I appreciate your posting, Steve, which I read with
much interest and pleasure.
I agree with many of your points, and recognize in
them, as well, some of our less fortunate developments
at the university library in Amsterdam over the last
twenty-five years.
Let me just add that in our case there was another
important factor involved ( though hardly anyone in
the organisation was eager to acknowledge it, not to
mention to discus it ). That factor was a question of
mentality -- a clearly broadly shared mentality --
among the Public Services staff, a kind of resentment
accompanied by what seemed almost a pathological
inferiority complex vis-à-vis the subject-specialist
librarians, many of whom had higher degrees, and
not a few indeed doctorates, in their respective
disciplines.
It's actually many years ago now that the subject
specialists largely lost the battle for systematic direct
contact with the general library-using public,
manifested for example by regular service at the
enquiry desks. I've the strong impression that the
Public Services employees were in majority quite
happy and relieved to see us manoeuvred to the
sidelines or entirely behind the scenes. Later on,
especially the "team-leaders" among them even
became more aggressive in claiming for themselves
( with support from higher management ) prerogatives
that actually served to hinder an optimal -- or even
sufficient -- subject-expertise-based library service
to students, faculty members and other researchers
or the general public.
There are more than sufficient indications that quite
a few of that front-line staff actually began to convince
( delude ? ) themselves that they themselves had the
necessary knowledge and general intellectual baggage
to handle most subject-specific enquiries themselves ;
and when they eventually saw that they were really
clearly at a loss, they would refer the user to a real
specialist but accompany the referral with an explicit
or implicit commentary to the effect that "this referral
doesn't necessarily mean that you're any better or more
clever or informed than I am, but just maybe you can
think of something to help this person that hasn't
already occurred to me" -- something with that general
drift.
Of course this has something to do with the Dutch
character or psyche as it has developed especially over
the last forty years -- but that's just a ( minor ? ) part of
the equation, I think.
It's my own feeling that this situation could amount to
a reasonably good research topic for a social or
organisational psychologist. Of course such studies have
been done, but I can't think off-hand of a reference to
a relevant one in the library area, and don't have access
at the moment to the tools for checking thoroughly.
The library management is of course afraid to tackle the
problematics of the situation sketched above, indeed
even to take their existence seriously. That stance is, as a
matter of fact, inherently related to the endorsement, also
in Amsterdam, of what you so nicely term ""Customer
Service" Management Techniques".
A sign of the times. Not something you can do a whole
lot about, it seems to me. Enlisting the users ( especially
students and faculty ) in your cause can be effective, but
is a tricky business, one that can also backfire.
- Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland
----- Original Message ----
From: Lee S R (LCSS) <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, March 6, 2010 12:26:08 PM
Subject: Re: Subject Librarians in back rooms
This is something that is being tried at the University of Glamorgan at
the present time in the main Library, although the model proposed is not
exactly the same in that Information Librarians (Subject) are already
located in offices off the main library floor, but they did until last
year have regular slots where they served on enquiry desks and were
therefore available to directly face their users regularly without any
barriers. Similarly if someone on the enquiry desk received an enquiry
for a Librarian they could ring them to speak to the student involved.
E-mail and Phone have always been methods promoted here.
I have to say that the views I am about to express are mine and mine
alone and may well not reflect the views of other Librarians or the
Library Management at Glamorgan.
I am not sure what the purpose of this move is other than it may be
following on from the change of practice in the Netherlands or the USA
and particularly the University of Hertfordshire who I think pioneered
this approach in the UK, although I may be wrong.
As a trained Youth and Community worker, before becoming a librarian, it
is obvious to me that we should be taking every opportunity to meet and
work alongside our community of staff students and researchers, and not
move further away. Thus these moves which, as far as I can see, make it
much more difficult for the users to get access to Librarians and
therefore hopefully get an instant answer to their query are a
retrograde step.
I may be wrong but this seems to me to be a response to so called
"Customer Service" Management Techniques, where a call comes in and gets
logged and is then forwarded on to someone to deal with at some time and
some predefined way by priority profiles.
The idea of "Customer Service" where you actually help the customer
there and then to resolve their problem by sitting alongside them and
facilitating their learning so that they gain extra skills, Seems to me
to be dyeing and we as Librarians are either just letting this happen
are having this foisted on us with very little consultation and thus
have no choice in the matter.
