I attended the program “OCLC Best Practices in Cooperative Reference” on Saturday afternoon, I won’t bore you with too many details since only a few of us do virtual reference (hi Don and Adam!), but I will say that it’s nice to be part of California’s Ask Now virtual reference system. The speakers were from Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, and all of these states have their own network of libraries working together on virtual reference through OCLC. The Maryland program in particular was very impressive, at least in terms of marketing – they put a lot of effort into commercializing their Ask Now service. In fact, they even hired a producer to film an ad that aired on MTV during the Video Music Awards (apparently, this aired in Maryland right before Britney Spears’ recent disastrous performance, leading to a huge surge in Ask Now questions throughout Maryland). They also put together a YouTube contest, aired ads in movie theaters, and created a MySpace page just for Ask Now. They are really going after the teen demographic in Maryland. This prompted some grumbles from the crowd – it seems that many librarians are tired of being asked to do teens’ homework for them on their Ask Now shifts, especially when the patron’s home library doesn’t offer a service like tutor.com to refer to. Another person in the audience asked the three panelists how many actual virtual reference shifts they typically perform per month, which ended with all of them admitting that they do not ever do shifts themselves and stammering about how they “wish they had the time…” Awkward!
The “qwidget,” or Question Point widget, was highly stressed. This is a helpful little widget that can go on any web page allowing patrons to ask their virtual reference question right in a little IM-style chat box without having to follow a link to Ask Now. Perhaps we might want to think about adding this widget to our web page? The problem is that it can appear to the patron that they will be immediately connected to their home library, when chances are they’ll end up with someone else altogether. Something to think about…..
Anyway, we have it pretty good here in California, with librarians from academic libraries and public libraries working the queues together and sharing their feedback. Also, Ask Now has a nice wiki and helpful sites on best practices, which are a big help. We’ve got a nice system going on out here in sunny CA.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business
This very high energy and informative session was part of the Empowerment Conference within a conference. Presenter Tracie D. Hall gave us her take on the future of Reference services and what she believes libraries can do now to better serve patrons. Part Joan Frye Williams, Tracie emphasized what we need to reexamine isn’t really the image of the library as a static environment (we know that’s no longer the case), but how we (librarians) have not reshaped our own job to conform to the new reality of patron services.
Her top 10 trends to watch:
1. Diversity, Multiculturalism, multilingualism, globalism are realities and will increase with time. Our service needs to be responsive to the needs of our patrons. It isn’t enough to have Spanish language phone prompts if we, as an example, serve Spanish speakers, we must have an integrated approach – catalogs, staff, other resources.
2. Librarians are now moving to the librarian as coach/librarian as teacher model. Gone are the days of hunters and pointers. The public is looking to us for higher level assistance. They can search Google; we need to help them integrate and expand their knowledge. Appointments with a librarian, anyone?
3. Cohort and group learning The library, both virtual and brick and mortar, is a place where communities gather. Librarians should be facilitators and promoters of such interaction – study/meeting spaces, policies and staff attitudes that encourage such interaction.
4. Infallibility of the Peer review or the user as expert With the rise of interactive, web 2.0 technology, users are accustomed to seeing and relying on the opinions of other users instead of or in addition to the so-called expert. Librarians need to understand that our users think of themselves as consumers and do not want/need gatekeepers who restrict or judge their selections. Think Ann Arbor District Library’s interactive website.
5. Small is the New Big Customers want customized selections and recommendations. It is better to have a small, select group of materials people use than vast collections no one cares about. Hall spoke about the Idea Store model that’s been successfully implemented in Britain, combining a retail atmosphere with library services.
6. Here is the new There Bring your service and selection to the user. You know, like creating a virtual library, putting library in a mall or maybe, having a mobile library that visits area schools….something to think about.
7. The Return to Orality We are seeing the end of the “experience economy” and moving headlong into the “empathy economy”. People want high touch, personal service at the same time they like self service. Successful librarians understand the need to get out from behind the desk to make themselves accessible while also allowing users to do what they want and need to do in the way they want to do it.
