Foiled! (and not in the holiday leftovers kind of way)

This was my first winter break in New York City. We didn't go anywhere this year and I elected to work the last week of December.

I learned one thing this week:

1) Do not make a two-page long "to do" list and expect to get it done in one week.

Why won't it get done? Because:

a) a blizzard will strike and keep you prisoner in your Brooklyn apartment on Monday
b) some of the colleagues you need to work with to solve a problem will get sick and not come to work
c) students will also get sick and not come to work
d) students will also get stuck in other states while waiting to catch flights back to blizzard-blown NYC
f) you will get sick and feel miserable
g) Aleph will crash on Wednesday
h) the Wiki will also not work
i) the Ariel server will also go down

In all seriousness, though, Aleph crashing couldn't have happened at a better time (during a break). We're also old pros at this by now; Circulation staff could do offline circ and come back online with their eyes closed. Patron inconveniences were few (considering the huge crash in November 2009).

As for the things remaining on my "to do" list, they will have to wait for January.

Happy Holidays Bobst Library! Better luck for 2011 (please)!

Disney

I have a confession to make: There is an email that's been in my in-box since July 21, 2010. It's from the Disney Institute, and it asks me, "Are you ready to D-think your organization?" The D in D-think looks like the one from Walt Disney's signature. I can't bring my self to delete it.

Disney is a company known for excellent staff development and superior customer service. They offer a one-day seminar (held at the Disneyland resort) entitled "Disney's Approach to Quality Service." Lest you think that this is aimed only at theme park employees, the first line of the course description says:

No matter where you dine, shop, or travel, there’s always one thing that you always expect to find: quality service. So, why should your customers [or users] expect anything less?

If I could waive my magic wand and say, "Bibidy Bobidy Boo," I would zap us all to Disneyland to take this course.

I was reminded of this email that I can't part with because of the reference to one of Disney's strategies in the book, The No Asshole Rule, by Robert Sutton,which I'm reading for a class. First off, this is a great little book on workplace civility that I highly recommend. Well, the Disney reference talks about dealing with irate theme park guests. Basically, the passage suggests that, when dealing with angry or upset people, the best strategy (both the most effective and the one that will keep you from going crazy) is to neither blame yourself or the upset (or irrational or hostile) person:

Years ago, a former student of mine took copious notes during her new employee orientation classes at Disney University. Her instructors emphasized that although 99% of guests are nice, the real test is when you are encircled by an angry family of eight who are all hollering at you about all the things that have gone wrong. The new [employees] were instructed to avoid getting angry at or blaming the nasty guests. They were asked to imagine all the awful experiences the family suffered that whipped them into such a hostile state (e.g. to imagine that their car broke down or they just got soaked in the ran) and to not take their anger personally (as it isn't your fault).

Cast members were also reminded to see the abuse as something that wouldn't last long (because most other guests are nice) and that it "didn't need to ruin your day" because, if they "just kept smiling" and treat people as VIPs," it will create friendly interactions with other guests, and might even turn the family that is hollering at you right now into nicer people. (Kindle location 1601)

So, there's a little piece of Disney wisdom. As I was reading this I was thinking about my own experiences on the front lines, with not only library users but also ice-cream buyers and Macy's shoppers. About 10 years worth (and at Macy's there's no such thing as an off-desk project, although I must admit that when I scooped ice cream I often volunteered to dishwash to get a break from the front line), a lot of which wasn't exactly exemplary service. Take it from someone who used to be pretty surly: Things are a lot more pleasant for the service provider if you don't take it personally and treat users like a VIP.

Sharon Thomas

Today I came to the sad realization that November 15th would have been Sharon Thomas' 16th anniversary at Bobst. Since March I have been sending anniversary cards to celebrate the hire date of all of our colleagues in Access Services. I don't get to send one to Sharon. If I did, I'd thank her for her years of service and commitment to doing an excellent job. I'd also thank her for her continual interest in learning, and specifically for her interest in the Service Excellence Initiative. Service Excellence was a lot of work, and there were times that thinking about Sharon's level of engagement in the program gave me the energy to keep moving forward.

At Sharon's funeral I learned that my understanding of Sharon was pretty much shared by everyone she met: she was a genuinely positive person who cared about other people. I certainly saw this in every encounter I had with Sharon and it made me happy to learn that this is simply how she was--in all aspects of her life. In her eulogy, Sharon's minister talked about how it's easy to be nice to people you like and a whole lot more challenging to be nice to people you dislike. Sharon was nice to everyone. Being nice to everyone doesn't always come naturally but since Sharon's funeral I certainly keep it mind more than I used to. I guess you could say that Sharon is still challenging me to be a better person.

Some problems are NOT here to stay!

This semester, we've seen more patrons loaded into Aleph, patron barcodes being loaded into Aleph, and single sign-on for ILL accounts. These three things may seem small, especially to our users, but for us, they've had a big impact.

Here in ILL, we used to get maybe 20 users a day who needed to have accounts created, updated, or corrected. In the few weeks since Sydney and I sat down with Barnaby Alter (Web Developer), David Perry (Database Administrator), and Scot Dalton (Systems), our routine patrons login problems have disappeared. Another great thing to come out of this was David's load of Medical, Dental, or Law status into a specific field in Aleph, allowing the ILL staff to determine whether the patron has ILL with us or with another library.

It was amazing to work with this group of people toward a common goal: to get things to work correctly. The work was collaborative, we all brought our own skills to the table, and relayed each others' concerns in a way that was exemplary teamwork.

This experience has encouraged me to reach out to others outside of Access Services more often, to look for opportunities to work with others, even if it's just a 2 minute phone call. I've noticed, also, that when I reach out to them, it opens a door for them to reach out to me. They've been calling me with questions, questions that were not asked before probably because they didn't know I existed or what I did, or if I was the correct person to ask.

