[Publib] Brief and possibly muddled meditation on

[MichaelMay.59213074 at bloglines.com]

There actually was a talk table on this topic at PLA, "Patrons or Customers?"
moderated by Brent Wagner of Denver Public Library and Regina Stemmer of Houston
Public Library. I wrote a short blurb about it for the PLA blog:

http://plablog.org/2008/04/pursue-the-authentic.html


Michael May
Dubuque, Iowa

--- Kathleen Stipek" <kstipek at aclib.us wrote:

I have ranted about this before, so I'll try to keep my temper.
> Customer
service is what commercial enterprises do in order to extract
> money from
people.  Public service or patron service is what libraries
> do; they are
funded by the public to help people with no commercial
> involvement.  If
you come through the front door, you can get help, if
> help is to be had,
no matter who or what you are.  A well-run public
> library is one of the
last bastions of courtesy and competence.  Let
> business service customers.
 Let libraries help the public.  We are good
> at it, but we can always get
better.
> 
> Kathleen Stipek
> Alachua County Library District
> 401 East
University Avenue
> Gainesville, Florida 32601
> 352-334-3931 fax 352-334-3938

>  
> --Non, merci
> Cyrano de Bergerac