8. The Return of the Mighty Gatekeeper The proximity to power matters. Librarians are seen as all-knowing and all-powerful. Rather than bask in our own imposing reputations, we need to permit users to work with us to meet their needs. We should also be conscious of the signals we’re sending when we work the desk and do work at the desk. How many times has someone said, “Excuse me. I hate to bother you but…”?
9. New Sensualists While we’re at the end of the experience economy, the younger generations are also experience driven. Access doesn’t equal education but instead, we can help to create environments, programs and opportunities for people to fully interact with ideas – children’s museums, tech classes, children’s programming…
10. Empathy Economy The monolithic info desk does as much to hurt our relationship with our users as it does to hurt the flow of service areas. Hall recommends smaller service “kiosks” where users and staff can interact on equal footing rather than in this physically and emotionally divided model.
Perhaps the most powerful piece of information, was that librarianship in this new era is 80% work “inside the library” and 20% “outside the library”. Although I think Hall meant this in the most traditional sense, I see it as the expression of traditional versus non-traditional services. While I’d put the ratios more at 50/50, we need to know that our interaction with our users, in person, online, through programs, through merchandising, through outreach are just as important as collection development, circulation and more traditional library services.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business by Tracee D. Hall, Sunday 1:30-3pm.
Tracee Hall is a very dynamic and charismatic speaker. She convinced me that the ten trends - which Heather did a great job summarizing in this blog - will continue to shape librarianship and the role of libraries in our society. She reinforced the notion that libraries have to expand their role in society as "value-added destinations" and "third spaces" or become stagnant environments.
The workshop was thought provoking and enjoyable. The main points I got out of the workshop were that we are part of an empathetic economy. Patrons expect personalized service. Librarians should bring services TO the people, out to the public. The reference desk acts as a physical, sometime intimidating barrier for patrons.
Tracee believes that librarians must provide roving reference where there are service points vs. a central reference desk. She used the example of Seattle Public Libraries Mixing Chamber - where patrons receive help from roaming librarians who collaborate with the patron and work as a team to solve their information needs.
We have implemented roaming reference, offer many access points to library services, offer customized experiences for our patrons with our collections, programs and one on one interactions. Even though we haven't blown up our reference desks, I think we are aware of the social forces at work and have created libraries which are very much valued by our community and can only improve with hard work and time.
Not sure if I should post this in Tech or Reference, so I'll be like Barnes & Noble and put it both places...
On Sunday at 10:30 a.m. I attended "What Is the Future of Face-to-Face Reference", put on by ALA's MARS subgroup ("Machine Assisted Reference Service") and featuring four speakers from university libraries.
Sara Davidson from UC Merced talked about how their new campus and library (only 3 years old) had no reference desk, just a one-stop circ/information desk staffed by student assistants. She was short on specifics of whether students were happy with this approach. Geri Purpur and Louise Ochoa from Appalachian State University in Utah described a Second Life-type virtual graduate school and library. Char Booth at Ohio University described her library's experiment with virtual reference via library video kiosks using Web calling and instant messaging (Skype and Meebo), which had not had as much use as they'd hoped. Overall the presentation covered some interesting technology but was not especially applicable to our public library.
The very last program I went to at ALA was the RUSA President's Program: Quality Service in an Impersonal World. The program took place on Monday from 1:30-3:30 and was the perfect way to end my time at ALA. The program started off with the President and other officers of RUSA singing a very entertaining song about joining RUSA. With as much fun as they seem to have, I will definitely consider joining. There were several speakers that all touched on several different topics related to customer service and reference services.
The first speaker was Robert Spector, who is the author of the book "The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company." Robert mostly talked about the way Nordstrom handles business and why it is that they are known all over the world for their excellent customer service.
The second speaker was Donna Bachowski, the Head of Reference from the Central Branch of Orange County Public Library System in Orlando Florida. She talked about some of the things they do at their library in terms of reference services. They use a device called Vocera that allows staff to communicate with each other as they are doing roving reference. There are also phones placed near the OPAC's so that patrons can be connected to a Librarian on their Vocera and ask any questions they might have.
