This week’s reference question is one of my own. I use Bloglines to read rss feeds, and a couple weeks ago they changed their interface.
I didn’t like the changes, so I used their Contact Form to express this and ask if there was an option to change it back. This was two weeks ago, and I still haven’t gotten a reply.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps Bloglines used Twitter, and maybe I could ask them that way. I found an @bloglines user, but even though he’s using the Bloglines logo, he indicates it’s not an official Bloglines account.
I asked him my question anyway (noticing he was fielding the exact same question a lot lately), and got a reply in 5 hours. And best of all, his suggestion worked perfectly, and now I’m back to using Bloglines happily, the way that suits me best.
But this experience got me thinking. It’s easy for organizations to let email messages slide, because only that one person knows they sent it in. But Twitter is public, and if someone is questioning or complaining, ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Unofficial or not, @bloglines did exactly what I would have expected an organization to do - respond quickly and helpfully.
This is what librarians do, and it reminded me of Kate’s post about their library suggestion box. I like that she’s publicly displaying suggestions and answers, because in this case, one-to-many communication seems better than one-to-one.
So I thought, why not encourage patrons to use Twitter as a suggestion box? Being public, the library has to address patrons’ concerns, but it also means all patrons can benefit from the answer, rather than just one.
I know a public forum isn’t appropriate for every issue, and anonymity can be necessary, so I think traditional suggestion boxes (whether physical or online form) are still useful. But I bet there are some libraries already doing this very thing. I know I came late to Twitter, but it really is turning out to be a very useful tool after all.
The Westerville (OH) Public Library has wii and Xbox 360 set up in the library for patrons to use. The games are popular, of course, and often have a waiting list.
To improve the patron experience, their Friends group purchased a set of restaurant pagers (those disks with flashing lights and vibrations that alert people when their table is ready), which the library uses to let patrons know when it’s their turn to play.
I thought this was a great idea. These pagers could also be used when patrons have to wait for computers or study rooms, or anything, really. They require staff time to manage, but they seem more efficient than a sign-up sheet, and they have the added benefit of letting patrons use the library while they’re waiting, instead of being stuck in one spot.
Here’s a new little handout to show patrons (and staff) the basics on how to connect to the library’s wireless network. Feel free to modify* and use it if you like.
The handouts are designed to be a third of a page, with Windows instructions on one side and Mac instructions on the other:
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been noticing more and more people asking for help connecting to the network. It wasn’t that our network was problematic - the patrons just seemed like first-time laptop owners, and had no idea how to connect.
We have a more hardcore troubleshooting handout, instructing people to use ip config to release and renew their ip numbers, but that was definitely overkill for these patrons. They needed something plain and simple, that showed the basic steps to search for and connect to networks.
But of course, plain and simple is tricky, since there are so many brands and operating systems out there. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on making this better, or post a link to your own handout in the comments section.
And thank you to Jessamyn for writing the Mac portion - it would have only been half as useful without your help.
*I usually do little handouts like this in PowerPoint, because I already have templates setup - sorry for the amateur desktop publishing
I like this video from Denmark. It shows police officers using hugs to make the point that laws are there to keep people safe. So of course I thought, “could we do this in a library?” I can just imagine a staff person hugging a patron before asking them to speak more softly on their cellphone.
But I do like the point: most rules are in place for a reason, and if patrons know the reason behind the rule - and that we care about our patrons, not just enforcing rules - the patrons’ library attitude and behavior might change. Hmm, maybe not. Unless we gave away helmets, too.
I was reminded recently that situations are not always what they appear.
This photo is one of my favorite on the internet - it looks confused and incomprehensible at first, but then, from the right point of view, it takes on perfect and surprising clarity.
This shift is sort of the point that Seth Rogin Godin is makes in the video below (recently on BoingBoing). Something might start out with the best of intentions, but in reality comes out horribly broken. This can happen for many reasons, but the end result is the same: it is no good.
It’s difficult to play out potential scenarios beforehand, and trying to anticipate every possibility can paralyze something before it even begins. But it’s worth some effort, and it’s also important to build in flexibility and allow for mid-stream course corrections.
Of course, that’s not always possible. When starting something new, try to work out who the users will be, and what their needs are, and then incorporate that into the available resources. And if things aren’t working, start to stray, or just plain break, take some time to get input, reassess, and try to fix it. But don’t be afraid to scrap the whole thing and start over - try something, learn from it, and try something else.
This week’s reference question is one of my own. I use Bloglines to read rss feeds, and a couple weeks ago they changed their interface.
