Becomming an "Old Home Place" Library - Part Three - Customer Service

Community Focus = Customized Services = Customer Value

Here are some practical lessons in customer service, which is the sole reason why your library exists.

Do you know that "service" is the standard by which libraries are measured?

Your library patrons are your customers who come to you for products and services. Satisfied customers are essential to any organization, but especially to a small, underfunded and understaffed rural library. As a rural or solo librarian you need to establish behaviors in your organization that ensure good customer service.

Are you aware that you communicate with others through your words (7%), your voice (38%), and your body language (55%)?

So remember to smile . . . You are the library and You are essential to its success.

Any problem that can be found in the outside world can be found in your library, as well. Difficult situations or complaints are often fueled by bad first impressions. Strategies to head-off any potential trouble should include your being

• Approachable
• Attentive
• Helpful and
• Considerate

Here's how: 

ASK what your customer's want and listen to what they say. Make sure you understand them. Establish good eye contact and present a helpful face. Treat all customers with respect and courtesy.

RESPOND to your customer's requests by answering or referring their questions. Speak clearly. Provide them with choices. Don't make promises you can't keep.

SATISFY your customer's request by following-up with them. Be assertive, but not aggressive and give them your full attention.

Satisfied customers are essential to the success of your organization; so, make sure your customers are your first priority!

Brought to you by The Settlement Library Project:
Serving People, Broadening Perspectives, and Sharing Resources in Libraries.

Image:  http://www.sugarpiefarmhouse.com/the-old-homeplace

Becoming an "Old Home Place" Library - Part Two - Marketing

Yes, it's about an emotional connection . . . and marketing

Take your library outside the "box": that is, the brick and mortar building you are housed in.

One of the best practices for marketing library services on a shoe-string is local cooperation that produces a positive image, creates a demand, and fulfills your mission. As a small or rural library you can only do so much with--or without--publicity. Sooner or later you will have to meet your customers face to face. Go to the lap of the public, or where the people are.

Here's how:

Strengthen ties locally with your schools and population centers to market your library services and increase community awareness. Don't forget your non-profits, the local hospital, jail, or social services office.

Attend public functions such as parades, museums, and local exhibits or festivals as a representative of your library. Go armed with brochures and business cards, as well as your "elevator speech". Set up a table to "sign-up" people for library cards.

Celebrate your library with an anniversary of some sort with an open house, exhibits, music, or a picnic on the front lawn. This is a great way to hook-in families or tourists for the day.

Merge with other information distributors such as regional libraries, school and academic libraries, and special libraries such as those within the hospital, a law firm, or your local churches/parishes to facilitate networking, teamwork, and just to make friends. Your mantra might be "You promote my library services and I'll promote yours!"

Pull in the local organizations fire squad, police fraternity, or VFW post. Offer them your front lawn or meeting rooms for community outreach and educational presentations. And when local organizations have their annual fund raisers, convince them that a speech from the local librarian would be of great interest to their members and guests. Get in there with a brief, but memorable account of how the library can satisfy their business and personal learning needs.

These are just a few ideas to get you started marketing on a shoestring. You don't need money, just a little extra time that could be distributed between co-workers on their available days. 

Our goal should always be to grow services and relationships. So, bring the family!



Brought to you by The Settlement Library Project:
Serving People, Broadening Perspectives, and Sharing Resources in Libraries.



Image:  http://www.sugarpiefarmhouse.com/the-old-homeplace

Becomming an "Old Home Place" Library - Part One - Growing Your Library

Never forget: It's about an emotional connection

You and I realize that it is increasingly difficult for small and rural libraries to continue to survive. We know that a creative transition is necessary to ensure viability--one that includes translating into not only a center of information, but also one of local culture. Our goal should always be to grow services and relationships.

We also know that distributed forms of information have forced the central role of the library to modify. Individual communities with inventive and resourceful library boards and directors should be charged with developing some new strategy that will reflect the identity and personality of the community. This identity has the definite potential to create an "old home place" type of library environment for the locals. The idea is to build bridges where you can, and secure the faith of your residents. This will cement your small or rural library into their hearts making them come back and support your efforts. 

From the beginning, this blog has been about adjusting to, and implementing, this very specific modification. Here are the simple steps revisited:

Evaluate your customer's library experience

• Test your community: determine their opinions, ideas, thoughts, and information requirements.
• Then determine what services are most important for the pleasure and growth of your residents.
• Use this information to define the strategic direction you will need to take. 

