slowly, slowly, slowly I feel like I'm getting this figured out...