For all those who are looking to build bridges between Access Services and other departments of the library, I encourage you to start building by actively seeking opportunities to communicate. Communicating is the only way to put our names and jobs and skills on the map for other people, the only way for them to know that we are the right people to ask and that we have the answer they are looking for.

Communication, Transparency, and Holistic Service

As supervisor of Offsite Storage, a department that works regularly with so many different part of the library, I’ve always had to do a lot of communicating across the divides. Since becoming a part of Access Services, this aspect of my job has become even more pronounced.

I think this is largely due to Offsite Storage becoming more high-profile during the planning of the 2010 Renovation and its resultant need to coordinate related workflows with a larger number of faculty and staff members than ever before.

But I have also come to see it as part of a larger context: the push toward a new “Holistic Service Model” as discussed at the last Division of Libraries meeting a few months ago.

One of the themes that comes up a lot when discussing the “Holistic Service Model” - and which also came up a lot during Access Services' year-long Service Excellence Initiative - is transparency.

Personally, I find that good communication goes hand-in-hand with transparency. Good communication should be as clear as possible in its aims and in the information it is providing. However, this is much easier said than done!

What seems clear to one person might be totally confusing to another. It can be hard to step outside yourself and your own experience, especially when you’re deeply entrenched in the nitty-gritty. This is something that most of us have probably struggled with at one point or another, either at work, at home or in the outside world. It's also something that can always be improved upon. Sometimes all it takes is just that little extra bit of self-awareness and kindness.

Also, making it known that information is out there for all to find - on the Wiki, for example - is easier... done than done? What I mean is, no matter how well-organized and accurate a Wiki page may be, you can never be sure that its intended audience will take the time to consult it. Sometimes this sort of knowledge-gap can be fixed by a simple private e-mail or phone call, too.


I guess I'm taking the long way 'round to saying this:

The “Holistic Service Model” isn't just about making things better for library users, but for ourselves as well. I like to think of Offsite Storage as a good testing ground for this philosophy, since we don't usually deal directly with users but are nonetheless always interested in ways to provide better service - via coordination, communication, transparecy, and plain old friendliness! - to coworkers and colleagues. And I like to think that by doing so, we are indirectly improving upon service to all users anyway!


Now if only I could succeed in setting up simple and transparent mini-workflows during my upcoming maternity leave... :)

Stats

I recently posted to my Facebook page that I was working on the fun part of stats. Immediately a friend replied that she wasn't aware that there was a fun part. Another friend suggested the fun part was when you are done. He was right (although he later confirmed my suspicion that he was talking about the beer you drink when you are done). The data tabulation is a necessary evil: the fun part for me is looking for patterns once all the data is there.

This year's "annual report" is a little different from previous years: the deadline is moved up so it's really an 11 month report (Sept 2009-July 2010). And it's needed urgently so I'll work on the full stats for comparison with last year later. But, I have identified a couple of cool things I'd like to share with you.

Quick Checks:
Our self service check-out machines have been very popular. The account for about 23% of the 326,291 loans we charged out over the past 11 months.

Email Reference:
The Access Sups answered 501 Ask-A-Librarian (email reference) questions on Access Services topics, or about 14% of the total traffic on AAL.

Offsite:
We discarded over 50,000 duplicate volumes (including print journals we have electronically) and sent 253,218 low-use titles offsite. We now have about a million items at our Clancy-Cullen managed facility in Patterson, New York. This year users requested 21,667 items. Although still a reasonable 2% recall rate, this number is three times what it was last year.

Recalls:
28,898 recalls were placed on materials charged out by other users. This means that 9% of all check-outs are recalled. While certainly staggering, this number isn't all that surprising: recalls jumped when we rolled out Aleph, presumably because the request button is more prominent.

Stacks:
Our Stacks staff shelved 532,879 bound volumes and 7,078 current periodicals and newspapers. Last year's numbers appear to be an anomaly, but if you look over the past two years in-house use is down 15% while general reshelving is up 6%.

Microforms:
Microform use is down 18% but is still over 8,000 uses for the year.

Entrances:
I'm still waiting for final numbers on swipes into Bobst (usually they are over a million) but we issues 2,210 collection passes, 14,905 general passes and 9,838 visitor passes for a grand total of almost 27,000 passes, many of which allow multiple entries.

Quick Search:
The number of Quick Searches placed is down about 15% to 2,772. Percentages found on the three searches remains just about the same (58%).

Interlibrary Lending:
We filled 13,444 of the 24,333 requests we received or 55%. Common reasons we are unable to fill requests are that we lack the volume requested (27%), the item is in use or in processing (18%), the item is non-circulating (18%) or the item is not on the shelf (12%).

Interlibrary Borrowing:
We obtained 30,281 of the 40,005 items requested by our users. By far the most common reason we cancel borrowing requests is because we own the item (42%). Other reasons include not being able to fill the request by the user's deadline (13%), or the item is not available from all possible lenders (17%). The number of returnable (book) ILL requests is on the rise: this year 61% of our requests were for returnables.

Reserve:
We processed 1,158 course lists, 4% less than last year. We also created 1012 durable links for professors in 146 courses (that they can then add to their blackboard courses). This number is also down compared with last year.

There is still a lot more to do for our annual report before I get that beer, but I wanted to share some of what I had found out with you.

Empathy

I can't get Justin's comment from the last, last Access Services meeting out of my mind. When we were talking about the Service Excellence experiences, he mentioned the role of empathy in the service interaction. This is what I was writing about as we kicked off Service Excellence, although I didn't put the eloquent label on it that Justin did.

Just what is empathy and how does it relate to positive interactions? We have too many Star Trek: The Next Generation fans in Access Services to leave out an analogy to Deanna Troi, the empathic counselor who can sense people's emotions. Although Commander Troi is "empathic" as opposed to "empathetic" (she can actually feel the emotions of the people around her) she still serves as a relatable example.

