Monday, December 20, 2010

Growing Pains

We have a brand new library which is just fantastic and I thank people who come into the Children's Room to look everything over for the taxes they pay that helped build the new library and keep it going.  I'd say 99.999% of people are impressed and thrilled by the new library.
The Children's Room is the farthest point on the first floor from the entrance but it seems to be the first place people go.  For the first two months, the only copier available to the public on the main floor was in the Children's Room and it was around the corner from the desk.  We want to discourage adults from wandering in the Children's Room, but we couldn't help it for a while.  At last, the copier was moved closer to the entrance to the Children's Room so it could be networked with the children's computers.  Adults would walk right past it, though, if they had used it when it was around the corner.  That wasn't so bad, because it wasn't that much of an intrusion into the CR.  Now, however, there is a copier for public use next to the Circulation Desk.  It's not quite obvious - it's on the far side and against the wall.  Unfortunately, the people at the Info Desk who greet people as they walk in, don't seem to know about it. 
I help adults who want to make copies, but I let them know that for next time there is a copier next to the Circulation Desk so they "don't have to walk so far."  I'd consider making them walk all the way back without copies to be Bad Service and I hate giving Bad Service.
We seem to need something to update, not just the volunteers that staff the Info Desk, but all of us about changes.  We have the Intranet, but I don't recall seeing a message that there was now an operational copier machine for public use at the Circulation Desk.  This is something that everyone needs to know.  Volunteers don't have access to the intranet bulletins, so they need something on paper, perhaps in the form of a newsletter.  Our Volunteer Coordinator is good about keeping them updated, but she wasn't here today and two different volunteers directed patrons the length of the whole building into the Children's Room to make copies. 
We must do better.  Doing better, however, will not mean signage.  It seems the more signage you put up, the less they read it.  They still aren't reading the one that asks them to turn their cells phones off in the library.  [Patrons who were in the middle of asking me for help still answer their ringing phones and expect me to wait until they are done with their call.]  I think we need to update staff on the intranet about each change and find a way to alert volunteers as well. 

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