N.B.: This is tagged under features. Questions are posed in this posting so as to help stimulate discussion. Reader discretion is cheerfully encouraged.
David Lee King wrote recently pondering Ask-A-Librarian services online and if they require a reboot. With the launch of Mahalo Answers, as discussed recently on the podcast, there may be a commercial endeavor to watch. An example of a question thread at that commercial endeavor can be found here.
David Lee King took a look at taxpayer-subsidized answers services. Mahalo Answers is a commercial answers service that has venture capital rather than tax dollars behind it. Metaphorically speaking, what features from services like Mahalo Answers could be adapted and have their serial numbers filed off for use in libraries? What could librarians contribute in the other direction?
Ask-A-Librarian
Oh, right. The walk-in patron doesn’t have priority! When is the last time you went to a department store, and were brushed off by the sales clerk because of a cell phone call? How did you feel? How soon did you go back?
The purpose of the Ask-A-Librarian delay is to keep the Reference Desk from being interrupted by more and more demands for service. Besides, we all know the Circadian Rythmn magic of Reference- the library is deserted one moment, and in the next, there are lines of people in front of the Ref desk, the phone is ringing, and the computer is bleeping with incoming demands.
Indeed, this problem comes from the old management problem of increasing services while decreasing budgets. You add a new service, but take nothing away from the old services, while either maintaining the same number of library staff, or even decreasing it.
The obvious solution is to increase the library reference staff so Ask-A-Librarian questions can be answered immediately.
Get real.
You can add a new service, but you have to work within the same guidelines. No closing the library down for an hour each day so Ask-A-Librarian questions can be answered within 24 hours. The added chores simply must be added to the library chores done already, so they have to take their turn. This is what happens when library administrations adds commitments to library service that the library trustees don’t support by added staff, space and budget. The staff then learn to juggle their responsibilities, and sometimes the juggling balls get dropped.
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)
librarian ball-juggling
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!), that’s my opinion, too. additionally, there are idiots who email from their Blackberry who ask for every business within a zip code then complain that they can’t read what I sent on the tiny screen.
Accessing information is ALWAYS a two-way street. The seeker has to make certain concessions; the provider has to offer certain services. Ask-a-librarian is best as showing people how to find information, not pasting or emailing 3,000 business names and addresses. Or listing all the clown colleges that take checks.
When someone enters the library, they develop realistic expectations of what they can find there… when they look at their computer screen, they seem to get mad with power and ask crazy questions that could take 1-2 (or more) hours to answer.
Is it really good service to keep someone on hold for 2 hours????
A quick explanation
Why the disclaimer and questions from me on this? Simply put, I want ya to THINK! The questions I am posing are things that lay boards of trustees and others might ask of you. Part of analysis is synthesis.
Budgets are in decline right now. Playing the card of “it’s tradition” is going to be increasingly impossible. If the current models of providing reference service through the intermediating tools of telephones, websites, e-mail, and chat are good can you justify that without appealing to tradition? Can you look at commercial endeavors and simply present to your superiors comparisons and contrasts between such and your library’s services?
Features aren’t strict news. They’re can have some editorializing components but they are different beasts from both news pieces and editorials. In this particular case, this feature is intended to encourage critical thinking.
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F
stephen, I don’t think there’s any complaint about your story
the problem I have is with DLK saying that the askalibrarian service discriminates… he says that a policy of “we will answer your question asap” is better than “we will answer in 24-48 hours.” When we created our policy, we decided that a specific time frame was more professional than the “asap” time-frame. We want people to know how long they might need to wait. the same with the nature of aska service… the sign-on screen says how the service is best used… but here is a made-up transaction that I get at least once a month from those “web-savvy” users:
How do I log in to my account?
Oh, that’s the user ID on the back?
What’s my PIN?
It’s still not working.
No. I was a student two years ago. It doesn’t work any more?
I thought you would help me.
… we’re commenting on the DLK complaints, not on the nature of the service, tax-sponsored vs. commercial… I don’t think we made it to commenting on your question.. that might take a while… 24-48 hours…
My experiences in the past
My experiences in the past (in Australia and UK) have always been that the Ask a Librarian services are manned separately to the actual reference desk, thereby avoiding all the problems being mentioned.
Alrighty
So this would be a peculiarly unique aspect to American library practice then?
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Stephen Michael Kellat, Host, LISTen
PGP KeyID: 899C131F