Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Gail Middlekauff (Contra Costa County Library)—Self-Service Features

Ms. Middlekauff spoke about various self-service
features. Self-checkout, self-return,
self-service hold pickup, etc. Patrons
enjoy self-return as they get to receive a receipt proving that they returned
the materials. She noted that if you
open a new building with these features already in place, the users adapt a bit
easier than if they are introduced into an existing building.
Other self-service features have been around a long
time—e-mail reference, self-holds, searching, applying for e-cards online (get
an instant number to use remote resources and can come in to get a full-feature
card later). 70% of their remote
card-holders come in to get a full-feature card. Very few are returned as non-deliverable in
the mail.
Other items that can be made remote are advance overdue
notices, holds notices, and other features built in to your ILS.
Most customers want things immediately, and online
self-service features can be made available 24/7, which you can’t do with
in-library resources. Online service
requires minimal staff time and funding—much more efficient than a physical
branch (read: a great return on investment).
Starting with a pilot location is a good gentle foray into
these self-service features. Discussing
the purpose and mission of these self-service features is key, not only to get
buy-in and promotion at all levels, but to ensure that staff are not feeling
threatened by the tasks that are being automated or turned over to patrons to
do themselves.

Barbara Will (California State Library)—Small Business Network

Ms. Will discussed the successes of the Small Business
Network program from the California State Library. Small businesses in California employ over half of the workforce and produce more than half of the state’s
gross domestic product. The State
Library wanted to support small businesses, and to do so through
libraries. The Small Business Network
Library “box kit” helped libraries to train their staff on business resources
and publicize the library’s small business services and resources. They created websites in English and Spanish
about small business resources online and created the business online reference
queue through the state’s web-based chat service, AskNow. Libraries received grants and were asked to
do four trainings for small business owners. The trained staff cross-trained the other staff in their libraries. Advisory groups drawn from the community
geared the progress of the program. Cooperatives formed with local chambers of commerce, business societies,
rotary clubs, and more.

Joe Barker (UC
Berkeley Teaching Library)—Virtual Reference and Change

Mr. Barker discussed what he has seen in his experience
teaching for the Infopeople Project on web searching and innovative reference
services. All staff want to provide the
best service for their users. But quite
often, his students (all practicing library staff) don’t know how to do the
things they need to do to improve services. The future is frightening. Web
2.0 and Library 2.0 are foreign concepts to them. Staff fear too much change—things have been
moving very quickly for a decade, and things aren’t slowing down. He reminded us that culture is not going to
go back to how it was before the internet. We need to learn to meet people where they are—on the web. He said we must be easy to use, easy to get
to, easy to learn to use, reliable, and fast. People prefer search engines to librarians because they’re faster and
they can do it form home.
He then discussed the virtual reference services at the UC
libraries. All UC campuses (except Berkeley)
are forming a consortium just now to offer virtual reference services. Berkeley decided not to participate, as virtual reference services are not where people
hang out. So, how on earth are they
going to find these services? They don’t
use our library websites at all. The
system is too hard to use…too hard to remember how to use. Libraries, like San Francisco Public, puts up
disclaimers on these cooperative web-based chat services making sure users know
that there are other ways to get answers, and more importantly, answers from
local librarians. Instead, Berkeley is offering virtual reference via e-mail and telephone, as well as limited
availability for GovDocs questions via chat (IM). When users finally get to the library,
they’ve exhausted self-help and they are at the point where they need
expertise. They don’t need a Googled
answer; they need an information expert. (Sarah’s comment: Boo-yah!)

Sarah Houghton-Jan (San Mateo County Library)—Social Software (dat’s me!)

I had been asked to present at this mini-conference about
social software—to turn a day-long class, which I had condensed into a two-hour
whirlwind tour, into a 15-minute “make your head spin like Linda Blair”
presentation. You can see the resulting slides
for “Models that Work: Social Software” here: http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/wp-content/uploads/PresentationsFiles/future.ppt  It’s really just the briefest of brief
overviews of some of the social software options out there—a primer on social
software. I can say that there are
definite disadvantages to being the last speaker of the day—both the audience
and the speaker end up being tired and difficult to focus.