Librarians – Undervalued Professionals

The Pharmacist - A Valued Professional (from The U.S. National Archives' Flickr stream).

I was mulling over writing a blog post yesterday, but I had nothing to write about.  Why waste everyone’s time writing for the sake of it?  So, instead, I spent most of day mulling over a few things in my head.  Most of these were prompted by this wonderfully ignorant blog post about school librarians:

How much “training” and “certification” do librarians need to be “responsible for the children”? They are just librarians! One would think that all the school need do is run a background check and then show them the Dewey Decimal system and everything is set! How much expertise do you need to put books on shelves and check out kid’s selections? It ain’t rocket science.

It hardly seems worth bothering with the ignorance on display here (although many wonderful people have added comments calling him on his provocations).  Although it is more likely than not he is simply trying to get a rise out of people.  Being deliberately provocative in a way I never would. Er….

Anyway, one of the things I was mulling over today while out with my wife is the interesting parallels the library profession has with other professions (and not just in terms of the ‘profession’ bit of course!).  Particularly in terms of the criticisms they face and the lack of understanding about what they do.

First, a bit of background.  Before working in libraries, I worked for a well-known chain of high street chemists (yes, that one).  Although initially starting out on the photo department (which was great fun – at least until someone’s negatives were chewed up in the machine – not so much fun then), I ‘progressed’ to the healthcare/dispensary side of things.  As a result of which, I worked with pharmacists (the professionals in this long-winded story) to deliver the healthcare side of the business.  Interesting work, that gave me a real insight into many aspects of the medical world (not least the wholesale cost of drugs in comparison to the cost of a prescription – believe me, you would never complain about paying that small fee if you knew how much some medicines cost).  And not only was it interesting, it introduced me to my wife, who just so happens to be a pharmacist!  Anyway, I digress.

One of the most common refrains from members of the public when waiting to pick up their medicine was “how much longer is this going to take? They only need to put the medicine in a bag!”  Of course, we knew it was much more than this, but the experience of the customer was only the front end and they couldn’t see what was going on behind the scenes.  The checks a pharmacist has to make, both with the patient’s medical history and the drug itself.  It is not just a case of shoving things in a bag.  Accordingly, the pharmacist was often, in the eyes of the customer, reduced to the role of ‘very well paid bag packer’.  Not always, but often this seemed to be the case.  And yet……

Despite this perception of pharmacists as glorified bag packers, no-one calls for pharmacies to close or that pharmacists are over-qualified for what they actually do (although I’m sure some drug companies wish this were the case…there’s nothing they would like more than a deregulated healthcare market, enabling direct-to-consumer advertising….oops, digressing again!).  The reason for this is obvious.  Despite the perception of some, the majority of people understand that pharmacists are the middlemen/women between themselves and life-saving medication.  Medication that, despite the beliefs of some people to the contrary, the majority accept is far more complex than X simply cures Y.

Compare this to librarians.  They are often portrayed as glorified book stampers and shelf fillers.  Yet what they do is so much more than that.  They provide access to a wealth of information that benefits society as a whole.  They enable people to navigate the largest information source that the world has ever known.  They provide the skills to enable people to find their way through the overwhelming amount of information out there and find the stuff that they need.  But that’s not what they see.  Like the bag stuffing pharmacist, they only see a part of what librarians do.

This is a great difficulty for professionals to overcome.  Whilst pharmacists have the tangible benefits to demonstrate their worth to society, what librarians deliver is far less tangible.  This makes it easier for the media and various commentators (and loonies like the one at the top of this post) to claim that librarians are ‘unnecessary’.  This is in turn leads to the library narrative in the media that I have blogged about before.  How can this be addressed?  I’m not sure I can even hint at an answer.  That said, I do think an attempt to steer the narrative in our favour is one way of addressing this problem.  However, one thing is for certain, this situation does need addressing before librarians become a relic from a more enlightened age.

