Avoiding the Trend of One!

One of the craziest days I ever had at our library was one of our patrons brought a pony inside the library. Really. It was not a service animal. It was just a pony. She just thought the library staff would like to take a look at the pony. So she led the pony right up to the circulation desk to show the staff. A polite comment and a rather firm suggestion that ponies are better outside than inside quickly ended the matter with no hurt feelings. (Well maybe the pony didn't like this, but I didn't ask.)

Our staff, after having a few chuckles at the oddity of this, started discussing library policies. Is a pony policy necessary? One pony incident does not make for a massive pony invasion that must be stopped. Enter the problem of the "trend of one".

Pony example aside. There are other trends of one that can hurt library service. One of my regulars a few years ago finally got a colicky kid to sleep and wasn't going to shut off the engine and wake a kid just so she could run in and pick up her library holds. She asked me to run it out to the car. No big deal. I did. She thought our library was the greatest. 2 minutes of "extra" work translated into a big public relations payoff.


I brought this up to another librarian at a conference once and she was stupefied that anyone would run stuff out to the car. "Won't everyone expect that now?" Again, she was trapped by the trend of one. One time, someone asked for a little extra assistance. The world didn't stop. Library service continued without a hitch.

Assuming a trend where none exists can shut down opportunities for improving library service. Collect data and make sure decisions and rules are promoting library service.

Mary

My Personal Librarian Manifesto

Awful library books, ALA and a million things going on at work have probably put me over the edge. It was kind of a perfect storm. Holly and I presented at ALA about tech support as reference. I was sure that the "old guard" librarians felt tech support issues were not appropriate to reference work or library service. Technology issues are overwhelming but librarians need to embrace this as a function of our job-especially at the reference desk.

At the same time Awful Library Books seems to have a new found popularity with mainstream entertainment blogs. It is exciting and exhausting. I feel like I am living with these awful library books all the time! I was also mildly shocked at the attitude toward weeding. Who knew that a fundemental aspect of collection management would upset so many people. I couldn't believe how upset and angry people got about weeding materials. I did not like that I was second guessing myself.

Rereading my own Practical Librarian posts I have decided that I need to take my own advice and reiterate my own objectives as a librarian. So here it is:

• I will keep an open mind to new ideas and ways to serve my public. The criteria will not be if it makes MY work life easier, but if it improve the service to the library patron.


• Technology is an integral part of libraries and library service. It will not wait for me to be "comfortable".


• Public librarianship is about serving ALL the public, not just the ones that are "nice". It is also about service to those who are irritating, difficult and unpleasant.


• Collections are dynamic and need to be evaluated, coddled, managed and pruned to be useful to the public that paid for it.

Hopefully, these simple statements will keep me focused when the rest of the world seems out of wack in the world of library service. I know I will still have to attend seminars and meetings where the "breakthrough" advice is being polite to the public or showing the public how to use the OPAC. I will try not to roll my eyes with yet another obvious statement and remember my manifesto.

Mary

ALA-The career booster shot!

ALA starts Friday and I am really excited. There is something about hanging out with other people that "geek out" about information, technology and books that is so much fun! I am even looking forward to the car ride from Detroit. I am sure there will be a few hours of library science talk that will start me thinking! I really like to think of ALA or any conference as a great way to refresh your love of librarianship. Not only can you improve your career skills, but there are always new ideas being tossed about that are sure to get you thinking. I also like that even though ALA is a large conference, library world is small. Hang around long enough and it will feel like you met every librarian in the country!

I usually can ride the high for many weeks. Library conferences are just great ways to refresh your love of library science and service. If you can't get to ALA this week make sure you are availing yourself of the zillions of tweets, blogs, podcasts that will be filling our information world before too long!


See you in Chicago!
Mary