We Love the Library--But Some More than Others

Pretend for a moment that you work the circulation desk at a Seattle branch library.

A patron asks you to change the information on his account. He's moving, so you change the address. And he asks you to change his default pickup branch to a new, rather distant location. From, say, North East to Rainier Beach.

While you're doing this, you notice that he's got 18 hold requests already placed in the system.

Pop quiz: Do you mention that changing the default pickup branch won't change where these requests are being sent, and ask if he'd like that changed as well?

Or do you say nothing, close the screen, and declare your work here done?

The librarian we spoke with at North East, back in early April, apparently chose the first option. We discovered this last night, when we went to the Rainier Beach branch to pick up holds and discovered that most of our holds that were "in" were actually in Wallingford.

Happily, we can already tell that the staff at the Rainier Beach branch is one of the friendly staffs in the SPL system. The librarian we spoke with -- and we're sorry we didn't catch her name -- figured out the situation when we asked what was up, then made sure it got fixed. (Fixing it included calling North East, releasing the holds on their shelf, and having us reinserted into the request queue at the beginning of the line.)

And it caps our experience at North East, which is apparently the busiest branch in the SPL system. We've also found it to be the least friendly, at least that we've used regularly. The circulation desk staff, at least, rarely talked to us, never acknowledged that they recognized us from visit to visit, and made themselves difficult to find when Self Checkout, for whatever reason, wasn't addressing all of our patronage needs. And whenever we did ask a question, they tended to assume we were an idiot who'd never used the library before, rather than someone who had invariably run through the obvious solutions to our problem which is why we were asking for help in the first place.

(Side note: if the library gave us permission to edit our address and pickup locations ourselves, we could've done the whole thing without bugging a librarian in the first place. We're not opposed to bugging librarians, but we prefer to do it when we've got complicated issues that truly require their help or expertise.)

Our first branch, when we moved to Seattle, was Fremont. We loved that library, and the staff (hi Karl! Hi Joan!) and considered keeping it as our "home branch" when we moved to Wedgwood. We've used University, Wallingford, and other branches on a regular basis -- and all of them have been friendlier branches than North East.

Rainier Beach is getting off to a great start -- maybe we've finally found a branch we like as much as Fremont. But it'd be nice if the library could remind their staff that part of their job is, in fact, customer service.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By James in Arts & Events on May 3, 2007 11:34 AM

Comments [rss]

James Callan

I gave the North East Branch two years' worth of other tries, and they remain the least impressive branch library I've visited. From a service perspective, at least.

Not that they're awful -- they just proved less friendly overall than any other branch I've visited more than once.

Anna

Wow this really shocks me. I have been a patron at the North East library for years and it's always been a pleasure to go there. I've even had wonderful service over the phone when calling this branch. I simply adore this branch in fact I'm getting my Masters in Library and Information Science right now because of my experiences with the North East children's librarian. Pop in again, if you get a chance, and give them another try :)

Elizabeth

Amy, I am glad you mentioned that...I hate that people might get a negative impression of a librarian from a bad circ experience.

Sarah

If Seattle uses the same software as my library, and I'm pretty sure that it does, the holds that you placed would not just show up on the screen. You have to look for the list by going through several menus to get there. This is actually for your privacy, so we don't see what you are reading. The clerk who helped you could have asked if you had any holds pending and perhaps they should have done, but sometimes people forget things. I'm sure I do. If I'd know that I'd caused a patron or another of my coworkers such a hassle, I'd feel bad. I absolutely agree that you should be able to change your default location online. Why don't you suggest this to your library.

Amy

I know that this is an old post... but I thought I'd point out that those who work at the Circulation Desk are *not* librarians. Librarians work at the Reference Desk, select and order materials, plan events, oversee the structure, funding, layout of the library etc., etc.,

People who work at the Circ desk are clerks, and while it's no excuse not to provide excellent customer service, it should be known that they are not trained professionals.

homeles JACKK

as a homeles man i can say that i like north east the least hey that rimes. i frequnt the libraries the most on weekdays when i need to SPICE UP MY LIFE and shower in the sinks but there sinks are to small so i end up giving them a present under the sink. i he . e no one can sayt hat the green wood library isnt the best beacuase we know aobut elizabeth and what she does in the STACKS!@!!