What do you do?

I'm trying out a new line.

When people ask that inevitable, American question of "What do you do?" I've changed my answer from the standard reference librarian response to this: Sales.

The inevitable follow-up question tends to be "Sales of what?" to which I reply "the Spokane Public Library. I sell the library."* It's fun and it immediately gives you the opportunity to pitch your collections, services, awesomeness, etc. You should give it try.

*You may want to substitute your library's name for fear of getting some really strange looks if you aren't from Spokane.

Reference Revisited

I don't know about y'all, but my recollection of library school reference training went something like this:

1. Customer asks a question/states a need.
2. Librarian asks clarifying questions, generally open-ended questions at first and then follows up with closed-ended questions.
3. Librarian determines the information need, takes the customer to the stacks or computer, shows them the relevant material and asks them to return to the reference desk if they have any other questions.

All fine and good. Sort of.

There needs to be a step 1.5, which would sound something like this: Yes.

When a customer asks if we have information on China, avoid immediately launching into a reference interview -- this just makes people defensive. It may be unclear to them if we are just stalling because we don't know the answer or if we are mocking them or who-knows-what-other story the might be telling themselves. If we start with yes, then a number of things start to happen: the customer knows that we have an end game in mind but we just need some clarification, the customer and the librarian become part of a team working toward a common goal and we (the library) look more competent.

The next time someone swings by the desk and their question isn't extremely narrow or obscure, try saying yes right out of the gates and see what happens.

Referrals

Good grief, has it really been since November? Time's fun when you're having flies...

Latest "Eureka!" moment: I'm part of a sales leads group through Greater Spokane Inc. and I've made myself the personal librarian for the ~25-30 folks who are in the group. They love it. They love having a personal face to put on the library and the longer I'm in the group the better sense they have of just how much we have to offer.

But the real beauty of participating in the leads group is that when people from the group refer others to me, they are usually sending them my way because they know that I can help this particular individual with their particular problem. The end result is that those being referred to me (after not being in a library for a number of years) come to me with softball questions that I can crush out of the ballpark. It makes a good first impression and makes it likely that they will come back with other questions when they arise.

So the nugget to remember here is this: get a group of folks out in the community who are familiar with what the library can offer and then bask in joy of being able to look really competent when referrals are sent your way.

Presentations, pt. II

In addition to learning that I need to give audiences time to sign up for a library card at the end of presentations, I've also learned that I should ask the group to "share the library love."

When I find myself in front of a group of people (especially volunteer-based organizations like Kiwanis, Rotary, etc.), I've found it productive to make myself available to present to other organizations. Folks who volunteer are often involved in more than one organization and through this simple networking mechanism I've got presentations lined up and on the calendar for the next several months to come.

Slowly, slowly, slowly I feel like I'm getting this figured out...

Numbers are still up...

So it looks like the uptick in database usage is keeping on track. Compared with the usage before this bookmark campaign, the numbers for October put us at a 343% increase over August. Not too shabby... Maybe it is time to start thinking about a whole series of bookmarks for our forty-some other databases, no?

It's working! Maybe.

I don't know yet if it is just a random fluctuation in the numbers of users, but after slipping the bookmarks for our DemographicsNow database into books on marketing and such (see this post for the original thought), the usage for this month is up 314%. That may be a statistical anomaly but we'll see if it keeps up in the coming month...

Give 'em time...

So I'm a little sheepish to admit that it has taken me so long to figure out the following, but here it is: When doing a presentation, leave a few minutes at the end to get people signed up for library cards.

In retrospect this seems like a total no-brainer but in the past I felt that I had to use all my allotted time to explain the virtues of the library. After having read most of Nudge, I now realize the error of my ways.

And what were the errors of my ways? Specifically, I didn't realize how seemingly small hurdles (like coming into a branch to get a library card) throw up roadblocks of inertia to those who would like to use the library's databases but just can't carve the time out of their day to come in and get a card. Once I have a group thinking about the benefits of the library, that is the time to get them hooked up with a card. Asking them to take the information home or back to their businesses and then come back to get a card is just asking too much. Humans don't operate that way.

Rather surprisingly, this new rule of mine holds just as true for presentations within the library as for those done out in the community. I just hosted a tour for a local Kiwanis group here at the library and even though we were all of 40 yards from the desk where you can get a library card, of the eight attendees who got new cards, seven of them were going to leave without signing up. Aaaack! Handing them an application and a pen and giving them time to fill it out is apparently really important. Huh. Who knew?