Observations...

I would like to recount my trip to our local public library last night. The trip was an impromtu quasi-observation session so I could pick up my holds that were about to be sent back the next morning. Ironically, it turned out to be one of the best customer service experiences I've had.


Obersvations: Children

I took my lovely eight month old son with me. Did I mention he can stand and crawl like the speed of light. Always take the stoller inside with you, otherwise you will spend the entirety of the trip reshelving books that he has pulled out. Once they can stand, they can pretty much get at anything. While I did manage to grab a few books between reshelving books, chasing him down the stacks before someone stepped on him, and trying to hold onto him, checking out with an baby in your arms is very difficult. After I got all my books up by the self check out, I realized I didn't have my library card. So, I picked him up while trying to hold the stack in my other hand and proceeded to wait in line at the service check out.

Well, smart me had just renewed my overdue Knitting dvd's yesterday. Now the previous "overdue" items had $10.00 in fines, plus the three previous dollars that I liked to leave on my account for good measure. Needless to say, I only had two dollars on me. Long story short, the desk lady was super super nice, saw that I was struggling and knocked $5.00 off of my account, so I could check out my items with getting them sent back or going home to get more money. Uhhh, I felt embarrassed and extremely unorganized, but now I think I get that whole working, tired mom thing.

REFERENCE

After doing the reading for the previous weeks and seeing that reference desks were renaming themselves and restructuring the design of the desks, I was curious to really look and see what my public library's reference area looked like.

Now, this is not a branch library. It is a public library in a new, Craftsman style building that serves a growing community of 10,000.

I was surprised to see that the sign, hanging from the ceiling above the librarians desk said "INFORMATION." Another nearby sign stated, " Homework Help, Reference, Readers Advisory" and three other services that I can't remember off hand. My point is that I liked that the secondary sign made it clear exactly what the librarian can help with. This sign is also very visible and it lets patrons know that the librarian is there for things besides just findingbooks.

The "REFERENCE" sign actually hung over the reference collection, which sits directly in front of the Information desk. My only complaint with the system is that the information desk is sort of hidden behind the reference collection. Granted the reference collection isn't on overly tall shelves, but the desk does tend to be hidden from three sides. Fortunately, the library has very good directional signs hanging from the ceiling.