walk to talk

      From a CAP staff member:  I definitely had more conversations with people walking around and straitening the stacks than I did when shelving or sitting at the desk. I made it a point to when at the desk to greet everyone as they came in and ask if I could do anything for them. However, doing the same thing while walking around the stacks yielded greater conversation results.

Your coworkers are great resources

A few weeks ago, a woman came in needing some information to help her with her new job. She'd recently been promoted to a supervisor position and came in looking for resources to help her make the transition. Leeann assisted her and found some great books on our shelves. Then Leeann transferred her to me since I'd made that same transition less than 2 years ago. I was able to provide her with several listservs, articles, and books that helped me.
This got me thinking about all the expertise and knowledge that we have collectively. We're a wealth of it. If you're stuck on a question, please don't forget that the team is there to help and one of your coworkers may know just the resource you need to meet the patron's need.

Not One, But Three

I approached a patron at PAC terminal on Feb. 21, and asked her how I can help her.  She
replied "Can you help me to find this book, Cutting for Stone?" I said sure because it's here.
We walked to the stack. I told her I read the book, the author is a surgeon.  After we found the
book, I asked whether she wants another one also written by a doctor.  She said yes. So I found
the book: And The Mountain Echoed on the Made for Each Other table. It was rubberbanded with the
other book: Lowland, I told her Lowalnd is a good book, too.  She checked out all three.
It was a happy day for the patron and me, too.

Even Grumpy People Might Want Assistance

I approached an elderly, grumpy looking patron at a catalog computer to see if he needed help.  He emphatically said, "NO!"  About ten minutes later, I noticed he was in the non-fiction stacks, thumbing through some large books with a puzzled look on his face.  I again very gently approached him to see if I could help.  This time he said, "I doubt it, but O.K."  He said his back was killing him and that he needed a picture of a particular part of his back to take to his doctor so that he could show him where it hurt.  We found a large, anatomical diagram; he then located the area which hurt.  We copied that part of the picture for him to take to the doctor.  He then said, "I didn't think this library would have what I wanted, but I was wrong.  I will definitely be back.  I very much appreciate your taking the time to help me."

simple testament

I helped a gentleman, and when he left, he said, “Thank you for approaching me; if you had not – I would have just left not finding what I wanted.” Just a simple note highlighting the importance of helping patrons where they are; not everyone will approach the desk if they need help.

Take It to the Stacks - Stress and the Punisher!

I try my best to gauge the patron's interests and time. If they are looking for children's books I have to rely a bit on research whereas other librarians have a more intuitive feel. In other cases I sometimes am fortunate to have an intuitive grasp or I get lucky as in the following case. Yesterday's experience was tailor-made for me. A gentleman came in wearing a Punisher T-Shirt . He was wandering around a bit. I said "Hi! Can I help you find anything outside of Punisher : War Zone  or Thomas Jane's The Punisher movie? (Punisher fans hate the former and like the latter most cases.)

He initially was looking for books on anxiety and indicated he was helping open up two new businesses and was feeling it weighing heavy. He was apologizing a bit for needing help. I reassured him that that was my reason for asking and would show him a few different areas. He ended up wanting some more general books on stress though so we snagged a few in the Healthy Living bay. During this time he was a bit embarrassed so I engaged in some small talk about his take on Thomas Jane as Frank Castle (The Punisher's alter ego) and Ray Stevenson's take in War Zone. This seemed to distract him from feeling awkward as we snagged about four books that branched the 158s, 600s, and one humor book as well. We looked for the books using VuFind. I told him it was sort of fun to shop using this and place bulk holds in the cart so he didn't blow money late at night but instead got cool things coming from the library within days.

He left happy and we both reached agreement that Thomas Jane deserved a better and second chance in a grittier reboot and the other Punisher movie,War Zone, pretty much stunk.

Ultimately it comes down to the patron's time, personality, your area of expertise and comfort and going from there in terms of finding what they want, upselling, and leaving them happy.

Take It to the Stacks - Bookclub RA

In the adult fiction section, when I come across people who are browsing, I like to just say, "Hi, how're you doing?" to people gives them the heads up that I'm there and let them know I'd be happy to talk to them.  That simple recognition can be a perfect door-opener for the patron to get some extra assistance.  The other day, asking this question of a browsing patron got me the response "Great!  But I'm having trouble picking out some books to take to my book club this month.  I'm in charge of picking out a few possibilities for next month's book."  I got to bust out my RA interview, help her pick out a stack of books, then narrow the stack down to a few titles that she thought might catch the interest of her group.  It was a lot of fun, she seemed very excited and happy, and I felt great about the help I was able to offer.