Facebook – More Privacy Concerns

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Facebook and privacy concerns.  The biggest concern has been the way in which privacy is managed from your Facebook account.  In short, the privacy functionality is far too arduous.  At present, there are 50 separate privacy settings and 170 options – far too many for anyone to keep track of let alone effectively manage.  So concerned are people by the complex nature of privacy management, there are many people who are considering switching off their accounts altogether (although it should be noted that this doesn’t mean your data gets wiped from Facebook…..they keep it forever).  Now some people are happy to give up a great deal of personal information to a faceless corporation (I wonder if these same people oppose ID cards??), but for many it is concerning.  If you are concerned about this, the BBC has makes a number of recommendations on its website.

Openbook - Searches Facebook Status Updates

If, until now, you were not overly concerned about your privacy you may be about to change your mind.  The Guardian this morning had an interesting piece about a new tool that is simultaneously scary and interesting.  Openbook is a website that could led make even the most open person pause for thought in their willingness to share information about themselves (note the quote from Zuckerberg in the top right corner).  Using a simple search engine (see image), it enables people to search through non-protected status updates for specific terms.  You don’t even have to have a Facebook account to use it.   Not only does the search result in matching status updates being listed, it also displays the appropriate profile picture so that everyone knows exactly who posted the update.  Scared yet?  The Guardian published a couple of examples of updates it found when searching the site:

“dam right i cheated i coulnt get it from u wen i needed it”

“I’m sorry, I lied before when I said I used to make lots of bets. My therapist tells me I should try lying a lot to help get through my… gambling problem”.

“im not gonna bother anymore…theres no point hiding the truth…..iv lost too much and all because i lied to the one i love…im such a fukin dick head, i fucked up the best girl i’ve ever had”.

None of which you’d really want anyone else to see, I’m sure.

Now, I ought to point out at this stage that only displays updates that are not secured by the user.  All updates that are subject to strict privacy controls will not appear in any search conducted on Openbook.  If you haven’t locked your account though, you may want to rethink your willingness to slag off your employer/colleagues/wife/girlfriend…it could lead to all sorts of trouble.

Having said all that, such a tool does provide some benefits, especially to those working in public libraries.  For some time now, I have been using Twitter‘s advanced search tool to seek out feedback from customers about their experiences of the library service.  It’s an excellent way of capturing feedback and communicating with customers.  Quite often, members of the public don’t expect random library employees to read Twitter feeds, so you can often get quite honest feedback (sometimes brutally so) about your service – a crucial tool for improving and developing the service.  Now, with Facebook open to similar types of searches, there is yet another avenue for librarians to explore in order to see how users view the service (more on this at Musings about librarianship).

This is not to say that I am not concerned by the latest developments on Facebook, I find it deeply worrying.  It’s one thing to make this sort of information open, it’s another to do it without the understanding of the user.  There is a very clear difference between Facebook and Twitter in the minds of most people.  Rightly or wrongly, most people assume the former is a closed loop where only friends can view the information you share.  Twitter, on the other hand, is an open system and there is a certain expectation that everyone will have access to whatever you write.  With this in mind, you tend to be more considered in what you share on Twitter.  On Facebook, however, the tendency is to write whatever pops into your head because (supposedly) only your friends will see it.  The problem is that Facebook has seen the growth of Twitter and wants a piece of the action.  That means increasingly opening up content (your personal information) to the wider Internet community so you can ‘share’ (there’s an innocuous little term) with everyone.  You may be happy with that, you may not, but it’s something that people are going to have to get used to as long as they are on Facebook.  After all, whatever you post on there (pictures of your children, comments about your job, criticisms of your boss) doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to Facebook.  There’s a scary thought, eh?

CardStar – Embrace or Fear?

There was a lot of chatter on Twitter last week with the discovery that an application for the iPhone is offering a new way for borrowers to use their local library service.  CardStar offers users a way of carrying all their barcoded loyalty and reward cards with them without having a pocket full of plastic.  By inputting the barcode details, the application generates the appropriate barcode which can then be scanned in store……straight off your iPhone.  However, it is not only store cards that are catered for by this service, it is also possible to input a library card number and then, theoretically, present your iPhone at the library desk to take out books.

