[Publib] Brief and possibly muddled meditation on

[Tom Cooper]

Thanks Kathleen for helping me understand my long-standing aversion to
the self-service trends that proliferate at grocery stores and gas
stations but which I find totally out of place at the library. We are
not trying to move customers (and their cash) through in the most
expeditious manner: we are working with people, our patrons, to make
their library visits warm, friendly and beneficial. A self-check kiosk
will, to my knowledge, never have read the same book or listened to the
same CD the patron is checking out, and will never recommend something
else that patron may want to read. It will never get to know the patron
on a first-name basis or ask about his garden, or her grandchildren, or
whether her mother is home from the hospital yet. I was at a meeting
recently where some librarians were talking about a new automated
service, and they were very happy that the transition to the automated
format had brought almost no patron complaints. But we have to bear in
mind that just because they're not complaining doesn't mean they're
happy. They may just accept that it's the best they're going to get
because it's what they get everywhere else. I want to keep trying to do
better.

Tom Cooper, Director
Webster Groves Public Library
301 E. Lockwood
Webster Groves, MO 63119
 
(314) 961-3784
tcooper at wgpl.org
 
The universe is transformation, and life is an opinion
                                                       Marcus Aurelius
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Kathleen Stipek
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 6:38 PM
To: Sue Kamm; John; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] Brief and possibly muddled meditation on

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

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sue Kamm
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 5:02 PM
To: John; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Brief and possibly muddled meditation on

If you read any of the popular books on "customer service," they will
tell you the first thing to do is look after your employees.
Considering two airlines have folded within the past week, perhaps the
powers-that-be didn't get the picture.  I try not to fly on United
Airlines if I can avoid it.  One reason I think things declined on that
airline is their calling the people who pay to ride on their airline
customers instead of passengers.  

Inglewood spent beaucoup bucks on "service excellence" a number of years
ago.  They also began a new cycle of training not long ago.  I haven't
noticed them caring for their so-called "internal customers" (the
library is evidently at the bottom of any priority list for technical
problems or facilities management [I forgot how long it took for them to
change the various flourescent tubes throughout the building])

In the immortal words of Nero Wolfe:  Pfui.  

Your friendly CyberGoddess and Councilor-at-large,
Sue Kamm
Inglewood/Los Angeles, CA
Truest of the Blue, Los Angeles Dodgers Think Blue Week 2000
Visit my blog:  http://suekamm.blogspot.com
email:  suekamm [at] mindspring.com
"High fly ball into right field ... she is gone!  In a year that has
seemed so improbable, the impossible has happened!"  
- Vin Scully, describing Kirk Gibson's walk-off home run, Game 1, 1988
World Series


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