The third speaker was Marie L. Radford, an Associate Professor & Library Consultant for the School of Communication, Information & library Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She made her point about how many librarians have BURNOUT from being on the reference desk so much and that they should be given reference sabbaticals (days at work without being on the reference desk).
The top two things I took away from the program were:
1)Try to have casual conversations with the customer as you are walking them to their item, they will appreciate it and will feel more comfortable coming to you for help the next time around.
On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. I attended the OCLC QuestionPoint Users Group meeting, for library staff who participate in this nationwide virtual reference service. The speakers (Susan McGlamery and others) talked about the "Qwidget", the IM box that can be added to library Webpages to take virtual reference questions. I want to find out more about how it works but I agree with Jenn, it's something worth considering. It was interesting to meet people who staff the service from other libraries.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business by Tracie D. Hall, Sunday 1:30-3pm.
I agree with Heather and Margaret that this program was one of the most engaging at the Conference. Tracee Hall is Joan Frye Williams on 10 cups of coffee and lots of sugar.
I’ll make some comments from my notes which might be scattered, but that’s definitely how her talk was:
• The library as a brand still works, it’s the librarian brand that’s broken • Need to rethink modes of delivery – think WaMu model with side-by-side interaction • Diversity is here to stay in multiple dimensions: appearance, age, ethnicity, gender, income level, marital status, language, occupation, physical ability, race, size, values system and more • Get rid of gatekeepers • Small is the new big – aggregate things to make them useful and save the user's time (does Dewey do this effectively or not?) • Get back to real voices on the phone • Libraries are one of very few customer service experiences where the professional sits down when helping the customer. Customers would not tolerate a grocery clerk or a retail clerk who sat down. We must get up from behind the desk and go to where the people are – out walking around the library.
Tracee Hall is an inservice-caliber speaker. Someone to keep in mind for next inservice time.
7 comments:
I attended the program “OCLC Best Practices in Cooperative Reference” on Saturday afternoon, I won’t bore you with too many details since only a few of us do virtual reference (hi Don and Adam!), but I will say that it’s nice to be part of California’s Ask Now virtual reference system. The speakers were from Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, and all of these states have their own network of libraries working together on virtual reference through OCLC. The Maryland program in particular was very impressive, at least in terms of marketing – they put a lot of effort into commercializing their Ask Now service. In fact, they even hired a producer to film an ad that aired on MTV during the Video Music Awards (apparently, this aired in Maryland right before Britney Spears’ recent disastrous performance, leading to a huge surge in Ask Now questions throughout Maryland). They also put together a YouTube contest, aired ads in movie theaters, and created a MySpace page just for Ask Now. They are really going after the teen demographic in Maryland. This prompted some grumbles from the crowd – it seems that many librarians are tired of being asked to do teens’ homework for them on their Ask Now shifts, especially when the patron’s home library doesn’t offer a service like tutor.com to refer to. Another person in the audience asked the three panelists how many actual virtual reference shifts they typically perform per month, which ended with all of them admitting that they do not ever do shifts themselves and stammering about how they “wish they had the time…” Awkward!
The “qwidget,” or Question Point widget, was highly stressed. This is a helpful little widget that can go on any web page allowing patrons to ask their virtual reference question right in a little IM-style chat box without having to follow a link to Ask Now. Perhaps we might want to think about adding this widget to our web page? The problem is that it can appear to the patron that they will be immediately connected to their home library, when chances are they’ll end up with someone else altogether. Something to think about…..
Anyway, we have it pretty good here in California, with librarians from academic libraries and public libraries working the queues together and sharing their feedback. Also, Ask Now has a nice wiki and helpful sites on best practices, which are a big help. We’ve got a nice system going on out here in sunny CA.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business
This very high energy and informative session was part of the Empowerment Conference within a conference. Presenter Tracie D. Hall gave us her take on the future of Reference services and what she believes libraries can do now to better serve patrons. Part Joan Frye Williams, Tracie emphasized what we need to reexamine isn’t really the image of the library as a static environment (we know that’s no longer the case), but how we (librarians) have not reshaped our own job to conform to the new reality of patron services.