The application already lists Surrey libraries as one of the ‘merchants’, apparently in reaction to a borrower request.  Interestingly, Surrey libraries were unaware that they are listed on the application, this is because CardStar does not inform the relevant organisation that a request has been made.  This is not particularly helpful as library authorities could be listed without their consent or knowledge.  Furthermore, according to the blogger who kickstarted the flurry of Tweets, not many other libraries are aware of the service.  Of course, this presents its own problems for libraries unaware that users have requested that their library card be included on the application.  Should someone visit their local library and present their iPhone to a member of staff who is unaware of the application, there is likely to be an uncomfortable confrontation regarding the validity of the barcode.  In fact, it would appear that there have been some problems already.

@aarontay at Musings about Librarianship has already tracked down a couple of embarrasing incidents involving the application in some libraries in the US:

“Look you, next time you want to take out books bring in the actual card.  I don’t know if this is a real card.  Do you understand me?  I want the card, not the barcode.  Jesus.  begin muttering under breath and shaking head [then back to] I don’t know if this is a real card.”

and…

Do you have your library card?

Oh, yea. Sure. Here it is.

She looked at my outstretched hand with the iPod Touch and appeared unsure of what to do with the scanner in her hand. Taking a deep breath and saying a small prayer, I casually took the scanner from her hand and revealed my agenda to her.

See? I just place this scanner above the barcode displayed on the screen and….

Ummmm you can’t do that here…

No, it works! Trust me! I got it. Let me try one more time….

Excuse me, young man. People are waiting in line.

That’s not the kind of customer service that will win awards, that’s for certain.

The problem is, you can kinda understand the reactions of the staff members in these libraries.  After all, if you were presented with some new tech like this that you were previously unaware of, you would quite possibly refuse to even entertain the idea that these are valid library cards.  Besides, even if you were aware of the tech, there would still be reservations regarding security.  How can anyone know if the barcode number presented before them is genuinely the card number for the customer they are serving?  After all, it is just a case of jotting a card number down on the iPhone.  It’s no more valid than scrawling a barcode on a piece of paper and handing it over to a member of staff.  Clearly there are security concerns that have to be resolved and policies to be developed in relation to this application.  That’s not to say it is a thing that libraries (or frontline library staff) should fear.  Anything that makes the customer’s experience easier should be considered an advantage to the service.

Having said that, there is no guarantee that the application will work in all libraries anyway.  Judging by the tweets flying around on Friday last week, it was a bit hit and miss with some scanners.  It certainly seemed that those who tested the application on old scanners had more luck than those with new ones.  I tried to find out the reason for this from CardStar on Twitter, but it was more complicated than a 140 character tweet (obviously, should have worked that out myself!).  I have consequently emailed their support desk to ask for further info, so should find out why this is the case in due course¹.

Personally, I think @aarontay is spot-on with his conclusion.  It is important for libraries to be prepared for the use of this technology as any iPhone owner could stroll in with their iPhone and expect to take out their books using the CardStar application.  The most important thing is to ensure that the examples above are not repeated – that would be a disaster.

Update

1. I received a reply from CardStar explaining the situation with the hit and miss nature of scanning the iPhone.  They said:

The first thing to note is that handheld scanners (where you can direct the laser towards the phone) tend to work much better.  Because a lot of the laser light is lost when scanning from an LCD screen, the best laser scanners are the more high-powered ones (which typically correlate with “more expensive”).  We have found the most success with handheld scanners from Symbol.

They also requested that I send them the make and model of any scanners that are incompatible so they can test them in their lab.  Finally, they added:

We are actively trying to improve scanning rates in CardStar, and as we make advancements we will push them into newer versions of the software.

Looks like CardStar are aiming to be around for a while and to develop their product. Could be interesting times ahead.

The Customer and Public Libraries

A little while ago I wrote a post about classifying fiction in public libraries.  I had been trying to decide whether it was a good idea to remove genre distinctions from the fiction shelves and go for a straight A-Z run.  After much thought, I decided to stick with our current system of a mixture of A-Z plus a few genre categories.  Having temporarily resolved that one in my mind, I then started thinking on broader terms about what our customers want from their public library.  What changes could be made to improve the user’s experience?  Funnily enough, having gone through another period of analysis and brain storming with colleagues, the module I am currently studying on Collection Management provoked a few more ideas on how to ensure the best possible service for our borrowers.

