Apologies to the list for this long overdue summary of my request
for information on institutions' policies on staff id badges.
I had 16 replies, 7 from universities, one from a sixth-form college,
the rest from further education colleges. One university considered
introducing badges but dropped the idea in the face of staff
resistance, the other institutions had badges.
Reasons for introducing badges were given as:
User service reasons 4
Requests from staff 1
Encouraging staff to feel ownership of library 1
So staff cannot be anonymous 1
Requests from users with dyslexia 1
Corporate identity 1
Security, inc. access to building 7
Arbitrary imposition by management 2
Introduced because Faculties have badges 1
To give staff a sign of authority 1
Details included on badges ranged from "Library" or "Library staff"
(3) to every combination of name, job title and photograph, name of
department and/or name of institution.
Degree of compulsion:
Compulsory for all staff at all times 3
Compulsory for staff in public areas of library only 3
Compulsory for all staff and students of a University(!) but not
enforced 1
Compulsory to "have it with us" to show security staff 1
Compulsory at first but no longer enforced 1
Voluntary, only worn at open days etc. 1
Written into job description 1
Some respondents commented on whether wearing was enforced,
though I had not asked this. Comments as follows:
Not enforced 5
Encouraged with gentle reminders 1
Continually nag non-wearers 1
From feed back, how successful was your policy as seen by staff
and users?
Don't know/no feedback 1
Successful with staff 1
Successful with users 1
Successful with staff and users 3
Resistance from staff 4
I asked if other sections within institutions, with the exception of
cleaning, catering and security staff, wore any form of ID
No 3
Yes (but no detail given) 1
IT/Computer Services 2
Other departments 5
J F E McLaughlin
Sub-Librarian, Faculties of Science and Informatics
The Library
University of Ulster
Cromore Road
Coleraine
Co Derry, BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland
+44 (0)2870 324257
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