Embrace new information technologies in your little corner of the planet

• Create a Vision . . . Tagline, Website, Brand, Advertising Strategy!
• Create a volunteer team that is tech savvy. 
• Create an advisory team that will keep abreast of current technologies and free informational Websites.
• Create a partnership with your local organizations, businesses, and groups to construct local educational opportunities, linked services, and cooperative skills. Get everyone involved!

Preserve the culture and historical value of your community

• Support and secure an emotional link through community history and memory projects.
• Focus on the personality of your town by reinforcing the identity of your residents.
• Begin a participatory archiving process for community pride. 
• Secure a community founded and funded informational, educational, and historical project that everyone can get involved with.

Experiment with creative spaces in your town

• Don't be afraid to ask: Capitalize on what's already out there by crafting small individual spaces within the community that draw attention and interest toward your library.
• Put up signage at the school, community college, fire hall, or VFW. 
• Be open-minded and creative concerning the use of your library space.
• Don't be afraid to start something! 

Brought to you by The Settlement Library Project:
Serving People, Broadening Perspectives, and Sharing Resources in Libraries



Image:  http://www.sugarpiefarmhouse.com/the-old-homeplace

Citizen Librarianship - Local Not Global

Citizen vs. Hermit

Librarians in a small, rural community often work with many survival issues prevalent on a daily basis: solo professionals or paraprofessionals; single libraries serving a patron base diverse in regard to education level, literacy, interest, age and abilities; small budgets; and ongoing competition for funds with other agency units which also provide public services. Frequently there is professional isolation; limited opportunities for professional development and peer exchange; insufficient guidance on the job; and too often a lack of formal professional training or poor initial training in the field. Other disadvantages may also include too little operating funds for adequate materials and equipment; low pay; poor physical facilities with little space for collection, equipment, and computers; and not enough help. For these reasons, small town librarians share the same potential for falling under one of two categories of librarianship: that of Citizen or that of Hermit.

A Hermit lacks certain Citizen qualities and cares little for public relations for the purpose of building up goodwill within a community. The Hermit is content with administrative duties on the inside and building institutional organizational structures usually bound by traditional teachings, hierarchies or stereotypes. Institutions operate in an environment consisting of other institutions. Every institution is influenced by the broader environment through what is known as "institutional peer pressure." The main goal for institutions is survival and legitimacy. And although institutions clearly have the capacity to grow and adapt, they also possess the habit of being prisoners of their own institutionalized history whether calamitous or otherwise. For a librarian in a small, rural community library, this type of Hermit behavior will not only hinder any possible relationships within the community, but will also limit the role the library plays in the lives of its service sector.

In the small town library, a library professional guides the library in building an image in the minds of the community in order to assure the local library the best place in community life. Even the smallest library needs at least one paid staff member designated as director to automatically instill the sense of responsibility necessary for a successful operation, and provide a sense of authority with staff members, the library board, and volunteers. This leads to smoother operations, more stable personnel relationships, as well as giving the library direction. As a Citizen focused on community goals with a mission toward outreach, the librarian in a rural community must possess the knowledge, skills, and fortitude to make the library an integral player in the lives of residents.

If rural communities are to develop an adequate collection of information materials and provide effective library services, it is vital that community leaders hire library and information professionals who have the knowledge and skills to make the library an integral part of the overall effort to educate and build relationships inside and outside library walls. How the librarian deals with the local community as a Citizen is, to a large extent, the responsibility of the individual librarian.

At some point in their careers, public librarians must walk down Main Street as a Citizen of the community. For the trained librarian, networking and collaborating is an answer for collection development and a source of communication in the rural community. However, it is up to the rural public librarian whether he/she becomes an engaged Citizen or an institutionalized Hermit.

Citizen Librarianship

Thomas Jefferson once wrote to James Madison that a public servant should be constantly at his post. The Citizen librarian of a public library is a public servant whose post stretches beyond the confines of the library building as a representative of the community at large. The first step outside the traditional boundaries of librarianship is also the first step toward success: the commitment to the goal of making library services available to all.

“Perhaps the single largest error librarians working in small libraries make is that they attempt to do too much of the job alone. There are many resources available to assist them in their development if they can open up and avail themselves of opportunities, especially from nearby larger libraries, the systems, the state library agencies, and associations. When small libraries cooperate and affiliate with other libraries, they might continue to do more than exist. They might even thrive.”