The module has prompted some more ideas and challenged some of my beliefs about what does make a user-friendly public library service.  For example, when I first started at my current place of work, the non-fiction section was a mixture of stock ordered in Dewey order, but broken up by the odd category here or there.  This I found too confusing so I proposed that we re-arrange it into a single run from 000-999.    This meant that we didn’t have a dilemma about where some stock should be shelved, making it easier for staff to locate the item.  Of course, this was the fatal flaw.  It may be easier for the staff, but it is not necessarily easier for the borrower.  I know a lot of libraries have switched to the bookshop format of categorised non-fiction and it seems to work quite well.  In fact, one study I read noted that, after one month of utilising such a system, Bexley library saw issues in non-fiction stock rise by 30% – pretty impressive statistics¹.  So maybe we should all be doing this after all?  Or is it unwise to take one example from one library nearly 20 years ago and apply that across the board. Would be interested to hear what your thoughts are.

There were also some other interesting assertions that came from my reading today.  For example:

Of those found to have no books in the home only 6% belonged to a library. Subsequent studies have confirmed that reading and book ownership relates strongly to library use.²

That was something I had never really considered before.  I tended to believe that people who didn’t have many books at home were more likely to use their local library.  Shows what I know!  It was also interesting to note the following:

Library members, like the book readers, are predominantly young, middle-class and well educated³.

Again, this makes sense.  Libraries are always struggling to get working class families to use the library service and are constantly trying to find ways to attract them to their local library.  But why do they not use the service?  As was noted in the article:

Libraries do not change the social situation, they reinforce it.

It is of great concern that those that would most benefit from their local library service seem to use it less than the affluent middle classes.  What causes this?  Is it a lack of awareness of what the library service could offer?  Is it disinterest?  Whatever the cause, it is very worrying.

There was one other statistic that got me thinking:

• 7% of borrowers account for 38% of issues
• 18% of borrowers account for 62% of issues⁴

So the vast majority of issues are down to less than 20% of all borrowers.  One-in-five of our borrowers who come into the library will be ‘heavy’ users of book stock, whilst the remaining 82% are ‘casual’ users who use the library as and when they need.  The challenge is getting that 80% to use the library more regularly than they do – which could be particularly difficult given that they use the library according to their individual needs.

I guess some of these assertions should have been obvious to me.  Whether it was down to naivety or inexperience I hadn’t really given these much thought.  I am well aware of the importance of getting working class families to use their local library, but I had never fully considered that there was such a class divide when it came to libraries – particularly when you consider the role of the public library.  Although I guess there wouldn’t be much point in studying the course if all of this was already at the forefront of my mind.  Besides, you can have assumption but until you see cold, hard facts, it’s all pretty intangible.  I’ll try not to feel so bad about my obvious naivety!

¹ Partridge, Jan (1992). Dumping Dewey: Promoting the Collection through Categorisation. Libraries: the Heart of the Matter: Proceedings of the ALIA Second Biennial Conference. Maryborough, Thorpe, 274-6

² Smith, Ian (1999). What do we know about public library use? Aslib Proceedings, 51 (9) 302-314

³ Smith, Ian (1999). What do we know about public library use? Aslib Proceedings, 51 (9) 302-314

⁴ Smith, Ian (1999). What do we know about public library use? Aslib Proceedings, 51 (9) 302-314

Catalogue Solutions

So, as you may be aware, I have been spending some time working on a solution to our un-catalogued items.  Well, I have had to pass on my work to someone a bit higher up the ladder (guess I should have done that before I had done so much work on it!!), who is going to have a look at what I have been doing and see if it is either useful or an avenue worth exploring.  Hopefully I will get the all clear to continue as I think it could be a really useful resource.  If not, well, it’s back to the drawing board I guess!!

Cataloguing on a Wiki

As I noted on a previous post, I have been working on solving a few practical problems at work.  As part of my drive to catalogue materials that are not on our library management system, I have been adding our collection of maps onto a wiki I have set-up at Zoho.  Up until now, the maps have been catalogued on a spreadsheet several pages long.  This meant that searching for a specific map was laborious to say the least.  To make the search process easier I split the maps up in to different areas and gave each area its own wiki page.  This meant that when a search was conducted, it would at least narrow it down to a general area.  However, the process hasn’t been without its blips.

