Monday Discussion: What Data Do You Want About Your Service to Readers?

In keeping with last week’s Monday Discussion when I asked what you wanted to know about your staff, today I want to know what you want to know about your service to your readers--from their perspective.

I don’t mean the obvious, as in you make a list of all the things you do for leisure readers at your library.  Rather what do you want to know about what your patrons, the readers you are serving, think about the services you provide to them?

As I prepare my new service of auditing libraries’ services to leisure readers, I am toying with the idea of capturing data about how patrons use these services, which they are aware of, and what they do NOT know you are trying to do for them.

For example, at my former employer I was very proud of the fact that we left out the return carts to encourage patrons to browse them.  Some did, but how many people didn’t know they were allowed to root through this treasure trove of reading suggestions.  Also, did people enjoy and use the annotated lists we prepared with our displays? Because if they did not either know about them or use them, that would be a problem. A lot of effort went into creating them. Could that time be better spent on a different service? One they actually would use?

If we want to improve our service to leisure readers, we have to understand what they want and need. We need to assess what we are doing that is working and what we are spending time on that is not succeeding.  RA service is VERY important as part of our libraries’ customer service and PR plan (more on this in future weeks), but it is also the easiest thing for library administrators to cut.

These are just a few examples.  Now it is your turn.

For today’s Monday Discussion let me know what data or information you want to know from your readers. If you could ask them what services they most want and/or already use, what would those questions look like.

For past Monday Discussions, click here.

Monday Discussion: What Do You Want To Know About Your Staff?

Today is the first day of the rest of my professional career and I am already eager to get started by describing one of the BRAND NEW services I will be offering to libraries come Fall.

I am creating a new service where I will come into your library and audit your services to leisure readers.  The idea behind this is that when people think of libraries, the first thing they think is books-- even people who never use the library for books.  As Duncan Smith from NoveList says:

"Books are our brand. But Books are not our business. Reading is our business." 

We need to leverage our librarian influence as the place people look to for leisure reading.  We need to make ourselves indispensable when it comes to reading. We need to be such a vital place in the community that when we face hard times and need the votes of our patrons, they will be there for us...no questions asked.

One of the easiest ways to improve our customer service and make a great first impression is to serve leisure readers in an exemplary fashion. But how? Ahh, leave that part to me; it is what I do better than most and a concrete service will be launched this Fall.

But right now, I am just beginning to develop and test out this service. I have gotten the go ahead from a library that is willing to be the guinea pig starting later this month, but I also need the help of you, the larger RA community.

Over the next few Mondays, I will be asking for your input on what information you want to take away from of my audit.  I will be conducting it as a SWOT analysis [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats].

First up today is the topic of surveying staff knowledge.

My service will have a component where I ask staff about their personal reading preferences and have them conduct a self evaluation of their own skills as they have reader’s advisory conversations and transactions with patrons. [Please note, I will also be assessing Circulation staff along with the more traditional Adult and Teen desk staff in this process because they are often the first people to talk books with patrons, but more on that later.]

I have a good idea of what I would like to include on this self evaluation questionnaire, but I want to hear from all of you too.  Give me your input!

For today’s Monday Discussion: What do you want to know about your staff, their skills, their comfort level with RA transactions [both passive and active], and their perceived strengths? Having me ask in an anonymous, non-threatening way, will gather you a lot more data than you would get in a staff meeting, and it will give you a broader picture of your library’s strengths and weaknesses as a whole.

So, let me know. And stay tuned for when you can get your own library audit of services to leisure readers.

For past Monday Discussions, click here.