[Publib] Re: Dismay and worse

[Andy Barnett]

>Over Thanksgiving, my cousin--who I hadn't seen for twenty-five years-- 
>told me that he tried going into his local library once after not having 
>been in a library since high school.  He didn't know where anything was, 
>or how things were organized, or what to do to find anything.  He was 
>afraid that the librarians would think he was stupid if he asked simple 
>questions, so he left.

A common and tragic story. Points out the importance of very obvious and 
clear wayfinding. BIG signs that say NEW FICTION / NEW NON-FICTION / DVDS 
OVER HERE. Collections you can see and identify from across the room, with 
lots of books shelved face out. We are in the middle of a re-design and 
re-signing that we hope will make the library easier to use even if you 
never heard of Dewey. To get his feet wet and leave satisfied, he didn't 
need to find everything or be aware of all the available resources. He just 
needed to be able to find some books / DVD/ CDs to browse through. That a 
library is designed so that anyone needs a librarian to make basic use of 
it is enough to fill me with Dismay and worse.


Andy Barnett, Asst. Director            McMillan Memorial Library
490 East Grand Ave. Wisconsin Rapids, WI  54494
                 www.mcmillanlibrary.org
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that 
matter.  -  Martin Luther King, Jr.