This “off-site approach” offers librarians the opportunity to open up communication about the library and its services on the “user’s turf” and beyond. It gives librarians the opportunity to observe and listen to the population intended to be served so that barriers can be overcome. Bringing a library outside its ‘walls’ “clears the way for the library to function as a critical access point for information and personal development resources, and [to be] perceived as a source of personal empowerment by its users.”

There are three major attributes that all Citizen librarians need to capitalize on:

• The first is accessibility.
The Citizen librarian will be known and approachable by the service population whether it is inside the library facility or outside in the rural community.
• The second attribute is openness.
In a small community rumors, misconceptions and fears can run rampant. The Citizen librarian keeps the doors of communication open and humanizes community residents in each individual service segment.
• The third attribute is that of educator.
The Citizen librarian teaches community residents the role of the public library and offers them resources to enhance their lives.

Outreach

All libraries have some segment of the population in their service areas which are misunderstood and therefore underserved. Outreach service is one of the techniques that librarians employ to help reach isolated groups. In exercising Citizen strengths, librarians create partnerships with community entities for expanded services as well as promoting public awareness and understanding toward the needs and issues of the rural population. Through this relationship, community groups and organizations band together to form a cadre of support for community administrators and librarians as they seek to improve library services for all as well as providing a friendly response to prevalent issues facing this segment of librarianship such as professional isolation, lack of training, and limited opportunities for peer exchange.

Through Citizen Librarianship the libraries of rural communities have the opportunity to play a distinctive role in many lives through up-to-date informative legal resources, life-changing programming, reading materials and services, and census and government information educating the general public. And for the librarians employed by these organizations, Citizen Librarianship offers an opportunity for professional sustenance and advocacy and personal support.

Katz, “The How To Do It Manual,” 70.
Williams, “The Big House,” 72.
Image: http://libguides.emporia.edu/participatorylibrarianship

All Business is Show Business - Even in Libraries!

Book Review - Timeless for Marketing in any Field
All Business is Show Business: Strategies for Earning Standing Ovations From Your Customers and Employees by Scott McKain

Starred Review. Every day your library organization is in the spotlight. Your staff is performing and your supporters and customers will either love the show, hate the show, or worst of all, ignore the show. Scott McKain has discovered what film, television, and music industries have known for years:

To be successful, you must create an emotional link with your customers!

The traditional focus of the public library has revolved around passive free services complacent to changing times. This has buried the foundational and irreplaceable role of the library and its champion, the librarian, in the public eye. The business strategy of the public library has been that of economic principles to the point of poverty. To survive the advent of the internet and the push into the future, the library must now revolve around emotional principles as well as information literacy.

The challenge to the informational professional is clear in this entertainment age: create an information environment that ensures customer access to intelligence, and assures a positive emotional connection that will satisfy and gratify. Mr. McKain defines the purpose of any business: profitably create emotional connections that are so satisfying to customers and employees that loyalty is assured. Customers want to know that business, including that of the public library, has the ability to provide what they need in the way they need it.

Mr. McKain defines seven performance “abilities” which encompass these ideas:

1. Access-ability
2. Approach-ability
3. Rely-ability
4. Customize-ability
5. Upgrade-ability/Dispose-ability
6. Enjoy-ability
7. Remark-ability

Mr. McKain discusses the importance of learning what your customers think and feel about your services; “word of mouth” advertising; establishing a short, attention grabbing High Concept Statement; the power of the “story;” and the changing impact of time and emotions on business. A must read for any library professional struggling with indifference from the board and the public: a first lesson in communicating the value of the library to customers; library worth and irreplaceability to the community; a strategy ensuring adequate resources, and the effective use of marketing and advocacy.

“No matter what your business,” says Scott McKain, “you are always on stage. Make your performance one that leaves your customers with a feeling of Wow!”

At 215 pages, All Business Is Show Business will help you to create the ultimate customer experience in order to differentiate your organization, amaze your customers, and expand your profitability and value. An essential.

Title: All Business Is Show Business
Edition: Hardcover – each book personally signed
Author: McKain, Scott
Imprint: Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill, c2002.
Description: viii, 215p.; 24cm.
Subject: Organizational effectiveness.
Subject: Consumer behavior.
Subject: Marketing – Psychological aspects.
Subject: Success.

