Comments on: the customer is always … what? http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/ putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999 Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:14:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Is It All About The Customer? « Life as I Know It http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-41413 Is It All About The Customer? « Life as I Know It Sun, 05 Nov 2006 03:54:41 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-41413 [...] Bottom line - of course, it is all about the customer. Without patrons, there would be no need for libraries. However, how far can we realistically go to meet the needs of customers???? Jessamyn West asks “how do we learn to set new boundaries?” in a post over on librarian.net. This is an important question. She asks it in response to a post over on Info Breaker about a patron who thought her books should have been renewed by the library because she was in Florida on vacation (she says that she told someone at the library this bit of information). [...] [...] Bottom line – of course, it is all about the customer. Without patrons, there would be no need for libraries. However, how far can we realistically go to meet the needs of customers???? Jessamyn West asks “how do we learn to set new boundaries?” in a post over on librarian.net. This is an important question. She asks it in response to a post over on Info Breaker about a patron who thought her books should have been renewed by the library because she was in Florida on vacation (she says that she told someone at the library this bit of information). [...]

]]> By: Sarah Mae http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-38065 Sarah Mae Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:55:43 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-38065 Kind of off topic but about stopping VHS and moving solely to DVDs: our suppliers have stopped selling VHS and cassette tapes (except for books on tape) and now only sell DVDs and CDs. Our VHS movies still circulate well although I do deal with the occasional patron who ONLY has a DVD player. Kind of off topic but about stopping VHS and moving solely to DVDs: our suppliers have stopped selling VHS and cassette tapes (except for books on tape) and now only sell DVDs and CDs. Our VHS movies still circulate well although I do deal with the occasional patron who ONLY has a DVD player.

]]> By: Info Breaker / http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-37702 Info Breaker / Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:00:47 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-37702 [...] Jessamyn West was kind enough to link to me in relation to my rant post a few days ago. The question comes down to, what is our job as librarians? Are we simply purveyors of books? A video rental outlet? A storage facility for journals and books the faculty can’t fit in their office? Sometimes, as I study our “professional ethics”, it seems that we are a neutered profession. Don’t make judgments, don’t give advice and whatever you do, the customer is always right. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “The right to swing my fist ends where the other mans nose begins,” referring to limitlessness of our rights, providing they do not infringe on other people’s rights. Should I have waived the fines for the woman who was in Florida and didn’t want to call? Well, there are two ways of looking at it. It would certainly make her satisfied (I hesitate to say happy because it was something she simply expected of us), but then that book is not circulating, the opportunity for that little piece of serendipity for another user is gone. Or what about the person who found it in the catalog, saw it wasn’t available, and went and found it somewhere else? Who’s got the “right” in this situation. It’s hard to say. I am currently preparing an essay on the library as public space, the idea that a good that people can share non exclusive of the fact that other people are sharing it has a solid grounding in philosophy and is why I’m inclined to favor our nebulous “other patron” in this situation. 2.0 or not, our policies need to be designed in such a way that we maximize the publicness of our public libraries. That as a resource, it remains for as many people as possible to use. Our collections, our services and our missions ought to be developed and judged by their betterment of the public good and the public’s access to resources, rather than the tech savvy, the teens or the people who are standing in front of you at the time, and often that means stopping one person’s swing to keep the other’s nose. [...] [...] Jessamyn West was kind enough to link to me in relation to my rant post a few days ago. The question comes down to, what is our job as librarians? Are we simply purveyors of books? A video rental outlet? A storage facility for journals and books the faculty can’t fit in their office? Sometimes, as I study our “professional ethics”, it seems that we are a neutered profession. Don’t make judgments, don’t give advice and whatever you do, the customer is always right. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “The right to swing my fist ends where the other mans nose begins,” referring to limitlessness of our rights, providing they do not infringe on other people’s rights. Should I have waived the fines for the woman who was in Florida and didn’t want to call? Well, there are two ways of looking at it. It would certainly make her satisfied (I hesitate to say happy because it was something she simply expected of us), but then that book is not circulating, the opportunity for that little piece of serendipity for another user is gone. Or what about the person who found it in the catalog, saw it wasn’t available, and went and found it somewhere else? Who’s got the “right” in this situation. It’s hard to say. I am currently preparing an essay on the library as public space, the idea that a good that people can share non exclusive of the fact that other people are sharing it has a solid grounding in philosophy and is why I’m inclined to favor our nebulous “other patron” in this situation. 2.0 or not, our policies need to be designed in such a way that we maximize the publicness of our public libraries. That as a resource, it remains for as many people as possible to use. Our collections, our services and our missions ought to be developed and judged by their betterment of the public good and the public’s access to resources, rather than the tech savvy, the teens or the people who are standing in front of you at the time, and often that means stopping one person’s swing to keep the other’s nose. [...]