What I am sure of is that if you remove help from where it is needed you
get less enquires. Years ago there was a move in many Libraries to take
subject enquiry desk of different library floors and to put them in one
big enquiry desk near the entrance. There was a huge drop off in
enquires as a result I seem to remember, because the Help Desk staff
were then separated from the book stock.
Since the current experiment with removing Librarians from the main help
desk and putting them in a room behind the Information and Service desk
(Issue), once again the enquires seem to have dropped off quite
drastically. This maybe because we are no longer be asked "can I borrow
a stapler" or "where are toilets" but I personally think that users
often require courage to approach a library desk in the first place and
therefore are not prepared to go through another layer of bureaucracy to
get to us. They just go away and use Google or someone else. We now
monitor our enquires and some colleagues have had some enquiry sessions
where they have had no enquires at all.
On a more positive note Glamorgan has promoted "Roving" on all library
floors, where Library workers wear a Bib saying "Library Staff Ask Me"
on it. In my opinion this has been a very good development as students
can now often find a member of staff roving near the bookstack they are
in and ask for their help. This has to some extent I think has offset
the negative effects of taking the Librarians of the Help desk.
The reason I am taking the trouble to reply in this detail is because I
think we should be having a wide ranging debate across the profession
about how we best serve our users and I think we as Librarians should be
setting this agenda rather than having it foisted on us by management
gurus or whoever is responsible.
To be fair to the management at Glamorgan they are evaluating the
current project and so it may yet be changed. They have also been very
supportive of moves I have made to actually go out into the University
Departments to make up for the users having access to me in the Library.
They have supported me in setting up 4 weekly one Hour Clinics in each
of the Departments in my Faculty where I now sit in prominent Student
areas in each of our main Academic Buildings and deal with enquires
there from staff, students and researchers.
This has for me been a wonderful experience as members of the academic
staff stop and chat as they pass and sometimes even bring me a cup of
tea. It has made me feel much more part of the department. We have
promoted these sessions on Plasma Screens around all the departments
involved, thanks to some eye catching posters and matching PowerPoint
slides for the Plasma screens done by our excellent in house Graphic
Designer.
Although I am not buried in enquires during these sessions I have always
had at least one or two very detailed ones, and I have also been able to
promote our whole range of services much more readily.
This is where I personally think the future of Librarianship should go
if we are to survive and be truly valued by our users/customers. If we
become less and less accessible and approachable and do not set foot
outside our Libraries but expect our community to come to us then one
day people will ask why are we paying these people quite a lot of money?
What do they actually do?
It should be absolutely clear what we do! We should be at the heart of
every information innovation happening on our campuses and not let these
developments be taken of us by other departments.
A Community Work approach needs to be the way forward not a "Customer
Service" managed approach, like you get in call centres and which
frustrates the hell out of all of us.
Later next academic year I hope to write up more about my work in the
Departments and this Community Work approach, (in the SCONUL newsletter)
but in the meantime I would be happy to provide more information to
anyone who e-mails me.
Having got involved in this debate, instigated by Shirley, I hope others
from all sides of this issue will join in and let us air all the
possible views and see we can reach any consensus on the way forward.
Thanks
Steve
Steve Lee
BA (Hons) MLib PGCE CQSW FLA exFCLIP FHEA
Information Librarian
Science Sport and Chiropractic
LRC
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
Mid-Glam
CF37 1DL
Tel 01443 483391
e-mail [log in to unmask]
"...all progress depends on the unreasonable man" G B Shaw
"There is NO higher life form than a Librarian" T. Pratchett, J Cohen &
I. Stewart, The Science of Discworld II, p 10. 2002
Please join me and visit
http://www.thehungersite.com
and
http://www.freerice.com/
ONCE EVERYDAY to give food to the hungry at no cost to you.
(and if you can spare the time please click on the TABS on the
www.hungersite.com link to give free donations to Breast Cancer, Rain
Forests Animals etc.)
Please help MAKE POVERTY HISTORY !!!!!!
visit
www.traidcraftinteractive.com
Please change a life by Sponsoring a child by going to either of the
sites below and picking a child. (It does not cost alot)
www.compassionuk.org
www.worldvision.org.uk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. on behalf of Laval Hunsucker
Sent: Fri 05/03/2010 16:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Subject Librarians in back rooms
Shirley,
The change being considered at your institution
is one that was less than three years ago, and
quite controversially, implemented at the
University Library at the Universiteit Leiden here
in The Netherlands. There was much discussion,
as even I could not avoid noticing and to some
extent following, as then ( now just retired )
subject specialist at the Universiteit van
Amsterdam ( where we ourselves had and still
have a de facto 'mixed model' in this respect ).