Adult Non-Fiction
659.2 McK 2002 02/04

Free Agent Librarianship: Able to Deliver

Independence - not Institutionalization

Maginot Line refers to an ineffective line of defense or fortification which is heavily relied upon with not a little undue confidence. A Maginot Line fosters a false sense of impregnability and reliance.

The story goes that Andre' Maginot (1877-1932) was a French Minister of War who proposed a line of defense along France's border with Germany. Although it was believed to be impregnable, the barrier proved to be of little use when Germans actually attacked France through Belgium in 1940. Those who adapt and attempt to utilize this line of defense often find themselves prisoners of history: victims of a repeated chosen path of dependency unable to deliver the needed outcome.

So how does Maginot's Line apply to rural libraries today?

Libraries are traditionally institutions. Institutions operate in an environment consisting of other institutions. Every institution is influenced by the broader environment through what is known as "institutional peer pressure." The main goal for institutions is survival and legitimacy. And although institutions clearly have the capacity to grow and adapt, they also possess the habit of being prisoners of their own institutionalized history whether calamitous or otherwise.

When dealing with an institution, history matters. Paths - or lines of defense and fortification - are chosen or designed early on in the existence of that institution. That path inevitably gets followed throughout the institution's development giving it an inherent agenda based on the pattern of development: you know, "That's the way we do things around here."

Truth is, the historical track of a given institution, or even policy's of the institution, will result in almost inevitable consequences and occurrences: an actual self-perpetuating cycle. Because actions of one type beget further actions of the same.

So how are libraries institutionalized?

Through "Vocabulary:" Not affiliating the library as a business in the business of people.
Through "Commitment:" Lacking a commitment to the energy, resources and time required for successful quality results.
Through "Process:" Being impatient with the process and eager for the resolution or "quick fix."
Through "Professionalism:" Relying on traditions, institutional standards and congregational respected bodies of knowledge instead of focusing on customers.

So what's the answer to institutionalized librarianship?

It's a simple and easy win! Be an independent quality service provider with a head for business. There are three paths to success you can painlessly utilize by having a

Positive Focus with a balanced perspective and an optimistic approach; and by

Embracing Change as both inevitable and desirable, and through

Building Vision by extending the librarian's domain, utilizing the customer's point of view, and embracing a broader concept of information services.

Don't let your dependence on institutional librarianship and hierarchical library organizations be your Maginot Line. The move toward independence in the library environment is not unnatural. An institution is a house of books; a Free Agent Librarian is a quality service manager with a community focus leading to customized services which accentuate customer value.

It's about Independence, not Institutionalization.



Is your library technically considered a Rural Library? And what exactly is Free Agent Librarianship?

According to the United States Census Bureau, rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents. Areas designated as rural can have population densities as high as 999 per square mile or as low as 1 person per square mile. On the other hand, according to the ALA/APA Rural Libraries Survey, rural librarians define rural differently: to some a library is rural if it is isolated; to another, a library is rural if the main patrons are in agriculture or commute long distances to larger metropolitan areas for work; and yet another defines rural as a population of less than 5000 with more deer per square mile than people!

Regardless of how you define your demographic, Free Agent Librarianship can be a reality in your library and in your life. A librarian who is a Free Agent is not subject to external constraints through organizational structures, influential and politically motivated library associations, and is not bound by traditional teachings, hierarchies or stereotypes. Free Agent Librarianship promotes a library professional who is set at liberty to create, organize and advance an eclectic librarianship for the purpose of providing highly customized services and inventive possibilities for community information centers focusing on the community at large.

Free Agent Librarianship is ALL about entrepreneurship and making your library the center of your community. So be one!!

Image: diversityrules.typepad.com/.../01/index.html

Free Agent Librarianship: Less is More

Local - not Global

Ockham's Razor refers to a maxim which explains the idea that between things which appear equal, the simplest explanation is more likely to be correct; or between two similar theories, the simpler is preferred.

William of Ockham (1288-1348) was a logician and theologian who is credited with this concept of equality simplified. Mr. Ockham felt that any entity or issue should not be multiplied needlessly. Why the reference to a razor? Because Okcham's razor shaves away any unnecessary assumptions. For example, medical students memorize this idiom relating to Ockham's maxim: "When you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras."

So how does Okcham's Razor apply to rural libraries today?