The main problem has been with the hit-and-miss nature of the search engine.  When entering one particular search term, the engine threw up no results, even though I knew the term was in the database.  Thankfully, the guys at Zoho have been very helpful.  After encountering the problem, I decided to get in touch with a member of the team.  Impressively, they got back to me the very next day and said they would look into it.  It turned out there was a fault with the software and they assured me that they would rectify it.  They also asked of there were any features that would make the service easier to use.  I suggested that it would be useful if when a search is conducted, instead of just directing you to the page, the search terms could be highlighted on the wiki page.  Again I got an email the very next day, and they said they would look into it.  Impressive service!

I am really hopeful that this will make it easier for members of staff to use and I am hoping to build it into a one-stop shop for help with reference queries.  It will provide a wealth of information specific to our library that is easily searchable.  For example, a page would be created with copyright information on maps so that (as inevitably happens) when members of staff struggle to remember the technicalities of copyright laws, they can find the information via a simple search engine on the database.  It will take a lot of time to get to this stage, but I am confident that using a wiki in this way will make it much easier for staff to provide a quality service and, after all, that is what we should be aiming for.

A Trip to the Library

Today I finally took the time to check out the public library here in Seville.  I have been coming here for around six years now and, until now, I had never been (not helped by the fact that my wife – a Sevilliana – didn’t know where it was!).  So I decided to have a look around and see the similarities and differences with my library back home (which is perhaps unfair as this is one of the largest cities in Spain), particularly in terms of layout and facilities.

After obligingly dumping our bags in the lockers provided, we took a stroll into the main library area.  One of the things that struck me straight away was how clean everything looked.  This was perhaps helped by the fact that the fixtures and fittings were all white (which is presumably a requirement given the fact that Seville hits the 40° mark in the height of summer).  Back home, we have wooden shelving that probably dates from around the 60s.  Although, this is an unfair comparison due to where the library is situated.  It certainly looked quite impressive on first glance, with plenty of seating, as well as a variety of newspapers and magazines for the public. 

There were also a couple of things I noticed that are part of what we are currently trying to achieve in our library.  Firstly, the general shelving.  For a long time, our shelves have been jam-packed with stock that barely shifts.  There has been a general reluctance to weed stock effectively and this has had a knock-on effect with presentation standards.  As a result of a major re-organisation we have managed to get our shelves to be a little more spacious and, consequently, making it easier for users to find the books that they want.  We have particularly tried to keep top shelves free wherever possible to enable us to present front-facing stock, as well as ensure that as much stock as possible is within easy reach of the borrower.  Although our shelves don’t quite look like those pictured from the public library in Seville, the layout is not entirely dis-similar.

As well as the shelving, I also noticed that they had one main desk for dealing with new joins, issues and discharges.  I am of the belief that, from a customer point of view, this is preferable to the layout at my current library of a main desk at one side of the library with an attached enquiry desk, and a reception desk near the front door.  Personally, I believe this leads to confusion as a member of the public unfamiliar with the layout is not really sure where to go.  The reception desk deals only with issuing library cards, the enquiry desk with ordering (as well as the obvious!) and the counter deals with issuing and discharging.  Meaning that should a customer wish to join, take out some books and order a book, s/he would need to approach three different desks, each time being re-directed.  Not exactly an efficient service.

Finally, and most surprising, was the difference regarding public access PCs.  Due to my particular interest in the digital divide and access to information, I was surprised to see only ten computer terminals in the public area that were for general use (ie not simply for the library catalogue).  This surprised me because we have as many in our library, and yet our library is significantly smaller.  In contrast to my library, there was no children’s terminal in the children’s area whatsoever (although the children’s library did look quite good – if a little sterile with all the white).  I’m not sure if this is because computer terminals were trialled and were not overly successful, or whether there hasn’t been the will (or financial capability) to install computer terminals.  Whatever the reasoning, it was a little odd to see that a large public library, within one of the largest cities in Spain, has such limited internet provision.

Anyway, having completed my mission to visit the local public library, I can now enjoy the rest of my holiday and forget about libraries for a while longer.  I’ve got some sun to catch and some beer to drink!