Empathy is the ability to understand the world from another person’s viewpoint and the motivation to treat another kindly based on that understanding. Excellent service isn't about bending rules, waiving fines or smiling (although all of these may be the result of empathy). First and foremost it's about putting yourself in the other person's shoes.

When I think about the most positive service interactions I've had over the years (especially the times when I've been able to turn around a negative interaction) it's always been when I've channeled my inner Troi.

The Librarian Stereotype... on the Big Screen and Beyond

I've been thinking a lot, as I often do, about the topics that Jen raised in her last post, on Librarians, Stereotypes, Professionalism, and Pop Culture.

Then earlier today, I came across a new piece on a feminist blog and magazine to which I subscribe:

From the Library: The Librarian Stereotype on the Big Screen

Here, librarian and blogger Ashley McAllister looks at librarian characters in a few famous films through the ages (with clips!), and concludes: "When we see librarians in the movies, they are usually fulfilling the role of a very narrow stereotype."

In my professional experience, the Real World Workplace of the large university library has not had a majority of female staff-members, but has been pretty evenly split. However, most popular stereotypes about librarians and library workers tend to portray them first and foremost as women.

As a well-read feminist, it is hard for me not to get deep into the long and complex history of why that may be the case, or of the general history of Women in Libraries, but I will say that I believe it is very important to debunk these kinds of stereotypes.

How to go about doing so?
That's a whole different story: the story at the heart of Jen's post.

However, where Jen mentions the argument made by some people that "librarians shouldn't complain 'about the deprofessionalization of librarianship... and then do things like this [funny video] and still expect to be taken seriously'", I can't help but point out that in our culture it is most often women who have trouble being taken seriously as professionals in general, and that most of the library professionals in that video also happen to be women.

For me, questions about library work, stereotypes, professionalism, and pop culture are always bound up in questions about gender and sexism. And of course this effects everybody, not just women!

I don't have any answers. Just more food for thought.

Librarians, Stereotypes, Professionalism, and Pop Culture

A little bird (one of the students working in ILL) recently sent me a link to a YouTube video featuring students and faculty at the University of Washington's Information School (teaching Library and information Science) doing their rendition of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." Less than a week later, I saw the link to this video posted on one of our library's internal list servs (lib-all, I think).

In the video, the students and faculty librarians at UWash changed the lyrics to relate to libraries; the chorus lets the world know that they "can use my, can use my, you can use my catalog (don't forget the databases)."



The video is certainly entertaining and good for a laugh. What I found interesting were a couple of comments posted on New York Magazine's website in reaction to the video.

One comment says that librarians shouldn't complain "about the deprofessionalization of librarianship (i.e. people who don't have a library science degree doing 'professional' library jobs) and then do things like this and still expect to be taken seriously."

A self-identified library student then replied to this comment, stating that there's difference between professionalism and having a sense of humor.

In my library school classes, we talk a lot about the level of professionalism in the field of librarianship. There is a drive to publish scholarly articles and make the profession comparable to other professional occupations in law (lawyers), medicine (doctors), etc. I think, though, that the professionalism of librarianship need not confine itself to the standards set by other long-established professional occupations.

Librarians work with a whole host of people in the library, not just "professionals" with Master's degrees. It is the total group, consisting of library student assistants, staff, administrators, professionals and faculty, that projects whatever level of professionalism they wish for their library. We do so by helping patrons and giving them a sense of how we do business, how we treat them, and how we demonstrate to them that we have specialized knowledge that will help them use the library.

What do you think of this video? What do you think patrons at this library would think of this video? What would they think about their library after seeing this video?

Also, should we make a video?

Day Jobs

I've been thinking a lot about the staff art exhibit, The Memory Salon, on display now through July 16th in the Fales Tracy/Barry Gallery. What really strikes me is the huge number of colleagues we have for whom this library thing is really just a day job. Please don't misunderstand me, I really don't think there is anything wrong with that. In Access Services alone we have athletes and actors, film makers and illustrators, musicians and music aficionados, photographers and textile artists, painters and parents, writers and scholars, all of whom feed their soul by something other than library work.

As day jobs go, it's not so bad. Despite the building's HVAC problems for the most part we work in air conditioned comfort. We get paid breaks and paid time off. We get tuition benefits and health insurance. Heck, we sometimes even get small discounts at local merchants for showing our IDs. Oh, and don't forget my former favorite benefit, those movie passes from ticket central (and, if they ever offered free babysitting perhaps I could use them again--wait, they do have that babysitter referral service...).

I wonder if other industries employ people with such a huge diversity of interests and such a huge pool of talent.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I don’t know many people that would say ‘not me’ to that question. The harder question is what are you willing to do to get it? This past week I took a step outside my regular routine and explored my options. Specifically, I had an ‘audition’ to be on the day-time TV game show with the above name.

It was a very simple process and anyone who feels they know a decent amount of trivia ought to give it a try. I simply went online and visited the Millionaire web site, filed out a quick form, and selected my preferred days to attend an audition. The next day I was notified by email when my scheduled appointment would be and where I should go.

On the day of the audition I went to ABC’s studio on 66th street and checked in with the cheerful intern waiting out front to greet people. After standing in line for a short while we were let into what looked like a cafeteria, handed a closed envelope containing a test, and directed to take a seat along with all the other participants in the room. Then, as a group, we were given 10 minutes to answer 30 multiple choice questions. Once the time had passed tests were collected and taken to be corrected. Those who ‘passed’ would be asked to stay for an interview. Those who did not would be asked to leave.