They carried out a study and produced a report
prior to the actual implementation in Leiden, as I
recall, and perhaps even did an evaluation later
on. ( Whether these things would be available in
English is another matter. )
You may want to contact that library for further
enquiries. Their English-language website is at
http://www.library.leiden.edu/,
and you can find links for descriptions and contacts
on
http://www.library.leiden.edu/about/.
Good luck,
- Dr. Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland
----- Original Message ----
From: "Ward, Shirley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, March 5, 2010 9:41:47 AM
Subject: Subject Librarians in back rooms
Here at the University of Bolton, there has been a suggestion that the
team of Subject Librarians should be taken off the Library floor, and
live in a back office.
Students would be able to contact their respective librarian via phone
and email, and make appointments to see them if necessary.
We would still be rostered on to the general Information Desk during the
week, but it is envisaged that 'subject' queries would be referred from
that desk, when they arise.
At present each Librarian has a desk in the Library and is available for
queries at all times (when they are at those desks)
I would appreciate some information from institutions who have their
subject librarians in back offices, and those who haven't - particularly
if you have tried both scenarios.
Which approach do you think works best, which do the students prefer,
and any advice that you would be willing to give.
I will, of course, summarise answers to the list if anyone is
interested.
Best wishes
Shirley
Shirley Ward
Subject Team Leader/Learning and Teaching Fellow
University of Bolton
The Library
Deane Road
BOLTON
BL3 5AB
01204 903553
Steve Lee
BA (Hons) MLib PGCE CQSW FLA FCLIP FHEA
Information Librarian
Applied Sciences
LRC
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
Mid-Glam
CF37 1DL
Tel 01443 483391
e-mail [log in to unmask]
"...all progress depends on the unreasonable man" G B Shaw
"There is NO higher life form than a Librarian" T. Pratchett, J Cohen &
I. Stewart, The Science of Discworld II, p 10. 2002
Please join me and visit
http://www.thehungersite.com
and
http://www.freerice.com/
ONCE EVERYDAY to give food to the hungry at no cost to you.
(and if you can spare the time please click on the TABS on the
www.hungersite.com link to give free donations to Breast Cancer, Rain
Forests Animals etc.)
Please help MAKE POVERTY HISTORY !!!!!!
visit
www.traidcraftinteractive.com
Please change a life by Sponsoring a child by going to either of the
sites below and picking a child. (It does not cost alot)
www.compassionuk.org
www.worldvision.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Laval
Hunsucker
Sent: 05 March 2010 16:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Subject Librarians in back rooms
Shirley,
The change being considered at your institution
is one that was less than three years ago, and
quite controversially, implemented at the
University Library at the Universiteit Leiden here
in The Netherlands. There was much discussion,
as even I could not avoid noticing and to some
extent following, as then ( now just retired )
subject specialist at the Universiteit van
Amsterdam ( where we ourselves had and still
have a de facto 'mixed model' in this respect ).
They carried out a study and produced a report
prior to the actual implementation in Leiden, as I
recall, and perhaps even did an evaluation later
on. ( Whether these things would be available in
English is another matter. )
You may want to contact that library for further
enquiries. Their English-language website is at
http://www.library.leiden.edu/,
and you can find links for descriptions and contacts
on
http://www.library.leiden.edu/about/.
Good luck,
- Dr. Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland
----- Original Message ----
From: "Ward, Shirley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, March 5, 2010 9:41:47 AM
Subject: Subject Librarians in back rooms
Here at the University of Bolton, there has been a suggestion that the
team of Subject Librarians should be taken off the Library floor, and
live in a back office.
Students would be able to contact their respective librarian via phone
and email, and make appointments to see them if necessary.
We would still be rostered on to the general Information Desk during the
week, but it is envisaged that 'subject' queries would be referred from
that desk, when they arise.
At present each Librarian has a desk in the Library and is available for
queries at all times (when they are at those desks)
I would appreciate some information from institutions who have their
subject librarians in back offices, and those who haven't - particularly
if you have tried both scenarios.
Which approach do you think works best, which do the students prefer,
and any advice that you would be willing to give.
I will, of course, summarise answers to the list if anyone is
interested.
Best wishes
Shirley
Shirley Ward
Subject Team Leader/Learning and Teaching Fellow
University of Bolton
The Library
Deane Road
BOLTON
BL3 5AB
01204 903553
|