Small rural libraries are just as much a part of the future as those located in larger metropolitan areas or within academia, museums or think tanks. The future of information is just as relevant to a population of less than 2,500 as to a greater one. Adding value does not necessarily mean needlessly multiplying oneself and neither should it. The fact is, the future survival of rural libraries will depend completely on providing highly customized products and services to increasingly smaller client communities. The Ockham idiom here might be: "Keeping it simple means keeping it local."

The world of information has become increasingly complex, and the society we now live in has become information dependent. Here is where Ockham's Razor shines: The unnecessary assumption is that everything should be outsourced or linked in or globalized. The simple solution, however, encourages nontraditional librarianship in localized communities. What point is there in "going global" if you loose - or never establish - a link with your community to create the type of loyal relationship which precedes successful longevity?

There is a great potential for small-scale information services requiring little overhead and great expertise in your own backyard.

As rural librarians in small communities, it is your responsibility to network, collaborate, explore and evolve your resources and services to remain current both traditionally and non-traditionally for sustainable creative information centers.

If you don't precisely target your audience you will never be able to develop a universal approach to your very own community.

In today's channel changing, e-mailing, instant gratification, global society there is a new currency - time. Today's stressed out individuals and families value this new currency as much as anything else. What this means is that expectations and values have changed.

Reevaluate your library's priorities and ask how your library staff is factoring in the emotion and time necessary to create customer value and innovation.

If you ignore the emotion, the economics won't work because customers are driven to share their experiences. The bottom line is this: there is an advantage in going local rather than global and that advantage is creating a customer service experience because, in a small community, less really is more.

So if you feel the need to change, move or grow, shave away any unnecessary assumptions and make today's Ockham's Razor your maxim: "Keep it simple: think local not global!"


Is your library technically considered a Rural Library? And what exactly is Free Agent Librarianship?

According to the United States Census Bureau, rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents. Areas designated as rural can have population densities as high as 999 per square mile or as low as 1 person per square mile. On the other hand, according to the ALA/APA Rural Libraries Survey, rural librarians define rural differently: to some a library is rural if it is isolated; to another, a library is rural if the main patrons are in agriculture or commute long distances to larger metropolitan areas for work; and yet another defines rural as a population of less than 5000 with more deer per square mile than people!

Regardless of how you define your demographic, Free Agent Librarianship can be a reality in your library and in your life. A librarian who is a Free Agent is not subject to external constraints through organizational structures, influential and politically motivated library associations, and is not bound by traditional teachings, hierarchies or stereotypes. Free Agent Librarianship promotes a library professional who is set at liberty to create, organize and advance an eclectic librarianship for the purpose of providing highly customized services and inventive possibilities for community information centers focusing on the community at large.

Free Agent Librarianship is ALL about entrepreneurship and making your library the center of your community. So be one!!

Image: www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2006/..

Free Agent Librarianship: Open to Create

Individuality - not Collectivity

Hobson's Choice refers to an apparent free choice which offers no real alternative: a take it or leave it collective manifestation.

The story goes that Mr. Hobson, a 1600's livery stable owner, had some 40 animals in his rent-a-horse business and a straightforward system: a returning horse goes to the end of the line, and the horse at the top of the line goes to the next server. He had good intentions - rotating horses so his steeds received good rest and equal wear - but his heavy-handed enforcement of the policy didn't provide the patron a choice and thereby denied any potential for customer service value.

So how does Hobson's Choice apply to rural libraries today?

Rural libraries should be as individual as the community in which they serve. Not every philosophy identified through a library organization could or should apply to the library supporters/patrons in every individual community. A library's business is people, and a library should mirror the community it serves; not a collective establishment of information services or programs.

A vital library is not necessarily about size, a single technology, or the same management practices, but rather how it is deployed and with how much freedom to innovate and take risks.

This is the beauty of the rural library in a small community: freedom to innovate, opportunities to focus, and openness to create. There is a difference between being efficient and being persuasive. Outcomes must match or exceed the expectations or customer service really only reflects Hobson's Choice.

Emotional connections always precede economic connections.

Quality personal services thrive on enthusiasm for problem solving because in a quality service setting each person should be treated as a respected individual. Quality service is emotional, and process is just as important as the results. As with Mr. Hobson, professional services may be very competent and knowledgeable but still not able to provide that which meets or exceeds the expectations - or information needs - of the customer. Customer service relies on active involvement between the library professional and the library supporter or user. Personal service is not a one-way relationship - it is an interaction: not a single event, but a continuing process.

