Sampling our customers

Last week was Enquiry Sampling Week at Christchurch City Libraries. As librarians we count and categorise our customer interactions for one week. It comes round fairly regularly and provides statistical information for the library network. This got me thinking. What do tally marks really tell us about our interactions with customers?

I had two enquiries that show how diverse our interactions with customers can be. The first happened when a customer approached me holding a piece of paper with half an article printed on it.

Customer: I need a copy of this and I want the whole article.

Me: Can you tell me anything about the article?

Customer: I got it twenty years ago at the Central Library from a paper I think.

Hmmm … This would require my “super librarian” reference skills (aka detective work) so I dusted these off and got to work. The interaction involved many questions, clarifying, listening, searching the catalogue, asking for help, more questions, clarifying again, and finally ending with filling in an an online form to request an archive. I categorised this interaction as “Reference – more than 15 minutes” which did not seem to give the query the justice it deserved.

My second interaction happened at the self-returns kiosk, where customers return their own books. This was a new for the customer so I was talking her through the process.

Customer: This is easy, you’ll be soon out of a job.

Me (not feeling so super): Hmmm …

Luckily for me this particular query was just a tally mark!

 

 

National Digital Forum 2013 – Day 1 now on YouTube

Day one of talks from last year’s National Digital Forum at Te Papa are now available on YouTube.

If you are interested to find out about all things digital in NZ’s GLAM sector this is the place for you!

Topics include WW100, creating a digital marae, the Dunedin flat names project, developing NZ sign language archive, terminology control (one for all you cataloguers out there), using volunteers in digitisation projects, digital publishing and more.

Presentation vary in length from around 10 minutes to half an hour or more.

Do it different

Its always difficult trying to parse a conference as diverse as Webstock into a few lines of blog posts or a 1 hour talk. Sometimes I end up talking about a handful of the fascinating sessions, the ones that really resonated with me or the ones that seemed to have the most bearing on libraries, our work and our customers. Often I try to draw out a theme or two, as Webstock speakers often seem to have shared themes. It never does justice to either the speakers or the event as a whole. This year you’re getting a book/link list c/o BiblioCommons and a Wordle. Enjoy, explore, employ.

The Webstock 2014 book / link list

This list features books by Webstock 2014 speakers as well as those they refer to, their presentations where they’ve been posted publicly, websites that they have referred to or in some cases their own websites.

The books in particular are very interesting in that you’ll notice that NONE of them are to do with web specifically. In fact most of them are to do with psychology, or rather thinking, with some design and media stuff thrown in. That’s because, despite its name, Webstock is not really a web conference (any more?) – sure most of its speakers and attendees are doing stuff on the web, but then most of everyone is on the web these days. If you tied me down and tickled me for an answer I would say that Webstock is about creativity. Not (only) arty farty creativity but the creativity that makes us make and innovate, whether it’s a really great public service website, a music album, an orchestra, a park, a health programme; and creating the conditions that maximise that creativity.

My Webstock ’14 Wordle

Check out that great big change. Not that that’s surprising – whether it was Liz’s “QUIT”, or Tom’s “revolution not evolution”, or Scott’s “‘what we’ve always done’ has no value”, there was a huge emphasis (see, a theme emerges) of making major changes to the way you do things and think about things, of letting go of the past and its baggage and reassessing where your plans are taking you. So to end this rambling summary I’m going to leave you with some of the snippets that made up the above and encourage you to have a look at the book/link list – I’ll be adding to it from time to time, particularly as the conference videos emerge.

Choose important over urgent… Erase the meanings that are holding you back.

Do it properly. Stop making digital services as if you’re buying something.

Don’t underestimate passion and human spirit. Take a leap of faith.

Don’t write a strategy, deliver. Go back to first principles, focus on user need.

Create patterns for personal serendipity. Create rituals.

Choose a gap, start small and run fast. Optimise for momentum.

New in professional reading

This is a list of recently purchased titles, (in a fairly dull format unfortunately) but hopefully brimming with interesting titles for your professional enjoyment! Topics covered include searching, study, library design, leadership, web design and social media.

Searching:

• Expert Internet Searching
• The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious Searcher
• Designing the Search Experience: The Information Architecture of Discovery
• Search patterns
• The Filter Bubble:  What the Internet Is Hiding from You

Computer skills:

• Windows 8.1 Tips Tricks & Shortcuts in Easy Steps
• The Complete Guide to the iPad, Including iPad Air
• Design and Modeling for 3D Printing
• 3D Printing For Dummies
• The Basics of Cloud Computing: Understanding the Fundamentals of Cloud Computing in Theory and Practice
• Teach Yourself Visually Complete Excel

Professional development:

• National welfare & economic contributions of public libraries [electronic resource] : final report / Australian Library and Information Association.
• Library services to indigenous populations [electronic resource] : case studies
• Mapping, measuring & valuing the social & economic benefit of Christchurch City Libraries – post earthquake [electronic resource] / Mansell, Janet
• The library dividend : technical report : a study of the socio-economic value of Queensland’s public libraries : an independent report / State Library of Queensland.
• The atlas of new librarianship
• The library : a world history 
• Lifelong learning in public libraries : principles, programs, and people
• The library book

Leadership:

• Successful project management [electronic resource]
• Powerful succession planning [electronic resource]
• How PowerPoint makes you stupid: The Faulty Causality, Sloppy Logic, Decontextualized Data, and Seductive Showmanship That Have Taken over Our Thinking
• The second machine age : work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies
• Leadership and the art of struggle [electronic resource] : how great leaders grow through challenge and adversity

Design:

• Next-gen library redesign
• Library 2020 : today’s leading visionaries describe tomorrow’s library
• SketchUp for interior design : 3D visualizing, designing, and space planning

Study:

• Presenting your research : conferences, symposiums, poster presentations and beyond
• Practical research : planning and design
• Introducing Qualitative Research: A Student’s Guide
• Killer Presentations with your IPad: How to Engage your Audience and Win More Business with the World’s Greatest Gadget
• The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul

Web design and social media:

• The cybrarian’s web : an A-Z guide to 101 free Web 2.0 tools and other resources
• How to Blog Made Easy
• The Web Designer’s Idea Book, Volume 3: Inspiration from Today’s Best Web Design Trends, Themes and Styles: Volume 3
• Social Media for Journalists: Principles and Practice
• Continuing to engage the online learner [electronic resource] : activities and resources for creative instruction
• How to Start a Blog That People Will Read: How to Create a Website, Write about a Topic You Love, Develop a Loyal Readership, and Make Six Figures Doing it
• The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World
• The 100 Best Free Apps for Librarians

Jane Keenan.  Library Content, Selection and Access

Oral history learning opportunities

The Alexander Turnbull Library Outreach Services is offering workshops in Christchurch for people considering using oral history in their work, community or personal projects. This is a bit of a breakthrough as previously they have only been offered in Wellington or Auckland. The workshops will be tutored by oral historian Helen Frizzell and Lynette Shum, Oral History Advisor, Alexander Turnbull Library.

The workshops are:

• Essentials of Oral History day one  2 March, 2014 8.45am – 4.30pm (limited to 12 participants)
• Essentials of Oral History day two 13 April, 2014  8.45am – 4.30pm (limited to 12 participants)
• Abstracting Oral History  3 – 4 May, 2014 8.45am – 1pm (limited to 8 participants)

The workshops will be held at Kirkwood Village, Canterbury University.

The courses do cost a bit but you are spared the cost of travel to Wellington and accommodation. I’d really recommend these workshops for anyone interested in oral history. Other useful information can be found on the National Library website under Oral History Advice.