ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C & R L N e w s ■ F e b r u a r y 2 001 / 189 THE WAY I SEE IT The irate patron is right Try putting yourself in a student’s shoes by Marilyn Christianson W hen y o u r coffee m achine an d your Coke machine are both out and it's mid­ night and finals are tom orrow , your irate patron is right. When you buy $300,000 worth of books a year, but not much that’s actually in demand, your irate patron is right. W hen two of four books requested from compact shelving are nowhere to be found, your irate patron is right. The sorriest discovery I’ve m ade since graduating from library school lo those many years ago is that angry patrons are justly so. Oh sure, from time to time a student refuses to understand w hy you w o n ’t tell him the answer to his math hom ew ork and the p er­ son on the telephone gets huffy w hen you won’t give her a simple yes or no regarding the heritability of high cholesterol. But cus­ tomers have legitimate complaints. Legitimate complaints d o n ’t necessarily mean the library is at fault. Most of us w ork for libraries within institutions w hose well- intentioned rules w reak havoc w ith effective service. The people w ho make those rules don’t mean to ruin quality. Still, it d o esn ’t take long for em ployees to becom e discour­ aged. Enormous emotional resources are re­ quired to change one tiny thing. E xam in e y o u r assu m p tio n s It is hard to change the rules because so many assumptions lie behind their creation. Exam­ ining assumptions is hard. The U.S. autom obile industry was forced to reexam ine its assumptions about saleable products after im ports seriously hurt the busi­ ness. Imports still cut deeply into the auto­ m obile market, but the engineering o f the U.S.-made cars im proved dramatically. The painful com petition from the Internet has enabled some academic libraries to re­ exam ine their rules about food and drink. Customers prefer to sit at their ow n w orksta­ tions w ith their snacks at han d seeking infor­ mation. Yet hom e and office have distrac­ tions. Maybe patrons would prefer to get away from the yelling kids or the office piled high w ith unread student papers, if w e served cof­ fee and tea at public workstations. Perhaps around finals time w e should offer anti-stress snacks and drinks. W hat o th er a ssu m p tio n s can w e ch a lle n g e ? 1) E-mail u sers sh o u ld be regulated ou t o f th e library. Why d on 't w e think o f e-mail as a godsend that delivers unto us those w ho About th e a u th o r Marilyn Christianson is coordinator o f Science Collection D evelopm ent a t Louisiana State Universities Libraries, e-mail: mcchris@lsu.edu mailto:mcchhs@lsu.edu 190 / C&RL News ■ February 2001 It is hard to change the rules because so many assumptions lie behind their creation. might not otherw ise darken our door? Public libraries long ago decided to listen to the re­ search that told us reading p o p u lar material develops young readers. P erhaps the habit o f seeking inform ation is w h at w e academ ic librarians are developing in users o f e-mail an d Internet browsers. 2 ) P o p u la r c o m p u t e r b o o k s a r e b-a-a- a-d. Maybe w e should stop thinking the per­ son w h o w ants a com puter b o o k is som eone trying to get o u t of buying a manual. Maybe the student w h o just com plained beggared him self to buy six com puter books last year and n o w need s to wrestle w ith different soft­ w are for a few w eeks. H ow did w e decide that our novel readers w ere short-term users but our com puter technology readers w anted sem i-perm anent b ench tools? 3 ) W e h a v e t o c h a r g e m o r e t h a n a n y ­ o n e e l s e f o r o u r b a d p h o t o c o p i e s a n d p r in t o u t s b e c a u s e o u r v o l u m e i s l o w . W e c a n ’t d o a n y t h i n g a b o u t t h e e x c e s s i v e d o w n t i m e . As any first-year econom ics stu­ dent can tell you, m aybe your volum e is low b ecause your price is high. If the students tending the m achines are held responsible for testing and calling for repairs every after­ noon, m aybe you could get to m idnight with a few still working. Is it everybody’s and there­ f o r e n o b o d y ’s jo b to m a k e s u r e th e repairperson comes? Live by your own rules H ere is a n ex p e rim e n t th a t will ru n you sm ack d ab into the assum ptions b eh in d your rules. For your next research project, com ­ pletely restrict yourself to w h at y o u r patrons can do. Let’s presum e you d o n ’t usually use relatio n al d atab a ses b u t hav e to for this project. You kn o w the library’s Collection D evelopm ent Policy 33.B.2.8 prohibits b u y ­ ing actually useful books. Still, you go to the stacks to try to find som e. The few rel­ evant volum es are m issing an d to o