Don't fall for Hobson's Choice in your library by basing your decisions on demographics alone: that tells you very little about how the individual's in your community feel. Take a deeper look by seizing opportunities to get to know your residents and take a fresh look through new eyes at what your library is presently offering. Create a customer service model which will give your library "legs" to attract repeat patronage from the larger population.

The bottom line is that your customers and staff are going to have an emotional experience because of their contact with your library whether you like it or not. Your responsibility - and challenge - is to provide them with the kind of emotional connection through individual interaction and services to inspire loyalty.

Afterall, library services should respond to what the community needs: It's about individuality, not collectivity.



Is your library technically considered a Rural Library? And what exactly is Free Agent Librarianship?

According to the United States Census Bureau, rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents. Areas designated as rural can have population densities as high as 999 per square mile or as low as 1 person per square mile. On the other hand, according to the ALA/APA Rural Libraries Survey, rural librarians define rural differently: to some a library is rural if it is isolated; to another, a library is rural if the main patrons are in agriculture or commute long distances to larger metropolitan areas for work; and yet another defines rural as a population of less than 5000 with more deer per square mile than people!

Regardless of how you define your demographic, Free Agent Librarianship can be a reality in your library and in your life. A librarian who is a Free Agent is not subject to external constraints through organizational structures, influential and politically motivated library associations, and is not bound by traditional teachings, hierarchies or stereotypes. Free Agent Librarianship promotes a library professional who is set at liberty to create, organize and advance an eclectic librarianship for the purpose of providing highly customized services and inventive possibilities for community information centers focusing on the community at large.

Free Agent Librarianship is ALL about entrepreneurship and making your library the center of your community. So be one!!

Image: cmblog.cityofventura.net/2009/01/is-closing-w...

Customer Service IS Added Value

Market It by Being It

When pursuing excellence, Michael Jordan refers to the key as teamwork and intelligence. For a library staff the formula is just as simple: like-minded individuals with similar objectives, interests and abilities who have the desire to provide the dynamics for customer service. A basketball team works together interacting and coordinating their objectives toward a common goal on the court, enabling the group to perform at a higher level of unity through purpose, loyalty and mutual accountability. “Advocates of team management say that teams are beneficial because they increase productivity, lead to better decisions, enhance employee commitment to work, foster creativity and innovation, increase organizational flexibility, and lead to greater customer satisfaction” (Stueart & Moran, 2007).

This team involvement and mind set is often an answer to individual empowerment allowing for individual contributions and accountability even within a library setting. Some organizations flourish in this type of flexible and trusting environment often leading to improved customer service and innovation. Because teams are so multifaceted and complex due to individual personalities and dynamics, successful teams enable all members to excel through the excellence portrayed by the entire unit. Teamwork enhances individual success through the common ground each team member shares with the team focus. For a basketball team, that team focus would be winning games. For a library staff, the team focus would be cementing the library and its services as essential within the community it serves.

The dynamics of teamwork, whether on a basketball court or within any sized library, enables interaction of individual talents, individual interests, and individual abilities and skills meshing together to create a quality experience for everyone involved.

For example, a Center is usually the biggest and tallest member of the team so that he/she can block and rebound the ball effectively. That is his/her skill, ability and talent on the court. In a library staff, there are those who are excellent writers, or have a talent in archiving, or another who enjoys planning events. Each member of the team is not only used corporately, but also individually. For the basketball team, this variety of positions equals added performance. For the library staff, a variety of individuals with personal expertise equals added value. The team or staff experiences increased job satisfaction, appreciation and respect, and the public experiences added value through that offshoot of team empowerment. Everyone contributes, and everyone benefits. Customer service becomes the point, the goal and the achievement.

In teamwork there is a greater unity of purpose: a loyalty to the group for the attainment of the goal placing the team purpose ahead of individual self-interests. This holistic mindset creates relationships: relationships which foster opportunities for greatness - and opportunities for lending a helping hand - making the individual just as successful as the unit itself. It’s a win/win for everyone.

Customer service IS added value; so market it by Being It.

Image: venturecompany.com/.../files/tag-experience.html

Handbook for Small, Rural and Emerging Public Libraries

Book Review
Relevant for any era



Public libraries and library services are not necessarily about full-service to all communities, but rather, providing library services to municipalities that are not a part of a metropolitan area, or to those areas that do not possess library services at all. A full-service independent library is not necessarily feasible for all communities. In the Handbook for Small, Rural, and Emerging Libraries, Anne Gervasi and Betty Kay Seibt have provided many options for library services that can best meet the needs of any community regardless of population, state regulation or policies and finances.

