What Story Is Your Library Telling

At the recent Illinois Library Association Conference in Springfield, the keynote speaker talked a lot about Library 2.0 and what it means to us as individuals. Something that stuck in my mind was a question he asked, “What story is your library telling?” After this he showed us signs both good and bad from libraries across the country. We all know that there is only one chance at a first impression. Putting these two ideas really made me think me about different places I have visited, including libraries. I have decided to think of every meeting I have with a patron as my chance to make that first impression. Even if that patron comes in everyday they deserve to get a smile. It also made me want to step back and think about why we do the things we do. Did we make that choice to make it easier for us or because it makes sense in the bigger picture? Reference services are one place that we can make that impression over and over again. There are some libraries where an importance is places on reference services, but if looked at closely one could see that staff is only allowed to take a short time with each reference question. I realized that If library staff is give permission to take the time and resources they need to find the whole answer that impression will be a good one every time. I have a new perspective on my job, and libraries in general!

What does Dewey-less library mean for the way we do reference?

There has been much buzz in the past months about libraries going “Dewey-less” in order to draw in the book store crowd. I don’t know if this will work or not, I think it might, but I do not think it will benefit library users or library staff. Right now where I work (in the youth services department) we have the picture books in “browsing bins” at low heights so the little ones can search and find easily. The books are then shelved by general letter of the author’s last name (not in order within that letter). You notice I say so the little ones can find things, when a patron comes in looking for a certain title it takes me FOREVER to find that title. I also have to explain to the patron why it is taking so long and how our shelving is set up. Luckily this is only in the picture book section; if things were this in the non-fiction I would feel totally helpless. I think this is major problem with a Dewey-less existence. I find that on the rare occasion I am looking for something specific in a book store they can never help me find it. So this brings us to a question, what will happen to reference services if all libraries go Dewey-less? This will most defiantly make my job harder and in my own experiences at my job, patrons do not understand why I am not able to just go to the shelf and pull the book off right away. The whole reason they ask for help is so they find the proper information and find it quickly. I do think that some reference services will be moved online, however books will still be needed for sometime. Maybe when more services have moved digital than a move to a Dewey-less system would work…who knows?