What does the annual Summer Reading Program mean to the Library?
This is an opportunity to for programming to show what the library has. It brings non-library users in the the library for free programming. Parents often have forgotten the value of free things to do with the kids. Take this opportunity to remind them. Once in the door, we have an opportunity to show them other services and materials of interest.
This is an opportunity to win new library users through exceptional customer service. While most libraries are very busy during this time of year, we can take advantage of higher attendance to allow the public to see just what they get with their tax dollars. It is also an opportunity to work with our staffs to provide them with scripts and scenarios to use. It is vital that we, as managers, make sure our staff understands the level of customer service that we require of them.
This is an opportunity to outreach to the community, people, schools and businesses. It's an opportunity to partnership with other government agencies. It's an opportunity to create partnerships that can be useful for both parties, not just during the summer, but throughout the year.
This is an opportunity to market the library. We are able to make library services known in the community, schools and business. Everyone is for reading and giving kids a help up to better education. Just about everyone would like to be associated with these efforts. Talk about what the Friends of the Library do. Talk about what a difference the library makes not only in the community, but also in individual lives. Talk about the library to everyone and everywhere.
There are endless opportunities I won't take time to mention here. The first to come to mind are opportunities to promote reading, career opportunities, volunteer and community service opportunities, but there are many, many more. During the hustle and bustle of this busy time of the year, take time to think of all these opportunities at your finger tips and how you can take better advantage of them. Remind you staff, particularly after the most hectic days, that they make a difference each and every day. It never hurts to let the staff know that you appreciate their hard work with moral boosters. We had a staff ice cream social to kick off the Summer Reading Program and we'll have another moral booster to celebrate the end of the Summer Reading program.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Maintain a Positive Attitude
With the economy in sad shape, library use has increased around the country. It's good that people are remembering and discovering the resources available at the library. With all this busy activity, heavier workload, it is easy to forget the real reason we are here in the library. We are here to serve.
Dealing with stressed and frustrated people takes patience and time. Just about every time we work through that frustration to get to the real need and hopefully meet that need, it is well worth the effort. We win another person sold on the value of the library. We get the satisfaction of a job well done. We learn new tools for our customer service tool box. Everyone gains and wins from the experience.
After attending a library customer service workshop with Susan Berk, I took time to think about what sets me off and to think of ways to respond without letting my emotions and feelings get in the way. It didn't take much time to think back about some customer encounters that I wished had gone differently. I went over the scenarios and thought of some scripts. Since that time, I had a few difficult encounters, but I was able to diffuse the situation and I went way less stress and frustrated myself.
Another thing I tell my staff is to work, really work, at maintaining a positive perspective. We are not just locating a book for someone or helping a patron set up an email account, we are making a difference. We open a new world to that someone, or a new career to the patron. There are endless possibilities in the library and we are opening up those possibilities to everyone who walks through our doors. For every difficult patron you may have, there are a hundred that walked away happy. You found the book someone was looking for. You were able to find that difficult to find statistic for someone else. You may just be the smiling face that asked someone to have a nice afternoon that turned his or her lonely day into something a less lonely.
Dealing with stressed and frustrated people takes patience and time. Just about every time we work through that frustration to get to the real need and hopefully meet that need, it is well worth the effort. We win another person sold on the value of the library. We get the satisfaction of a job well done. We learn new tools for our customer service tool box. Everyone gains and wins from the experience.
After attending a library customer service workshop with Susan Berk, I took time to think about what sets me off and to think of ways to respond without letting my emotions and feelings get in the way. It didn't take much time to think back about some customer encounters that I wished had gone differently. I went over the scenarios and thought of some scripts. Since that time, I had a few difficult encounters, but I was able to diffuse the situation and I went way less stress and frustrated myself.
Another thing I tell my staff is to work, really work, at maintaining a positive perspective. We are not just locating a book for someone or helping a patron set up an email account, we are making a difference. We open a new world to that someone, or a new career to the patron. There are endless possibilities in the library and we are opening up those possibilities to everyone who walks through our doors. For every difficult patron you may have, there are a hundred that walked away happy. You found the book someone was looking for. You were able to find that difficult to find statistic for someone else. You may just be the smiling face that asked someone to have a nice afternoon that turned his or her lonely day into something a less lonely.
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