"The small public library should strive to be a flattering mirror of its community."

Ms. Gervasi and Ms. Seibt deal with such subject content as the steps to “getting started” through the establishment of groups; purposes of the library in your community and options for library services. Survey questionnaires are provided for the evaluation process.

Educating the novice service planner or professional librarian is discussed in terms of legalities, policies, and bylaws - a must for every community planner to stay abreast of local government, the library board, and policy makers.

Marketing, fund raising, and public relations, including facing a hostile audience, are dealt with in detail.

And the ongoing problems of physical space, evaluating an existing building, renovating, or building anew are discussed in light of operating costs, space requirements, and the depth of services provided for the public and the staff.

The Handbook for Small, Rural, and Emerging Public Libraries relates in simple and understandable language the logistics and fundamentals of choosing, hiring, paying, and training library staff; choosing and building the collection; technical processing of library materials; circulation; building and providing reference and information services; library programming and public education; library management including housekeeping, budgeting, and record keeping, and the general outfitting of the library.

"Cooperation is the key to providing the best library service for your community. Cooperative service also includes the cooperation between the library and the community it serves."

Cooperative services with neighboring libraries, community agencies, regional library systems, state libraries, other professional organizations and the people within the community are discussed as essentials in providing continued long term support systems for the library. As Ms. Gervasi and Ms. Seibt state:

“Library service is only possible when you see your library as one link in the chain of information that forges a strong, vital resource and endows a stronger, more informed, free, and independent society.”

If you are a manager of an existing library who feels the need to upgrade, alter, or revitalize your services or your place in the community, this handbook is for you. If you are not sure of your goals, what services a library should offer, or if you have no library service currently existing, you may not be aware of your options. With 189 pages, the Handbook for Small, Rural, and Emerging Libraries is a comprehensive step-by-step diagram to guide you toward the type of library service that best suits the needs and resources of your community. A must read for professional librarians, entrepreneurs, and community planners.

Title: Handbook for Small, Rural, and Emerging Libraries
Author: Anne Gervasi and Betty Kay Seibt
Edition: Hardcover
Imprint: Phoenix, AZ : Oryx Press, 1988.
Description: xii, 196 p.; 23 cm.
Subject: Library planning
Subject: Library administration
Subject: Library science
Subject: Public libraries
Subject: Small libraries
Subject: Rural libraries

Adult Non-Fiction
Call Number: Z679.5 .G47 1988

Notes: Includes bibliographies, index, forms

Marketing DNA (2)

Best Fit for Small and Rural Libraries Part Two

"Changing Your Game: Aligning the Public through Customer Service"

What drives your community?
What skills does your library possess?
What is your best industry?
What is your passion?
It's not a marathon, it's a journey.
So find what best fits your library and make it real.

Here is how to articulate success creating that emotional connection by filling the community's needs.

Is marketing in your DNA?

The Settlement Library Project Presents Part 2 of Marketing DNA: Best Fit for Small and Rural Libraries from The Settlement Library Project

Music: Jesse Brock - Maury River Blues
This mp3 file was found at:hillcountrystringworks.com

The Marketing Manifesto

Make it Your Public Declaration

Part of creating an image for any library includes defining the library’s belief system.

Marketing

• Marketing provides for research-based planning
• Marketing involves action: telling customers about available services and providing the expertise and support to make those services work
• Marketing allows choice
• Marketing focuses on the customer’s wants and needs

Public Relations

• Public relations views the library in terms of the community
• Public relations is part of every contact between library staff and customers
• Public relations is only one part of the “selling” process
• Public relations identifies library resources and makes them known to the public

Customer Service

• Customer service focuses on the “ultimate customer experience” possible in a library environment
• Customer service reinforces and improves existing services
• Customer service promotes an understanding and identification with library users
• Customer service responds to customer needs appropriately and conveniently

Staff Focus

• Staff focus is on the customer and the information needs of the customer
• Staff focus is active and proactive when responding to customer requests
• Staff focus is to be helpful, attentive, and accommodating at all times
• Staff focus is to create a safe and pleasant environment for all

“Customers are not captives. They will go elsewhere if not satisfied.” H. Baird Tenney

Image: guides.library.cornell.edu/HADM2243

Library as Social Enterprise

A library is what a library does.
The strategy is to move ahead of the continuously changing information environment; becoming agile and flexible for community use and community dependability. This is the 'Settlement Library' working theory in practice: a learning organization presenting steps toward the changing expectations of users through strategies which appreciate change, accept challenge, and develop new skills. A learning organization which knows, understands, and thinks in line with the community in order to become essential to the community.

