Library Professional Development

Yesterday, April 16, our library was closed for an all staff training day. Our area representative from the Indiana State Library Professional Development Office, Megan Maurer, spent the day at the Harrison County Public Library entertaining and enlightening us with professional development classes. This is a service that the state library offers free to libraries. Our library selected general classes that would benefit the entire staff but the state library offers a variety of topics from genealogy to MARC records. They even have a 2 hour session on readers’ advisory! The topics presented yesterday at our library were Reference Interview, Advanced Inspire, Customer Service, and WebJunction Indiana. I thought I would share some of the great things I heard yesterday during the training with you. Most of the information I gained would help any librarian or paraprofessional library staff member offer better readers’ advisory service.

Megan defined great customer service as “any action that makes your customer happy!” Her presentation included this saying that I felt summed up the future of public libraries, “Poor customer service drives people away. No patrons, no library. No library, no job. No job, no food.” She quoted a 1994 article by Catherine Ross and Patricia Dewdney, Best Practices: An Analysis of Best (and Worst) in Fifty-two Public Library Reference Transactions, stating that 86 percent of public library patrons polled upon leaving a library said they did not find what they were looking for and that 40 percent said if they returned they would not ask the same librarian for help again. (I tried to find the article to read for myself online but there is no electronic version available. I requested a copy through interlibrary loan because I want to read this study for myself. Those statistics sound terrible! What kind of service are we delivering?)

Maybe some of the tips offered in the Reference Interview session will help us better serve those unsatisfied patrons. Here is Megan’s list for “Basics of Good Reference” service:

• Approachability – Use good body language and eye contact.
• Interest – Show interest in the patron and the question.
• Listening – Listen, don’t interrupt, and don’t leap ahead to what you think they are going to say.
• Searching – Tell the patron what you are searching in and how you are searching for the information. Explain what sources and methods you are using.
• Follow-up – Make sure the patron knows to come back for more if what you give them initially is not what they needed and be sincere with the offer of further assistance.

As many of us learned in reference class, Megan said the reference interview should include open ended questions featuring this or that questions and the five Ws – who, what, where, why, and when. I think the basics for good reference service and the methods for questioning in the reference interview all translate well to reader’s advisory. Megan also gave us a handout on Open-Ended Questions for Reference Interviews created by Carole Leita and Sallie Pine. We did some practice exercises with reference questions using the handout for inspiration. It would probably be really useful to do some practice readers’ advisory questions using open-ended questions as well.

I also want to mention WebJunction Indiana for those of you who might not be familiar with it. WebJunction is supported by OCLC, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and state libraries throughout the country. According the website, WebJunction members “take courses, attend events, share knowledge, and network with others – all in an environment that fosters collaboration and mutual support. Our vision is to be the place where the worldwide library profession gathers to build the knowledge, skills and support we need to power vibrant, relevant libraries.” On WebJunction Indiana you will find information on Public Library Certification, Jobs in Indiana Libraries, Upcoming Indiana Library events and more. I can register for classes to earn the “much needed” LEUs for library certification and the Indiana State Library will send me a code to use to launch the class which puts the cost on the state library’s tab. The site also allows you to use it as a social network with “friends” and blogging. I guess if used correctly the site could be an effective networking tool. Since I have spent the last three years in the SLIS program I have not had much free time to investigate WebJunction Indiana.

I will close with “The Last Method (you will ever need) for Conflict Resolution.” Megan shared this during the customer service segment. Even if I don’t need to use this in a readers’ advisory situation I can definitely find some use for it in my personal life. Unfortunately I often have more conflict than I can manage. Here’s the method:

L: Listen – don’t talk, but do head nod and repeat phrases back to angry individual

A: Apologize – don’t admit guilt but sincerely apologize for the individual’s anger, situation…

S: Solve problem – provide an immediate response even if it isn’t what the individual expects

T: Thanks – sincerely thank individual for their patience and allowing you to serve them better