C WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED A Brief Glimpse Into a Library Mishap : A Reference Desk Observation Beth Campbell Reference Desk Observation Presentation
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1. C WHEN THINGS DONT GO AS PLANNED A Brief Glimpse Into a
Library Mishap : A Reference Desk Observation Beth Campbell
Reference Desk Observation Presentation
2. A Disaster in the Making Technology offers us a unique
opportunity, though rarely welcome, to practice patience. Allan
Lokos, Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living On my second day of
observation I was feeling fairly confident. I had been given the
tour, met the staff, and already had filled up a page or two with
notes. Things were looking up and didnt expect anything to be
different on this day. The day before, all library branches in the
county system had been closed due to a scheduled upgrade of the
library systems OPAC system. This was the first upgrade they had
been given in many years and all of the library staff was excited,
hopeful, and rightfully a little worried. Would the patrons be able
to make the leap from one system to another seamlessly? Would all
the training they had gone through the get ready for the system pay
off? The question that they hadnt answered was what would happen if
nothing worked at all. It turns out, a severe electrical storm hit
just hours after the work had been done. The systems had just been
given the green light, when lightning took out the servers the new
system was housed on and half of the librarys public computers.
This was a problem.
3. Steps to Deal with Angry or Upset Users Empathic Listening -
Acknowledge the Users Feelings and link them with the specific
facts of the situation. Take Action to Address the Problem -
Identify alternative solutions or bring in a supervisor. Have a
Willingness to rethink Policy or Procedure. Make sure Written
Policies are available to both Patrons and Staff Explore
Opportunities to Discuss Conflict Situations - Find ways to avoid
such situations in the Future and discuss mechanisms to
respond.
4. The Reference Desk Steps In: Damage Control Service
Orientation (Empathic Listening) - With the computers rendered
temporarily useless, library staff spent quite a bit of time on the
floor. As the circulation desk became especially busy with checking
in and checking out books by hand (they wrote down each individual
barcode and library card number), much of the activity gravitated
towards there. As I had and would observe through my entire
observation period, the staff of the reference desk rarely stayed
still. Patience and Persistence (Take Action to Address the
Problem) - One of the main questions during the outage was what
would happen to their library records if they couldnt check in
their overdue books. I heard this over and over both in phone
conversations and in person. Staff at both reference and
circulation answered both reassuringly and professionally that they
would suspend all fines due that day. This is standard procedure
for this type of situation. Knowledge and Confidence (Make Sure
Written Policies are Available, Prepare for Conflict Situations) -
Although this was an extremely rare occurrence, it appeared that
the library staff (and the reference staff in particular) knew
completely how to handle this type of situation. Even if they
didnt, they certainly acted the part. This did well for morale and
kept many annoyed patrons at ease. It could have been very
stressful for both patrons and staff, but the procedures they took
managed to hold things together for as long as the outage would be
for. Observing How the Reference Desk Reacted to the Situation
5. Conclusion In the end, the situation wasnt quite as bad as
it was feared. After about two hours, the servers came back online
and the public computers that had also been offline slowly came
back to life. Life at the library went back to normal, and I didnt
hear about the situation again for the rest of my observation: it
was just another day at the library. Having a plan for dealing with
situations was key to keeping things calm and running smoothly at
this library. All of the library staff kept a calm and cool head,
and took care of the situation as if it wasnt a situation at all. I
observed this same attitude later in the observation when a patron
who had a known history of being difficult to handle was asked to
leave. When she continued to caused problems, the Reference Manager
stepped in. Very quietly she was taken off to the side by the
Reference Manager and given a chance to tell her side of the story.
I listened as the situation was somewhat defused and the patron
left the library on her own accord. A week later when I returned,
she also did and gave a formal apology to the library staff for her
behavior. The sad truth is, problems will and do occur if you like
them or not! Its how they are handled that make the difference in
turning a potentially bad situation into a real disaster.