While waiting for our tests to be corrected a number of people asked questions about how the process worked of the intern overseeing the testing. Listening to her cheerful response to every questions, a ubiquitous “that information is on the web site”, I started thinking about how we have all become so reliant on the internet. Not just using it for our own information needs but also using it as a tool to provide information to our patrons.

As I watched the eye rolling around me at the lack of knowledge displayed by using this generic answer I wondered if I rely too much on the “check web site” answer. Have I allowed myself to take a knowledge short cut because the information is easy to access online? Is my staff undertrained because the information is available online? The short answer to that is no simply because I have a very knowledgeable staff. But there is a small piece of me who sees this as a cautionary tale about how we provide information to patrons and making sure we don’t assume that because information is available online people don’t still want good answers provided in person by well trained staff.

We are Library Professionals: we know stuff. Let’s remember to share what we know in all the ways that patrons want to receive the information.

The critical question for this blog though is am I going to be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? For now I will say maybe… someday…

It is easy enough to try out if you are interested. All the information about how is available online at:
http://www.dadt.com/millionaire/

Renovation

This interesting video, an interview with Bobst renovation architect Jake Alspector, came up on my Google alert this morning. It's an interesting commentary on the previous and current library renovations. Worth watching when you have a spare 17 minutes.

Longevity

The Division of Libraries recently honored 32 of our colleagues who are celebrating milestone years of service at NYU. Five of those honored hail from Access Services, including Allan Frank, Ted Lawton, Liudmilla Hirsch, Sharon Thomas and Lakisha Woodford. First off, I would like to congratulate and thank our colleagues: Allan and Ted for 40 years of service, Liudmilla for 35 years of service, Sharon for 15 years of service and Lakisha for 10 years of service. That's 140 plus years of library experience among only 6 colleagues!

Access Services is such a large department that every

year we honor people for longer service milestones. This makes me think of the years of service put in by those who weren't honored

this year simply because their years of service don't add up to a nice round number. We have 41 regular employees in our department and 27 of them were hired before 2000. More of us have been honored at longer service awards than have not. Together we have over 650 years of experience at NYU!

While Allan, Ted, Liudmilla, Sharon and Lakisha deserve their special recognition this year, we all deserve recognition for our dedication to NYU and the Division of Libraries. Thanks to everyone for their dedication and hard work.

Illiteracy In the Digital Age

While on my way to work reading the newspaper I came across a word I could not read. Not because it was some obscure word that I had never seen before, but something that was written in a text messaging style. I could not finish reading the article as it contained many such acronyms. I started into my mental rant about how this younger generation can’t read, write, or use proper English, when I suddenly had an epiphany. The “they” that could not read, write or spell included me! You may be familiar with the phrase “Johnny can’t read” and now neither can Pat. They were illiterate in my eyes, but on the other side of the coin so was I. I no longer had the vocabulary necessary to read what had been written. OMG! I was illiterate also.

SMS (Short Messaging Service) language also referred to as “text language” or “textese,” has crept its way into a lot of what we read today. SMS is using acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols to create short and to the point messages. The speed of the evolution of language in the digital age is mind boggling. As more of this kind of writing style is entering its way into traditional communications formats, and more digital formats - i.e. WWW, YouTube, wikis, blogs, IM, gain prominence, the landscape is changing. The use of “textese” begs many larger questions. What does all of this mean to us as a society, and to us as individuals? How do we as individuals keep up with the changes? Have traditional classrooms been replaced by the WWW? Will print-based libraries still exist moving forward? Will we continue to learn to read and write on the basis of traditional rules of grammar? Will traditional rules of grammar have to change? These questions and more are being grappled with by many on different fronts.

As we communicate, we have to be aware that there is still a segment of the population that is lagging behind in acquiring these new skills and vocabulary. As always, care must be taken in the use of jargon and acronyms. As a reader, I must make a commitment to build my vocabulary and acquire the tools needed to be an effective writer and reader in the digital arena. Here are some of the tools I found to help me, and you, get started joining the word evolution:

• Netlingo http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php
• Techdictanary.com http://www.techdictionary.com/chat_cont1.html
• Digital landing http://blogs.digitallanding.com/
• Text messaging Dictionary http://tinyurl.com/2dsleu4
  
  

Bobst, move to the head of the class!

The Access Services Advisory Council was fortunate enough to be able to attend Metro's 13th Annual Library Assistant's Day. The Conference was held at the beautiful Flushing Branch of Queen's Library. Despite appearances it is not a complex, mall or an art museum. It is a beautiful four story mecca for book enthusiasts. Not to mention the impressive international section with books in Bengali, Chinese, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Urdu. Whew!

The event opened with an inspiring call to action from speaker and Deputy Chief Librarian at the Bronx, Community College, LaRoi Lawton. His excitement, drive and personal story of his rise to the top from shelving books at the local library to a tenured professor and librarian at BCC, alone was worth the long subway ride.

It was encouraging to meet individuals that do much of the same kinds of work that we as staff members do everyday. It was also interesting to note just how far ahead we are and how much we do here at Bobst. For example, one presenter kindly pointed out how a very innovative University in California was allowing students to text in their questions to the librarians. It was exhilarating to be able to speak out and say that we do that as well and yes I think we did hear a few "awes."

Software developers can bring librarians to tears (of joy)!

I recently attended the 2010 ILLiad International Conference in Virginia Beach. There were ILL people a-plenty, and it felt good to talk about ILL-specific things with a crowd who could relate. Kind of made me feel like I'm not alone in my struggles to always improve our ILL functionality and services.

The conference was hosted by Atlas Systems, the company that makes our ILL software, ILLiad, in partnership with OCLC, the library cooperative that provides WorldCat (the largest online library catlog). At the conference, there were a host of sessions to attend. I attended several session on ILLiad version 8, the next update of our software. We are planning an upgrade in the summer and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.

