RA for All Virtual Roadshow Visits Des Moines Public Library's Book Chat!

Today I am working with the newly formed "Book Chat" team from Des Moines Public Library. They took staff from across their buildings who had provided RA in person and made them into a virtual team since their buildings are still closed. 

Book Chat is a service offering every form of virtual RA, not just an online form of virtual, because their service also includes a phone line where patrons can literally just call to chat about what they like to read. Too many times when we have focused on virtual services, we leave out those who do not have high speed internet and/or those who want the human interaction part of our services from afar. It is an RA hotline where conversations are encouraged; in fact, they worked to make sure the name of the new service made the fact that they wanted to have conversations, not just transactions, clear.

Click here for all of the Book Chat offerings, from surprise boxes to online form RA to the chatting. It truly is the full RA service model at a distance for all types of "virtual" interaction.

DMPL staff pulled this new service together quickly right after they returned from furlough. They got it up and running and worked with others on staff to get the logo and marketing set up, all within days. They contacted me early in the process as well. We worked together to talk through the concept, start up issues, and then planned today's training via zoom with the full team.

Here is the good news. All of these team members have done RA before; however, they have each done it their  own way int heir own building. Today we are going to work together to all be at the same starting line so they can move forward together in tandem. We are also going to work on their team building because again, these staff have not all worked together before. 

We will do my basic RA for All training using my 10 Rules of Basic RA Service page as a guide, but because we are smaller than 25, I will also be toggling back and forth from sharing my screen to the "gallery" view where we can all see each other and interact.

The other positive here is that they have really only had a soft launch of the new service. They have taken some calls, but haven't done a lot, meaning they haven't developed bad habits yet.

I am so excited about this, from the creation of Book Chat to the excellent service it is going to provide to all of their patrons to the chance to help them get on the same page, and finally, to the fact that this training will also be 100% interactive. Staff will be in their individual buildings, a few pairs even in the same room, but we will mostly be socially distant and yet we can all be working together in real time. 

I am so proud of so many of you out there. Everyone is really putting out their best effort to provide the very best service they can. It cannot be exactly the same right now, but we can provide a similar service. Please contact me if you want to share your successes in this difficult time. Conversely, if you are reading these posts and struggling to figure out how you can pivot your services, still contact me and maybe I can help you help get your organization on the right track.