o ld any­ way. The o n e n e w e r b o o k is o n tw o-hour reserve. You know you c a n ’t figure out the pro ced u res in tw o hours. G o b u y th e $47.95 h a n d b o o k th a t yo u th in k h a s th e a n sw e r, a n d th e n g o b u y th e d e v e lo p e r ’s m a n u a l fo r $39-99 th a t re a lly d o e s . T his is, o f c o u rs e , a fte r w a n ­ d e r i n g a r o u n d th e I n t e r n e t f o r h o u r s lo o k in g fru itle s s ly at th e s ite s th a t p u r ­ p o r t to te ll y o u all a b o u t th a t s o ftw a re . A lib ra ry c o lle c tio n o f s o ftw a re e -b o o k s , m u ltip le c o p ie s p le a s e , s u d d e n ly lo o k s q u ite re a s o n a b le . Now, follow ing library rules, try to look u p the articles you n eed for this project. Use the library outside norm al w ork hours like other students. No, no, you can ’t slip into the staff area to use the nice photocopier. No, no, you can ’t use your authority to check out a non-circulating journal. You have to get in line for the o n e p hotocopy m achine out of six th at’s w orking at 9 p.m., even if its copies are lousy. T he student w orking for the outsourced p h o to c o p y /p r in tin g serv ice h a s n ’t b e e n trained to check all th e m achines before he/ she leaves, log problem s, and call for needed m aintenance. O r if he o r she has been, no follow -up is in place to m ake sure the sys­ tem works. So w h at if the change m achine is out of c h a n g e a n d th e c ircu latio n d e sk d o e s n ’t handle m oney. You can just sit dow n and take notes, thank you, if you haven’t planned w ell en o u g h to have brought the $17.80 in coin it takes at ten cents a copy to copy all the articles you need. You have no choice but to copy them, since your p e n just ran out o f ink an d your carpal tunnel syndrom e m akes it hard for you to use the golf pencils they han d out. As it is, three new ly indexed articles are aw ay being b o u n d and ILL will no t get them for you, since the library ow ns them. W hen you ask w hy such recent articles are being bound, a staff m em ber tells you that the library is do­ ing it to m ake sure the issues survive to be in the library w h en you n e e d them. Next you n e e d a governm ent publication. You steel yourself to use the microforms. You kn o w that the problem em ployee your insti­ tution is to o afraid to fire is w orking that desk tonight. Indeed, he looks dow n his nose at you as he says, “D o n ’t you kn o w it’s now on the Web?” You w o n d er h o w h e ’d treat Jane Q. Public. You im agine h e r trying to find p a te n ts o n DVD w ith his “h e lp .” C&RL News ■ February 2001 / 191 T he so ft d rin k m a c h in e in th e sm all basem ent ro o m w ith th e stin k in g trash can is likely o u t o f an y th in g y o u c a n sta n d to drink. R em em ber, fo r this e x p e rim e n t yo u have to live b y p a tro n rules. If it’s d a rk and cold o u tsid e, y o u c a n ’t slip in to y o u r office to u se th e m ic ro w a v e fo r co ffee. Hike th re e b lo ck s to th e U n io n w ith y o u r police w h istle at th e ready. Cany your p ap ers w ith you, n o m atter if the rain ruins them . D o n ’t stick them beh in d a service desk. Your patrons c a n ’t. W hen you get back it will be to o late to d o m uch b e ­ cause you forgot they start turning off the machines an d the lights 30 m inutes early, which m eans 40 m inutes if they d o n ’t think you’re watching. B ecause it to o k so lo n g to g e t coffee, you got b e h in d a n d n o w it’s to o late to call y o u r c o u sin to tell h e r yo u c a n ’t m ake it to the b irth d ay p arty to m o rro w . But hark! You can e-m ail h e r fro m a p u b lic w o rk s ta ­ tion, e x c e p t th a t e-m ail is n o t p e rm itte d out there, a n d for this e x p e rim e n t y o u c a n ’t use yo u r office. Indeed, he looks down his nose at you as he says, "D on't you know it's now on the Web?" You are sure you have thoroughly learned y o u r le sso n . You v o w to lo o k at th in g s through patrons’ eyes forever an d ever amen. But the next day the last lesson aw aits. You are three buildings aw ay in the office o f a friend in the Psychology departm ent. You have tim e to kill a n d decide to find som e last-m inute articles for y o u r paper. You try using th e electronic journals w h o se site li­ censes yo u struggled so hard to afford. Three o f the te n you try actually w ork. Some of th e m isbehaving journals d em an d u se r’s IDs an d passw ords, ev en th o u g h the p ublisher p ro m ised th ey w o u ld n ’t. A crobat c a n ’t load th e files o f th e others. U nfortunately y o u r friend has b ro u g h t in students to se e you “d o the fu tu re.” At last you yourself have becom e the m ost irate o f patrons, an d you are right. ■ 192/C&RL News ■ February 2001