[Publib] RE: Brief and possibly muddled meditation on "customer service"

[Mark Furukawa]

Public libraries across Indiana, and across the country, are getting their
budgets slashed by taxpayers (or the legislators who 'represent' them). My
library is third largest in the state and will be losing *only* $1M+ next
year and the year after that ?.

Personal service is nice but is becoming a luxury we cannot afford. Public
libraries have traditionally shorted the 'internal customer' (staff) rather
than ever let the public know we can't 'do it all' with less and less. Now,
we are up against the wall and have to begin making hard choices before we
are forced to just close our doors permanently. Shortened hours, open fewer
days a week, a line at the circulation desk (horrors!), self-service
checkout (double horrors!), fewer programs, hiring freeze, minimal materials
budget.... We can provide excellent service with no new materials or
adequate service with some new materials.

And, I'm sure there are many librarians who will say "what are you whining
about, we did all that years ago and it's only gotten worse".

Libraries most certainly *DO* have a bottom line. If we don't 'sell our
product', i.e. circulate our materials - if we can't demonstrate our worth
to legislators/taxpayers, they can and do cut our budgets. Talking with
patrons about "his garden, or her grandchildren, or whether her mother is
home from the hospital yet" is nice and we still do it, but we're also going
into a 'if it don't get counted, we can't afford it' mode.

In 30+ years in public libraries, I've seen a steady decrease in the value
the general public places on libraries - AND the perceived value wasn't that
high to begin with.

[ooo, can you tell there have been too many dreary-rainy days of late?]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Furukawa, Branch Head
Calumet Township Branches
of Lake County Public Library
940 N. Broad St.
Griffith, IN 46319-1528 (USA)
mfurukawa(at)lakeco.lib.in.us
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/griffith.htm
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/blackoak.htm
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/fortyfirst.htm
     May I deal with honor,
     May I act with courage,
     May I achieve humility.
                from "Straight"
                by Dick Francis
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