Good customer service becomes the foundation for all the organization needs to be.

Adapting new ideas is the beginning of community appropriate programs and services by appreciating the skills, values, and work/social history of residents. Exchanging information and sharing ideas and experiences throughout the region through partnering creates opportunities for creativity and new levels of expertise.

The simplicity of it is to simply focus on the resident's, their culture, and their identity when securing programs, establishing a collection, and creating a learning service oriented organization. Being a shared vision, a 'Settlement Library' is about action. A 'Settlement Library' encourages individual learning and self-mastery as a way to address change - personally, environmentally, socially, and politically - and to explore new ideas while respecting the key concepts of librarianship and community.

A 'Settlement Library' is a social enterprise and symbolic site of collective memory (Augst) for each individual rural community it serves. Small changes can lead to big results.

After all, we must honor the past to create the future (Gorman).

Image: tutor2u.net/.../business-with-a-social-face/

Library Services are Priceless

Moving toward what your library seeks to become.

At a small rural library, the Settlement Library Project discussed strategies to enhance library visibility, service response goals and objectives, and increase user-ability and user-rates. As a circuit-out-rider promoting an eclectic form of librarianship in Appalachia - outside the metropolitan "settlements" - 'Fotched-On' Librarian was there.

As a result of community apathy and economic difficulties, an executive summary for this library focused upon an immediate objective of creating a space in which the community would want to visit. Strategic aims included library board education and training toward advocacy, fundraising, and implementation of library policies. In addition, community focused customer service instruction, innovative services, and creative uses of technology to communicate knowledge were suggested.
As a means to bring the vision to fruition, networking toward a community bridge through partnering and contracting with local resource agencies and community resource individuals; building an educational advancement service through the initiating of basic education programs; building a recreational and historical collection offering local culture through plugging into resident authors and artisans; and building a positive, open, and friendly personality and public image through creative promotional methods were presented as a means to promote this library as an essential communty source.

Embracing the idea of engagement, the Settlement Library Project initiative sought to offer this small rural library relevant and useful suggestions for custom tailored information services equipping the residents of this community.

After all, a library's strategy is the bridge to its future.

The Settlement Library Project from The Settlement Library Project

Community Sturm und Drang

Translation: Storm and Stress, Urge or Yearning

Every township, city, and hamlet has a personality and a story. Local history is a means to define and reach a customer base with appropriate and adequate information expectations and perceptions. The achievement of excellence in the delivery of information products and services requires a commitment to customer service, and customer service is only attainable when the customer is understood.

Bigger is not necessarily better or required. Small, rural libraries possess the greater opportunity to tap into community individuality through personal knowledge of the community and its historical and cultural strivings. The larger metropolitan areas do not have this unique priviledge. Creating and establishing an ongoing community archival project secures a community's culture and identity for generations - serving as a connecting source.

Using the residents of the community itself as historical sources and donators while striving toward retention of the historical quality of the community, and tapping into its native human resources, can easily be established by a volunteer archiving initiative through the library setting. Human history and culture are what extends a library as a traditional champion of information gathering and information access. Community archiving is simply a natural product of the library ideal.

Ground breaking; home-steading; barn raising; water divining; births, deaths, wars, and choices made which altered individual and corporate existence, all constitute the storms, stresses, and yearnings of the human spirit. Library community historical archiving is a means to secure and connect the past with the present - creating a breathable space in between for those who long to know and want to remember.

As the last puzzle piece in Appalachia, Settlement Library community information center's offer a relationship by creating a local, personal historical connection through community participation. Even a small collection serves to establish a unity and camaraderie between neighbors through something very basic which we all share - ancestry and hometown familiarity.

Every community is bursting with human history. A central value of librarianship is the recognition that the past serves as a guide to the future. The library is called upon to not only provide new information, but to also protect the historical record of our communities (Rubin).

After all, libraries serve humanity.

This image of the sturm und drang daylilly can be retrieved at:
http://www.ashwooddaylilies.com/INTRODUCTIONS%201999-04.htm