Wow – can one be both exhilarated and exhausted at the same time? Because that’s how I feel right about now after spending an inspiring day at the Durham County Library Staff Day. They are our library neighbors to the west, and are at the beginning of crafting an exciting and innovative overall library plan that actively seeks input from not only all library staff, but the entire community of Durham. Led by their new director, Skip Auld, this is a motivated group of people with a passion to make their library system the best in the county. But don’t take my word for it – check out their Strategic Plan Wiki, that is growing daily with enthusiastic new ideas.
I was asked to do a presentation focusing on “Best Practices” and our model of Customer Service at our library system. The complete slideshow is below. I haven’t even touched the surface on all the great things I want to share about the day, but my exhaustion is beating out the exhilaration – - but just temporarily.
Thanks, Theresa for your inspiring presentation. Your main point about the we vs. them mentality regarding IT is a good one. Also, the fact that IT is often so controlling and secretive, with all their rules, passwords, secret codes, blocked sites for no real apparent reason. This is all clandestinely instituted by IT with out any discussion or consensus from the reference librarians or public users who will actually be using the service. Changes are made surreptitiously; without apparent rhyme or reason or feedback from users. Perhaps there are valid reasons and explanations; but we are never given any. We reference librarians are sometimes made to feel like we are criminals just for attemting to send an email to a librarian in another library system (outlook blocked)for heaven sakes! Why are we treated like idiots. Many of us have great usability ideas as well as legitimate professional needs. Also, we have to enter so many passwords, so many times a day. It is all so frustrating, time consuming, and inefficient. Usability sucks in the public library. IMO! I like the fact that your dept is providing open access and open information to the entire library staff, as well as querying them as to what their IT needs and desires are. This is not meant to be a negative reflection on Durham, as I have encountered this at most public librarys where I have worked. Thanks for your innovative ideas as to how to open up discourse between IT and users(staff). Check out my wiki page called TLC:
(http://dclstrategicplan.pbwiki.com/TLC%3A+Teen+Loving+Care)
Thanks again for food for thought..and innovative ideas.
Jodi Mitchell
Teen Services/Adult Reference
Durham County Library
Hey there Jodi
I’m sorry it’s taken so long to see your comment. I do have the blog setup to automatically post comments without any moderation from me, but it appears yours got flagged as spam – - and I never thought to look in that folder! Sorry! Still learning the ins and outs of WordPress.
Anyway, I hear what you’re saying and I wanted to respond to your frustration about the divide between library folk and IT folk. First of all, I’m proud of our staff, but I know we’ve still have many areas that can be improved upon. It’s a constant process of evaluating your service. I’ll also say that because my staff doesn’t do it ALL (our network and email are still managed by county IT, for example) – that we actively sought out time to meet with these “non library” IT staff. It’s easy to make the assumption that their rules are draconian and have no rhyme or reason. The only way you’ll know, though, is to reach out and ask.
What we did was seek out the network team first, and we asked them if they wouldn’t mind meeting with us quarterly. Our staffs meet, no set agenda, just a “this is what’s going on for us” type environment. It creates a relationship with people. We have a stellar relationship with this team as a result of meeting with them periodically over the past 3 years. They really look out for us, and it’s because of this relationship.
On the other end of the spectrum, we’re currently struggling to communicate with another county IT team. This struggle has been frustrating, and it has caused customer service issues for us. It would be very easy to point the finger (and yes, in dept staff meetings we’ve vented to each other) and make assumptions about their behavior without ever reaching out. So what are we doing? I’m taking advantage of an upcoming meeting with this group (discussing a specific project)to ask them if they wouldn’t mind meeting with our IT team on a regular basis. We need to start a relationship here. We need to share information on how we work in the libraries. We need to hear their priorities, issues, and constraints (which we’re unaware of). This honestly is how the problem will be resolved, through relationship building based on mutual respect.
Can you use this model in your situation? Perhaps have a small group representing the library – and seek out a regular meeting time? Host it and buy doughnuts – or have some chocolate