Of course there was a bit of mingling, networking, and socializing too. This is where most of the communication happens, where the exchange of ideas can resonate down a big hotel corridor or around a lunch table and where people's passion and commitment to their work really shine. At this year's conference, the buzz was particularly acute due to one thing: ILLiad 8.

During the last day of the conference, we all gathered in a large room to hear an update from Atlas Systems. This is where they share their latest attempts to assuage our complaints about ILLiad functionality. This year, though, they took it to the next level: not only did they listen and fix things, but they actually made a whole new ILLiad that surpassed every ILL librarian's wildest dreams.

The progress and innovation that Atlas has demonstrated in creating a functional piece of library software gives me hope for the future as librarians and software developers continue to collaborate on creating and changing systems to meet our needs.

It was also encouraging to see a number of systems administrators, library web developers, and other Systems/Client Services-type people from other libraries at the ILLiad Conference. They have a different level of engagement with ILLiad, but it is nonetheless valuable (and necessary). Their involvement with the conference (leading sessions, talking with librarians) will aid collaboration within libraries themselves.

In all, it was a breath of fresh air to attend the conference and bring the good news back to Bobst Library, especially after The Great Aleph Crisis of 2009.

The Interlibrary Loan Department will be upgrading to ILLiad Version 8 this summer. Once we're up and running, we will be glad to share with everyone the power and potential it has for helping Access Services as a whole achieve its service goals.

Fill the room with your intelligence!

The IVY Plus Access Services Conference at Harvard this year featured a Keynote speech by John Palfrey (not pictured), Vice Dean for the Harvard Law Library. His speech focused on the Law Library’s recent radical organizational re-design. These changes were deemed necessary because departments were not communicating well between each other, staff were afraid or discouraged to offer opinions, information did not flow well from the top down, people were unsure of who was responsible for what areas and duties, and patrons were often shuffled from one place to another.

Vice Dean Palfrey was committed to transparency in the re-organization process, and he commissioned a group that included librarians, administrators, and union staff to re-imagine the organizational chart of the library personnel. He asked that the re-organization be based on functionality of jobs, not merely titles and descriptions, and that the new jobs become more permeable.

This diverse group:
· Created an organizational chart in which everyone was responsible to everyone else, not just managers.
· Devised a plan (based on the Google method) by which staff would spend 80% of their week on their jobs, and 20% on a personal or pet project within the library. They did not want to presume that staff could do, or were interested in doing, just one job.
· Determined that the library needed a Project Manager position, rather than forcing the various Department Managers to be the default project planners and developers. They believed that a library-wide Project Manager allowed for multiple departments and personnel to be involved in the projects that directly affect them.
· Concluded that patrons should be able to stop at just one location, and have any question or problem resolved behind the scenes, without the patron being shuttled about the library.

Once this committee had determined its re-organization plan, it was brought back to the entire library staff for feedback; and they adjusted it based on their suggestions.

The re-organization began by asking people what jobs they wanted, and to write their own job descriptions. Vice Dean Palfrey concludes that about 90% of the personnel were able to get the jobs they asked for. There was a month and half transition period where people worked their old job, while learning their new one. After six months, they had a review period where they fixed any problems with their original re-organization and job descriptions.

The cultural change of this re-organization has demonstrated itself in that people are now more engaged in their jobs, their ideas are not stifled, and they communicate better as a group to resolve patron and library issues. Vice Dean Palfrey admits that this is still a Work in Progress, and not everyone is comfortable with the changes, but he is committed to finding progressive solutions that will satisfy patrons and personnel equally.

First " Other Works" Then "Memories", Bridging Personal Life With Work Life

Art, art and more art, is there anything else to life? I absolutely love art. You probably would not have guessed that by looking at me. As a young kid I was obsessed with being a cartoonist. As a teen I played Classical, Latin and Jazz saxophone. In my twenties and thirties my thing was filmmaking and photography. Now, I prefer painting as a form of expression. It is quite clear to me that I have been an artist all my life.

Two years ago I had the absolute pleasure of working with an unbelievably talented team of library employees; Paula De Stepfano, Melitte Buchman, Gary Speziale,and Dan Lega,on the first library wide art show “Other Works.” Together we identified and gathered some very talented creative folks working in this organization. Had it not been for the art show we probably would have never known that there are so many artists amongst us. Access services were well represented in “Other Works.” Dan Lega, Maria Moraitis, Gary Speziale and I all participated in the show. One of the art pieces from the show created by Melissa Gasparotto is still on display in the stairwell on LL2. Take a look at this slide show from the opening reception: http://tinyurl.com/yh25ly8

One aspect of the strategic plan has to do with community building and staff morale. The Art Show embraced both of those aspects. Basically, our first art show was an outstanding event and it made the entire library proud.

The second library art show “Memories” is now being curated and once again we have an outstanding team on board. Melitte Buchman, Kristin deNeeve, Heidi Frank, Gary Speziale, and yours truly are doing absolutely great work and having a lot of fun doing it. It’s almost like lightening has struck twice in the same place and for me it is very exciting being part of this endeavor. Creative artists working for the library are coming forward and committing themselves to exhibiting their work in the show.

We are excited to have a guest curator, Professor Ann Chwatsky, coordinator of the Art and Media program at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Department of Art and Art Professions. Ann is an internationally recognized photographer who curates the gallery space at the Wagner Graduate school of Public Service at NYU. We have also expanded the show this time to include performance art and the spoken word. If you are not yet in the show and you wish to be, there is still a little time left. Contact Ted Lawton at tl1@nyu.edu.

Mark your calendars folks. This years’ art show opens May 26th 2010. A reception will be held in the Tracy/Barry Gallery. Bobst - Fales library - 3rd floor.

