Library Revolution

Bravo, Dorothea!

One of the most common things I hear myself saying to the library staff I train is: “Play with it. You can’t break anything!!”

But I know that a lot of them are reluctant, or downright terrified of the idea of just jumping in and trying things out.

Read her full post about the “training wheels culture” and cataloging… I think it will ring true with many of the frustrations felt by many of us who find ourselves doing training for library staff. And she pulls no punches in venting these frustrations.

Librarians are a timorous breed, fearful of ignorance and failure. We believe knowledge is power, which taken to an unhealthy extreme can mean that we do not do anything until we think we understand everything. We do not learn by doing, because learning by doing invariably means failure. So a librarian just won’t sit down with AACR2, Connexions, and the AUTOCAT mailing-list archive and work out how to catalogue a novel item. Nor she won’t sit down at the computer and beat software with rocks until it works.

She’ll sit passively, hands in lap, and ask for training, feeling guilty the whole time for displaying ignorance.

And

What they need is to kick off the training wheels, honestly. Their locus of control vis-a-vis technology needs to move a long way inward. There is nothing more frustrating than dealing with fear-based apathy. I don’t mind intelligent skepticism; I’ll prove a given tool’s worth or I’ll abandon it. I don’t mind dealing with genuine problems. They happen.

I do mind, quite a lot, having to stand over a grown professional’s shoulder teaching her to use a set of essentially self-explanatory web forms because she cannot be bothered to learn by doing. And I do this a lot.

My husband and I picked up a new wii game last week. Did we:

A. Sit down with the manual and try to memorize all of the controller movements and their proper applications

B. Call Best Buy and ask that a member of their “Geek Squad” swing by the house to thoroughly train us in how to use the game

C. Refuse to play the game because it was unfamiliar to us

D. Pop the disc into the slot and start shooting away at bad guys until we figured it out

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I think a lot of librarians could learn a lot from playing more video games.

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I sometimes get criticism on this blog for insisting that many librarians out there lack the kinds of basic technology skills that many of us take for granted. While these librarians are obviously in the vast minority, I must continue to contend that they are still out there. And sometimes I have a hard time knowing how to deal with them.

I had a strange phone conversation with a librarian recently. I usually don’t blog about stuff that goes on at work, but this was too good to not share. Here it is in a nutshell (paraphrased):

Me: …I have a handout with step-by-step instructions for doing what you want. Let me just email it to you. Do I have your address?

Them: No, I really don’t do email.

Me: (Stopping, confused.) You don’t use email?

Them: No, I don’t want to get sucked in. Can you just put the handout in the mail bag for me?

Me: (Totally thrown for a loop) Oh… Well… Um… I don’t know…. You don’t want to get sucked in??

Them: Yes, everyone seems to get so obsessed by their email, and I want to keep things simple for myself. You know, so it doesn’t get overwhelming.

Me: I guess so… but you don’t use email at all?? How do you communicate?

Them: (laughing) You know, the old fashioned way. I call. Or use the mail. Email is such a bother. So can you just mail the handout over to me? Or fax it?

Me: (with new resolve) No, I don’t think so. I can email it because I have the file right here, though. Can I send it to a library email account or something?

Them: I suppose so, but I don’t know how to get into that. I guess I could get someone else to get it for me…

Me: Well, if you find someone, maybe have them call me? I don’t want to send it if I don’t know that you will get it.

Them: Why not just put it in the bag??

Me: Because we email things here. I really think you should think about setting up an email account.

Them: I don’t want to, though. I don’t even know how to.

Me: Don’t you have to help patrons with that?

Them: No, I pass those questions off to someone else. I don’t really want to know anything about computers.

Me: (stubborn) I guess you’re out of luck, then. Why don’t you have someone with an email account call me. Or pick up the handout at the next meeting.

Maybe this wasn’t the best way for me to have handled things, but I was rather taken aback, and sometimes when that happens, you don’t really think, you just react. And the part that really got to me was the whole attitude of “someone else will do it.” I was pretty irritated by that. But in retrospect, I feel like this wasn’t necessarily the best reaction. What do you think?

Was I wrong to not just send the handout via mail? It would have cut this conversation down to size, and the person on the phone would have had her information the next day. Was I just being stubborn? Was this bad customer service on my part? Should I have just let it go?

BTW: I later worked out the training issue with one of her colleagues who was more than happy to use email as part of the resolution.

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I was in a library the other day, sort of hanging out near the circ desk while I waited for the person I was supposed to be training. (In case you haven’t noticed from my other posts, I spend a lot of time like this!) As I was standing there, the phone rang.