Her top 10 trends to watch:
1. Diversity, Multiculturalism, multilingualism, globalism are realities and will increase with time.
Our service needs to be responsive to the needs of our patrons. It isn’t enough to have Spanish language phone prompts if we, as an example, serve Spanish speakers, we must have an integrated approach – catalogs, staff, other resources.
2. Librarians are now moving to the librarian as coach/librarian as teacher model.
Gone are the days of hunters and pointers. The public is looking to us for higher level assistance. They can search Google; we need to help them integrate and expand their knowledge. Appointments with a librarian, anyone?
3. Cohort and group learning
The library, both virtual and brick and mortar, is a place where communities gather. Librarians should be facilitators and promoters of such interaction – study/meeting spaces, policies and staff attitudes that encourage such interaction.
4. Infallibility of the Peer review or the user as expert
With the rise of interactive, web 2.0 technology, users are accustomed to seeing and relying on the opinions of other users instead of or in addition to the so-called expert. Librarians need to understand that our users think of themselves as consumers and do not want/need gatekeepers who restrict or judge their selections. Think Ann Arbor District Library’s interactive website.
5. Small is the New Big
Customers want customized selections and recommendations. It is better to have a small, select group of materials people use than vast collections no one cares about. Hall spoke about the Idea Store model that’s been successfully implemented in Britain, combining a retail atmosphere with library services.
6. Here is the new There
Bring your service and selection to the user. You know, like creating a virtual library, putting library in a mall or maybe, having a mobile library that visits area schools….something to think about.
7. The Return to Orality
We are seeing the end of the “experience economy” and moving headlong into the “empathy economy”. People want high touch, personal service at the same time they like self service. Successful librarians understand the need to get out from behind the desk to make themselves accessible while also allowing users to do what they want and need to do in the way they want to do it.
8. The Return of the Mighty Gatekeeper
The proximity to power matters. Librarians are seen as all-knowing and all-powerful. Rather than bask in our own imposing reputations, we need to permit users to work with us to meet their needs. We should also be conscious of the signals we’re sending when we work the desk and do work at the desk. How many times has someone said, “Excuse me. I hate to bother you but…”?
9. New Sensualists
While we’re at the end of the experience economy, the younger generations are also experience driven. Access doesn’t equal education but instead, we can help to create environments, programs and opportunities for people to fully interact with ideas – children’s museums, tech classes, children’s programming…
10. Empathy Economy
The monolithic info desk does as much to hurt our relationship with our users as it does to hurt the flow of service areas. Hall recommends smaller service “kiosks” where users and staff can interact on equal footing rather than in this physically and emotionally divided model.
Perhaps the most powerful piece of information, was that librarianship in this new era is 80% work “inside the library” and 20% “outside the library”. Although I think Hall meant this in the most traditional sense, I see it as the expression of traditional versus non-traditional services. While I’d put the ratios more at 50/50, we need to know that our interaction with our users, in person, online, through programs, through merchandising, through outreach are just as important as collection development, circulation and more traditional library services.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business
by Tracee D. Hall, Sunday 1:30-3pm.
Tracee Hall is a very dynamic and charismatic speaker. She convinced me that the ten trends - which Heather did a great job summarizing in this blog - will continue to shape librarianship and the role of libraries in our society. She reinforced the notion that libraries have to expand their role in society as "value-added destinations" and "third spaces" or become stagnant environments.
The workshop was thought provoking and enjoyable. The main points I got out of the workshop were that we are part of an empathetic economy. Patrons expect personalized service. Librarians should bring services TO the people, out to the public. The reference desk acts as a physical, sometime intimidating barrier for patrons.
Tracee believes that librarians must provide roving reference where there are service points vs. a central reference desk. She used the example of Seattle Public Libraries Mixing Chamber - where patrons receive help from roaming librarians who collaborate with the patron and work as a team to solve their information needs.