A few Random Thoughts from Vacation

Yes, it's my first day of "vacation." I'm taking off a few days to move, and as it turns out, today isn't one of them. I came into the office this morning to tie up a few loose ends and make sure I didn't return to my usual disaster-area of a desk. Here it is the early afternoon, and I still have 2 things on my to do list.

I'm glad I was here, though, because Gary just popped his head in my office to ask if it was OK to waive $250 in fines. The user's mother got in touch with us to take care of these fines. The user is on a medical leave from school. I'm assuming the mom didn't show a doctor's note, which is why Gary ran this by me. What I loved about this was that Gary said, "I have no reason not to believe her." Right on, Gary. Waive those fines!

On a sad note, yesterday Moxa closed. The business was subject to a large rent increase and although Dave and Georgia tried to negotiate with the landlord, it didn't work out. They decided it wouldn't make business sense to stay in that location. They are looking for another location in the neighborhood, but until they find one, I'll need to find a new coffee place. Someplace with good decaf (usually it's cold in this city) that gives a discount for reusable mugs. You all are the coffee shop experts now. Any suggestions?

Got Class?

This past week some of us in Access Services had the opportunity to take a Microsoft Access class taught by an excellent instructor from SCPS. There were attendees from a number of departments including Stacks, Circulation, Reserve, and Library Privileges. And, despite the need for some of us on the late shift having to adjust to the early morning start time, everyone learned something from the four days of classes.

With the instructor catering to both novices and advanced users everyone received personal attention and assistance during the hands on course. Some people did not know if this particular software program would be helpful for their work while others left with a good foundation of skills that they can use daily. One thing, however, is true for everyone: finding new solutions to existing problems is a challenge we all face every day and learning new skills and technologies are vital to future success.

Professional development courses are something that NYU encourages employees to take advantage of but many people find it difficult with busy work and home life schedules. This particular course was taught right here in Bobst Library making it easy for people to participate. With the good turn out and positive feedback the outlook for future opportunities like this is bright.



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Access Service Excellence and Freedom of Information

For the last seven or eight years, I have spent most of my winter holidays in Eastern Europe. The countries of Eastern Europe are interesting and beautiful for their ancient pasts and natural features, and also for their more recent history as former communist countries.

I don't want to get into my own politics here, but I will say that regardless of my feelings towards Communism in theory, I - like most people - do have a problem with how it has been applied in practice in most places so far, where corruption has run rampant, and people have been forced into nominal equality through fear and through the governments' limiting of access to knowledge and information.

This winter, I visited the Baltic States. One of the places I saw was Grūtas Park, in southern Lithuania. Here is a picture I took of the small "Library" display inside one of the Park's indoor museum areas:



I've seen a lot of libraries, but this "representational" library, with its propaganda and purposefully limited selection, made me think a lot about how the Soviets were so successful in the sciences, and in the technical arts, but did not allow for much individual expression, and blocked any studies that might have a negative affect on peoples' view of the State. This included all sorts of arts and literature, as well as things like sociology, psychology, you name it. And how can any culture truly be deemed successful, or at least advancing apace, when it does not have those things?

So, what does all of this have to do with Access Services? Everything!
Something so fundamental to our work, but that is nonetheless easy to forget in our day-to-day working activities, is that we are professionally responsible for facilitating access to knowledge and information.

In 2010, we tend to take free access for granted. We have the internet, we have a vast network of libraries; we have among our patrons undergraduate students who had not yet been born when the Soviet Union was dissolved!

Now that we all feel very old (ahem!), we should think about what this means for us, especially in terms of Service Excellence. As we serve our patrons, helping them get the materials that they need, we should always keep in the back of our minds the idea that this freedom - both the patrons' freedom to seek knowledge, and the library workers' freedom to help grant access to that knowledge - was not always thus, and in some parts of the world remains elusive still.

So, that's my two cents. Now, where will I go next year....

Service Understanding/Understanding Service

During the January all-Access meeting, Sharon Thomas brought up an interesting point: she said she thought that providing service in a library is different from providing service in a coffee shop. At the time I asked her to "hold that thought," and indicated that I'd like to hear what she had to say on that at the next meeting, after she had observed at a coffee shop.

Well, both Sharon and I forgot about this, but we did have a chance to talk last week. She explained that she felt that when someone goes into a coffee shop, both the customer and the staff share an understanding of the interaction. There's not a lot of variability in what's expected by either party. But, using LP as the example, an alum of NYU may approach the desk with the understanding that as an alum s/he can still use Bobst. This is quite different from our policies, and conflict arises.

This blew my mind. Honestly, the idea of disconnect in common understanding never occurred to me, but of course this is an issue. When I go into McDonalds, I pretty much know what I'm getting myself into. I know what they have to offer and that's why I walked in the door. People walk through our doors misunderstanding what we offer on a daily basis. It would be like someone walking into a McDonalds and looking for a filet mignon on the dollar menu. A contract exists between server and served, and at a restaurant or store it's pretty much clear to both parties. In academic libraries, not so much.

So, what can we do about this? Certainly, simply being aware of this disconnect will help us all to bridge the gap i understanding that can challenge service excellence. As we all uncovered during our coffee shop observation, avoiding jargon, being open to questions and improving our communication with users on our signs, brochures, website, etc. can go a long way. We all have a responsibility to suggest areas of improvement when we see them. How can we help to build common understanding between library staff and library users?

