Please keep conversations with friends around the service desk to a maximum of five (5) minutes. If your friends are hanging about during your shift, please encourage them to find a spot to study. Visitors should not plan to hang out in front of the service desk as this discourages others from seeking assistance.
As you work in the stacks and do rounds, pay attention to the building around you. Do you notice any lights out? Does the restroom need toilet paper or paper towels? Is something broken? If you notice any building maintenance issues, please report to a supervisor so a maintenance request can be submitted.
An Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a request sent to another library to borrow books or other materials unavailable at McQuade Library.
If you cannot find the materials you need at McQuade or in the Library's electronic databases, you can make an interlibrary loan request for these materials. Arrangements will be made to have the items sent to McQuade Library for your use at no additional cost.
Answer the phone by saying, “McQuade Library, how may I help you?”
Remember...
As an employee of McQuade Library your priority is providing exceptional customer service. Our goal is to assist our patrons in a friendly, respectful, and stress-free way. This requires being attentive to our patrons. One technique you can use is scanning your environment. While at the Library Services Desk look around. Is anyone approaching the desk? Does anyone need help? Being proactive and paying attention to your environment is essential to good service.
Policies and procedures are set as guidelines and sometimes require discretion and flexibility. If you are unsure about something, remember to ask a supervisor for assistance.
Remember…
Getting to know your patrons is an important part of being a McQuade Student Worker. Regular patrons develop a strong relationship with library staff and are likely to advocate for the library in the community. But for every super awesome patron, there is bound to be one that is a little more difficult. Classic examples of difficult patrons are easy to come by; they may have a strong body odor, talk too loud, run, bring their bike into the library, ignore all social cues, walk behind the service desk, or expect you to remember their Facebook password, among other things.
Make sure you treat your patrons with kindness when addressing them about a breach in policy. Librarianship is a customer service profession and responding in a condescending tone may only escalate the situation. Stay calm—especially when it feels like it would be easier to blow up.
Below are some webinars and readings that can help you learn how to cater your approach to dealing with difficult patrons.
Webinars:
Further Reading:
As an AS worker for McQuade, your primary responsibility is to answer questions that library users may have about locating specific books, checking materials in/out, fielding directional questions, etc.
These situations can include:
If you encounter a situation similar to these, please provide the user with the best answer.
Your interaction with patrons typically should not last more than 3-7 minutes. If you find yourself unsure about how to answer the question or you have not found the answer within that time using the resources available to you, please refer to a librarian.
When to refer to a librarian
There are some questions or situations often require a greater level of expertise or may require that the patron make appointment with a librarian. These situations can include:
When you encounter questions that make you go hmm. . . or your first instinct is to go to Google to find out what the patron is talking about, stop and contact a librarian.
Remember. . . .