I wasn’t gone long from HQ. I returned today for librarian training with three other new librarians, Sarah, Nichole, and Ruth. My old bosses Davi and Nancy led the training. The morning consisted of policies and procedures. I was tempted to skip it, but now I’m happy I didn’t . As we covered the library mission, the values, the policies and the practices, I was reminded of how much the library as an institution depends on the integrity of the staff especially with regards to privacy, access, and customer service. These ideas extend well beyond the reference transaction and the collection to the bulletin board, the community rooms, and give-away tables.
Libraries should really communicate these values on an ongoing basis to their staff as well as the public. For staff, I can’t think of any better way than a staff blog where can communicate what’s going on, the routine as well as the innovative, and how everything should be inspired by our mission and values. Plus it’s a great tool for distributing the workload of distributing information.
For the public, we should really share our values in simple and concrete ways by advertising everyday our commitment to customer service, to privacy, intellectual freedom, innovation, reading, literacy and literature. Maybe highlight one value per month by having it on a poster in the library or sandwich boards in front. How about a mascot with a sign dancing on the corne r. (I see an ironic, catchy, maybe edgy commercial) I think a lot of people might disagree and think that this is a boring idea. Yet, this is what we are about and whether we like it or not we are competing to be relevant in the information service industry.
Back to my personal library mantra:
The library is the first and best place in the community for information, reading and literature.
While working the reference desk last night, a male teen sat at a table in front of me. He had a stack of three books he was perusing. The two I could see the titles of involved teenage sexuality and homosexuality. Hooray for public libraries!