Coffee Shop Review

During our staff meeting today had a great discussion of the various components that make up good customer service, and those elements that we feel contribute to a negative service experience. These characteristics came up in the context of observing the service we received at 4 local coffee shops. Here's how Access Services defines good and bad service:

Good Service Includes

• Pleasant small talk with customers
• Staff camaraderie
• Respecting customers' time
• Teamwork (filling in each other's knowledge gaps)
• Courtesy
• Helpfulness
• Asking clarifying questions
• Explaining jargon
• Displaying a positive attitude
• Providing consistent service
• Being flexible and treating each situation individually

Less than adequate service includes:

• Lack of familiarity with products and services offered
• Snobby attitude
• Not taking suggestions for improvement graciously (or seriously)
• Rushing customers
• Judging customers
• Lack of eye contact
• Offering a poor product
• Lack of consistency
• Staff distracting each other
• Not being receptive to user questions
• A process that breaks down
• Service providers slowing the pace when things are less busy (don't respect customers' time)
• Lack of camaraderie between co-workers

I think that we have worked together to uncover a pretty great blueprint for providing excellent service.

Who made my day?

Posted on Twitter:

"I cut your late fines in half because you like Down." - guy working at NYU @bobstlibrary. Where academia and metal meet, there is love!"

I LOVE this tweet for a several reasons.

First of all, the library administration--from supervisors clear up through the Dean--encourages staff to waive up to $50 in fines just to make someone's day. Even if there isn't a compelling reason. I feel that this particular freedom is underutilized by circ staff as a tool for creating good will, so I'm glad to see that it was used, very successfully used, in this instance.

I also love that it got out there on Twitter, creating a ripple effect of good will. This patron has 166 followers who all know that not only is Bobst understanding about fines, we're cool! (OK, as an old fart librarian maybe I shouldn't be so quick to claim coolness,, but the person who waived these fines is definitely cool, and that person represents the library. There's some "coolness by extension" there.)

Lastly, I love this tweet because my boss monitors what people tweet about Bobst, so it makes me look pretty good in my superior's eyes.

Who was this "guy working @ NYU bobstlibrary?" who made my day? It was Wes Wambold. Well done Wes. Thanks for making this patron's day and my day.

Another year, another post about the current state of our scaled-up Off-Site Storage output!

Following my last post, a number of people expressed concern about the type and amount - especially the amount - of material that has been leaving the building, so I think it's time for me to talk a little bit more about that.

When we first began sending material to be housed at the Clancy-Cullen Moving & Storage Company 7 years ago, in the spring of 2003, the first category of books to go were "single-part, single-copy" monographs from the circulating collection that had not circulated in 5 years or more. That is: any monograph was fair game if was not part of a larger set, was not one of multiple copies, and had not been checked out in 5 years or more according to our computer records.

Subject specialists were given a chance to exclude from consideration any specific books meeting these criteria, but which they wanted to keep here in Bobst anyway. But few subject specialists took advantage of this chance, and everyone was in agreement that all this little-used material was fair game. This policy was decided in the year before a single book left the building.

Since that 2003, we have also sent out archival boxes, microfilms, LPs, multivolume sets, and tens of thousands of bound Serials, but the crux of our activity still remains the low-use monographs.

A few years ago, after we had done at least one pass through almost every call number range, our collection was still growing faster than we could send low-use materials out, and so we needed to look for ways to help us make even more space. We changed the criteria slightly, and the only difference was as follows: "any monograph was fair game if was not part of a larger set, was not one of multiple copies, and had not been checked out fewer than two times in 5 years or more according to our computer records. That is, if it's been checked out only once it can go off-site, but twice or more and it must stay here.

Surprisingly, this gave us a larger list of books but not nearly as many more as we had anticipated! It is as if most books get checked out either a lot, or not at all, and few fall in between.

With our recent ramp-up to send at least 400k in one year, as opposed to our usual average of under 100k per year, there has been a lot of concern over how empty the 4th and 5th floor stacks are looking, but I can promise that this is only because of the speed at which we are working - NOT because the selection criteria have changed.

And we would not be able to do this if it wasn't for Aleph.

This has been hinted at in All-Staff and All-Access Staff meetings in the past, but with our old Advance system, we were usually unable to generate accurate reports of books fitting the established criteria. Many books would appear on these reports that were not, in fact, eligible, due to their circulation history or due to their being one of many copies of a book (of a title that was circulating heavily, even if that particular copy was not). Conversely, thousands of books that were eligible were not appearing at all.

Now with Aleph, we've been able to fix these problems and generate accurate lists. It's been quite a revelation, and on a personal level, I have felt satisfied to have my frequent suspicions about our old system validated.

Of course, now that we've sent Clancy-Cullen more material, they need to find someplace to put it! That will be a topic for another day, but for now I'll leave you with a few images from their website, where you can go to learn a bit more about them.

Clancy-Cullen Moving & Storage Company, Inc.
Or, just check out the Library Relocation section of the site.

Some pictures from Clancy:

Adventures in Library School, Part One

So, I've decided to become a librarian...

I recently started the Master's Program at the Palmer School at Long Island University. As many of you probably know, they have a remote office in Bobst Library and offer classes here in the building.

I came into the program thinking, "Oh, I've worked in libraries for a while, this will be a breeze." While, so far, the work is introductory, I am actually learning a lot.

In my "Intro to Library & Information Science" class, the instructor gave a lecture on the permeability of library knowledge in other occupational fields. The main theme of the lecture was that librarianship does not limit you to working in a library. Much of the theory that applies to librarianship can be applied to jobs in the business world, sociology, journalism and elsewhere. In addition, there is the "knowledge industry," those companies that produce and service everything from library furniture to online databases and library systems like Aleph & ILLiad.

One is not confined to libraries by obtaining a Master's in Libary Science. Though jobs outside the library world do not interest me at the moment, it's nice to know that the job market will be flexible to accomodate my degree and that changing careers will not be outside the realm of possibilities.

In my "Reference Sources & Services" class, we're learning the basics of what it means to work as a reference librarian. Almost half of the textbook deals with the customer service aspect of the job, as well as staff performance, evaluation, development, and continual learning.

It is comforting, in a way, to have a textbook reinforce the things I learn at my job. It's also nice to know that when Access Services implements things like the Service Excellence Initiative or various ClimateQual-related activities, it is a mark of what a good library should undertake.