]]> By: theotherwaldo http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-37579 theotherwaldo Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:12:01 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-37579 I think you worry too much. Most library users are too set in context - if you don't bring these ideas up then neither will they. Likewise, most still treat the internet as a combination game machine, letter box, and vertical file. Those other apps won't even occur to them. -And don't even whisper terms like auto-renew and auto-pay! I think you worry too much. Most library users are too set in context – if you don’t bring these ideas up then neither will they. Likewise, most still treat the internet as a combination game machine, letter box, and vertical file. Those other apps won’t even occur to them. -And don’t even whisper terms like auto-renew and auto-pay!

]]> By: rainmaker http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-37375 rainmaker Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:55:58 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-37375 People will authorize automatic payments to the cellphones, credit cards and etc, and don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to auto-renew or get autopayment deductions for their fines (through paypal!). One library I work for, just got rid of the 3 DVD limit. This makes life easier as the people who kept arguing or haranguing us for more DVDs or try fenagling with the system are plain and simply gone. Now instead, I get to see a family check out 19 DVDs and watch the late fees accrue. I get to pull out 100s of those yellow locks day in and day out. My poor wrists! and naturally I don't get benefits for working there. People have expectations of service and are disappointed when we the library do not meet them. see a need, fill a need. However, at what price? Now with respect to that, "The customer is always, needy." It's the price we pay for being so popular, so perhaps we're doing something right afterall. Much like Stephen Covey's bias against quick-fix paradigm solutions, we have to consider the balance of long term results over the short term results. Sadly enough, one conversation I had with a old-fashioned eccentric customer, who complained, "It's too noisy in here and everything new is always checked out." where I replied "We're a lot more popular now." to which he responded, "You should exclude or be pickier who gets a library card." At this point I shutup before I told him what was on my mind, "That is a short-sighted maligned version of a selfish despot if I ever heard one." People will authorize automatic payments to the cellphones, credit cards and etc, and don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed to auto-renew or get autopayment deductions for their fines (through paypal!).

One library I work for, just got rid of the 3 DVD limit. This makes life easier as the people who kept arguing or haranguing us for more DVDs or try fenagling with the system are plain and simply gone. Now instead, I get to see a family check out 19 DVDs and watch the late fees accrue.
I get to pull out 100s of those yellow locks day in and day out. My poor wrists! and naturally I don’t get benefits for working there.

People have expectations of service and are disappointed when we the library do not meet them. see a need, fill a need. However, at what price?

Now with respect to that,
“The customer is always, needy.”

It’s the price we pay for being so popular, so perhaps we’re doing something right afterall.

Much like Stephen Covey’s bias against quick-fix paradigm solutions, we have to consider the balance of long term results over the short term results.

Sadly enough, one conversation I had with a old-fashioned eccentric customer, who complained, “It’s too noisy in here and everything new is always checked out.” where I replied “We’re a lot more popular now.” to which he responded, “You should exclude or be pickier who gets a library card.”

At this point I shutup before I told him what was on my mind, “That is a short-sighted maligned version of a selfish despot if I ever heard one.”

]]> By: Talk Out Loud in Your Library « checking out and checking in http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887/the-customer-is-always-what/comment-page-1/#comment-36931 Talk Out Loud in Your Library « checking out and checking in Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:48:56 +0000 http://www.librarian.net/stax/1887#comment-36931 [...] This is “How much do we bend to meet our users? How much do we expect them to bend to meet us?” as Jessamyn asked recently in the customer is always… what? [...] [...] This is “How much do we bend to meet our users? How much do we expect them to bend to meet us?” as Jessamyn asked recently in the customer is always… what? [...]

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