We have implemented roaming reference, offer many access points to library services, offer customized experiences for our patrons with our collections, programs and one on one interactions. Even though we haven't blown up our reference desks, I think we are aware of the social forces at work and have created libraries which are very much valued by our community and can only improve with hard work and time.
Not sure if I should post this in Tech or Reference, so I'll be like Barnes & Noble and put it both places...
On Sunday at 10:30 a.m. I attended "What Is the Future of Face-to-Face Reference", put on by ALA's MARS subgroup ("Machine Assisted Reference Service") and featuring four speakers from university libraries.
Sara Davidson from UC Merced talked about how their new campus and library (only 3 years old) had no reference desk, just a one-stop circ/information desk staffed by student assistants. She was short on specifics of whether students were happy with this approach. Geri Purpur and Louise Ochoa from Appalachian State University in Utah described a Second Life-type virtual graduate school and library. Char Booth at Ohio University described her library's experiment with virtual reference via library video kiosks using Web calling and instant messaging (Skype and Meebo), which had not had as much use as they'd hoped. Overall the presentation covered some interesting technology but was not especially applicable to our public library.
The very last program I went to at ALA was the RUSA President's Program: Quality Service in an Impersonal World. The program took place on Monday from 1:30-3:30 and was the perfect way to end my time at ALA. The program started off with the President and other officers of RUSA singing a very entertaining song about joining RUSA. With as much fun as they seem to have, I will definitely consider joining. There were several speakers that all touched on several different topics related to customer service and reference services.
The first speaker was Robert Spector, who is the author of the book "The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company." Robert mostly talked about the way Nordstrom handles business and why it is that they are known all over the world for their excellent customer service.
The second speaker was Donna Bachowski, the Head of Reference from the Central Branch of Orange County Public Library System in Orlando Florida. She talked about some of the things they do at their library in terms of reference services. They use a device called Vocera that allows staff to communicate with each other as they are doing roving reference. There are also phones placed near the OPAC's so that patrons can be connected to a Librarian on their Vocera and ask any questions they might have.
The third speaker was Marie L. Radford, an Associate Professor & Library Consultant for the School of Communication, Information & library Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She made her point about how many librarians have BURNOUT from being on the reference desk so much and that they should be given reference sabbaticals (days at work without being on the reference desk).
The top two things I took away from the program were:
1)Try to have casual conversations with the customer as you are walking them to their item, they will appreciate it and will feel more comfortable coming to you for help the next time around.
2)Customer Service is a way of life!
On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. I attended the OCLC QuestionPoint Users Group meeting, for library staff who participate in this nationwide virtual reference service. The speakers (Susan McGlamery and others) talked about the "Qwidget", the IM box that can be added to library Webpages to take virtual reference questions. I want to find out more about how it works but I agree with Jenn, it's something worth considering. It was interesting to meet people who staff the service from other libraries.
Can I Please Blow Up This Reference Desk?: Ten Social Trends that Can and Should Change the Libraries Do Business
by Tracie D. Hall, Sunday 1:30-3pm.
I agree with Heather and Margaret that this program was one of the most engaging at the Conference. Tracee Hall is Joan Frye Williams on 10 cups of coffee and lots of sugar.
I’ll make some comments from my notes which might be scattered, but that’s definitely how her talk was:
• The library as a brand still works, it’s the librarian brand that’s broken
• Need to rethink modes of delivery – think WaMu model with side-by-side interaction
• Diversity is here to stay in multiple dimensions: appearance, age, ethnicity, gender, income level, marital status, language, occupation, physical ability, race, size, values system and more
• Get rid of gatekeepers
• Small is the new big – aggregate things to make them useful and save the user's time (does Dewey do this effectively or not?)
• Get back to real voices on the phone
• Libraries are one of very few customer service experiences where the professional sits down when helping the customer. Customers would not tolerate a grocery clerk or a retail clerk who sat down. We must get up from behind the desk and go to where the people are – out walking around the library.
Tracee Hall is an inservice-caliber speaker. Someone to keep in mind for next inservice time.
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