A library's virtue is in its ability to share knowledge, not only with patrons but also among all tiers of library employees. By trying to improve our services, we are evaluating our workplace and our "work selves," something in which a library should constantly engage.

I'm also bringing a lot of what I'm learning into my collaboration with the Access Services Advisory Council, which is currently working on a project for the Service Excellence Working Group. My library classes have informed my approach to the project, and the Council, of course, has already done amazing work. As we gather information from our colleagues and analyze it, we are on our way to preparing a cohesive and thorough report that accurately represents the concerns of each Access Services division.

I plan to post more as I come across interesting library school-related bits of information. For now, I'm glad I've taken the plunge.

Can we make the library a more welcoming place?

Congratulations on another incredibly successful Book Circle. I was so glad that I was able to attend. What I found there was a cozy, intimate, welcoming atmosphere full of great conversation. What a great event sponsored by the Access Services Advisory Council and made successful by everyone who attended. Yet another reason why I'm really proud to be part of Access Services.

I just returned from a vacation that included a really long plane ride and no household responsibilities (I do love my in-laws) so I actually had some time to read for the first time in a long time. I'm reading a book called Setting the Table, written by restaurateur Danny Meyer of the Union Square Cafe. If you've never been to USC, I highly recommend it. By New York City standards, it's a high quality restaurant (Zagat top 10) that's pretty reasonably priced. But, what sets USC apart is its service, or what Danny Meyer calls hospitality. It's a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. Making the distinction between hospitality and service, he writes:

Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery makes the recipient feel. Service is a monologue--we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on one's guest's side requires listening to that person with every sense and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top. (p. 65)

If library service is the technical delivery of a product, we certainly have excellent service. We know how to place claim returns, create reserve links, create guest passes, shelve books and borrow materials from other libraries without problems. There is no question that with all of the demands on us, we are getting the job done. But there is another level of service that we have yet to conquer, and that's hospitality. Delivering hospitality is what stands between providing good service and providing excellent service.

Tomorrow, we roll out our Service Excellence Initiative. Unlike other one-off customer service training classes, this is a semester long series of experiences designed to get all of us thinking about how we can provide welcoming, hospitable service. How we can listen and be genuinely empathetic to our users. I know this is possible because Access Services has created an exemplar of a welcoming, hospitable environment in the Book Circle, so we simply need to extend this to our communications with users and co-workers. This will be a shared goal that we will all work together on through the Spring semester. Eileen, Eric, Deb and I, aided by the rest of the Access Sups and the Access Services Advisory Council, have devised a program that will be both fun and informative and we look forward to experiencing this process together.

Bobst Student Orientation

When students become new employees of Access Services at Bobst Library, they join more than a department. They become part of a wider team that serves as the face of the library for its patrons. It is no small task to provide this service -- we realized new employees needed an efficient and understandable introduction to their jobs. The Access Services Student Employee Orientation Work Group decided a video presentation was the best way to convey that information.

This presentation takes just over 10 minutes to watch, but hours of preparation went into creating it. We narrowed the focus to touch key issues that are important to new student employees and then developed the presentation to be clear, informative and engaging. We hope by the end of the presentation, all new student employees will be better prepared to contribute to the Access Services mission.

Access Services supervisors are welcomed to share this presentation with their student workers that are returning in the Spring 2010.

Work Group:

Kimberly Sweetman, Project Sponsor

Deborah Caesar, Project Leader

Members:

Cameron Collins

Amy Donnelly

Liudmilla Hirsch

Kimberly Walker-Long

Robert Jamison

Rosa Monteleone

Victor Munoz

Sharon Thomas

A note from Deborah:

Thank all of the work group members for your hard work in putting this together. It's been a long process and thank you for your patience in allowing us to perfect it. I especially want to thank Amy and Cameron for putting the extra work into this. I hope people enjoy it.

When Technology is Meaningful

Happy New Year everyone!

It's been nearly a month since my last post, and I apologize for the delay. In just a few days we'll start our new semester, with our recently upgraded ILS. This upgrade opens up several possibilities for us. In a general sense, those whose time was occupied by planning for the upgrade will now have time to work on ILS-based service improvements and in a more specific sense, the upgrade offers several new features we may choose to implement--cool things like text message notices.

Thinking about these potential new features and services has me thinking about the ways we use technology. Over the Christmas break I drove to Massachusetts to see my family. Driving 5 hours is hardly a technological innovation, but it gave me a chance to experience my latest favorite technology: EZ Pass.

For those of you who don't know, EZ Pass is a device which allows drivers to merely slow down at toll booths and have any tolls owed posted to an account linked to a credit card. I love EZ Pass, and as I was driving 5 hours in silence, my spouse and child both sleeping, I had a lot of time to reflect on why. EZ Pass is a technology which meets my needs perfectly. It's like it was designed for me. Here's why:

• My family is in a different state, always at least one toll-road away, and we visit often
  
• I'm a super disorganized person when it comes to cash, and frequently have absolutely none
• I have a kid who, although a great car-tripper, is two, so speed in transit is essential
• I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and EZ Pass gives discounts on tolls
• I get a big kick out of "getting a head start" on others, and EZ Pass often lets me blow by dozens of other drivers waiting to pay their tolls.

So, on so many levels I love EZ Pass. I love it so much that a couple of years ago I gave it to my dad as a birthday gift--I pay his tolls (see above comment about being a cheapskate--I admit my dad rarely has tolls and when he does he's probably driving to visit me). It's a technology that improves the quality of my life and that of my family.

When I think about offering new technologies in Access Services, I try to think about what we could offer that would be as meaningful to our users as EZ Pass is to me. What services have we recently rolled out that are this type of success for certain user groups? What services could we plan that would delight our users?