Here is the conversation I overheard – or at least the half I heard (paraphrased a little, sorry!):

Circ Clerk: (with a smile) Hello! Public Library!

<pause>

CC: (smile fades)Well… (uncertainly) I’m not really sure.

<pause>

CC: Um… I just don’t know. (frowning) On the main highway I suppose. You know, Main Street.

<pause>

CC: It depends on where you are coming from. I don’t really know…

<pause>

CC: East or West? What town are you coming from?

<pause>

CC: Oh, I don’t know where that is. I don’t live right around here…

<pause>

CC: Well, you could ask someone when you get close. We’re really right on Main Street.

<pause>

CC: (with a sudden look of utter confusion) Our Web site? I don’t know… maybe it’s there…

<pause>

CC: OK. Sorry about that. Goodbye.

I felt kind of bad… for the clerk (a really nice lady) and for the poor, lost patron on the other end of that conversation. I almost wanted to ask her to hand me the phone so I could give the directions myself.

I’m sure this not the first (nor the last) time someone has called this library for directions. I’m also guessing that they get calls for library hours, event information, renewals, policy questions, and other routine inquiries. Most of which have simple, consistent answers that could be given easily and clearly… if they were pre-scripted.

Do any of your libraries keep a set of typed, canned answers to typical questions somewhere near the main phone? I’ve seen this at libraries from time to time, but it doesn’t strike me as all that widespread a practice. But maybe that’s just my impression.

Nothing so long and complicated that staff would panic trying to find the right answer in a tall stack of densely printed pages… just a short summary of what to say to those questions. Something for the clerks answering the phone to fall back on when they don’t readily know the answer, they forget, there has been a change, or they just space out (we all have those moments!).

This poor lady could have really used a copy of the directions right near the phone… and so could her patron!

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Several weeks ago I was in a library, waiting behind the circ desk for the person I was meeting with. She was tied up for a few minutes, so I took a look around… I always find interesting things behind the desk!

This time what I saw was a little radio/CD/tape player that they use for various in-library programs. It was your standard little white radio, retailing for about $35.00 at Target. Really basic. No frills, nothing really tricky about it.

But they had made one modification to this little machine.

You know those little icons on audio/visual devices that represent Play, Fast Forward, etc? These had all been coveredup with little white stickers, which were meticulously labeled with the words Play, Fast Forward, etc. (These words were also printed on the machine by the manufacturer - right under the buttons.) In addition to these little stickers covering the symbols, there were longer stickers all over the radio, pointing out the different features, including instructions on how to use each feature.

It was stuff like:

“VOLUME CONTROL —-> Turn dial to the right to increase volume. Turn dial to the left to reduce volume.”

“Press Eject Button to Open this Door. Insert tape here.”

“Insert headphones here —->”

You could hardly see the radio for all of the instructions. And all of the little white labels had been typed out on a typewriter.

So my question is this: How often do we over-explain our library services?

It seems like libraries I visit are awash in little brochures explaining what the library has to offer (in great detail!!) and walking patrons step-by-step through everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. I half expect to go into the ladies room and see a little tri-fold pamphlet explaining the importance of toilet paper and how to use it.

It seems to me that most of the time the things we try so had to explain to our patrons fall in one of two categories. Either they really don’t need much explaining in the first place or they shouldn’t need much explaining.

I see the little labels on the radio as falling in the first category… I really think that librarians need to resist the urge to over-explain everything. I mean, come on. If you really end up with someone who can’t figure out how to play a tape in the thing, then help them out in person. But it’s more likely that people will figure it out without some condescending set of instructions that practically scream “you are too stupid to figure this out, so we have to hold your hand.”

The other group of instructions we tend to give out is for things that are overly complex, and perhaps shouldn’t be. In this case, how about focusing on making our services more user friendly instead? One library I know hands out lengthy pamphlets explaining the procedures for signing up for children’s programs. I’ve read them, and it’s a huge turnoff. It makes me want to call Gymboree and forget all about the library for good. And it’s a symptom of a broken system. If you need that much verbiage to explain program signups, then your signup procedures are no good. Plain and simple. Fix the policies and procedures instead of publishing another stupid tri-fold. That, or be prepared to see your customers walk out the door.

I guess what I’m getting at is this: The next time you’re tempted to cover a radio with instruction stickers, ask youself if they are really necessary for the bulk of your users. If the answer is still yes, then fix the underlying problem instead.

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