WWPL DFW – Week 4

More fun in information services! The more I spend time helping people locate materials, the more I realize there are an awful lot of items that are not where they should be. I feel like it reflects poorly when I have to apologize to a patron that the item they are looking for is apparently in transition. I am coming to realize that the flow of materials in a public library is organized chaos. That they are able to serve the public as well as they do is nothing short of a miracle. Still, I have to wonder if there are better and more efficient ways to keep track of items and/or more quickly identify that they are truly missing.

On Tuesday, I received a query via a long-distance phone call. An author from Seattle called to find out if the WWPL has newspaper archives (specifically the obituaries) for The Statesman from 1870. I was silently amused when I answered the phone because I had spoken to him about the same thing on Sunday when he called the Whitman College library during my shift. He recognized my voice and I his. I ended up referring him back to Whitman, but I also sent him a follow-up email that included some links I found that I might help him locate the information he was looking for.

The more time I spend helping people use the public computers, the more I am concerned about the limitations that are placed on the computer functionality and the lack of hardware quality. The machines are locked down so tight that the patron cannot access the Start button, right click menu options, nor customization features. From what I’m seeing, it causes the machines to lock up quite frequently, and it makes it difficult for patrons to navigate, print, and perform all the functions they need or want to do. From a tech support standpoint, the locked down functionality makes it very difficult to troubleshoot when problems occur. For as many patrons as I have to give a new login code to (which begins the countdown clock all over again), there are a lot who end up getting to use the computer for more than the 90 minute limit. Frankly, I wonder why the WWPL doesn’t just use “deep freeze” instead of locking down the public computers.

On Thursday, I met separately with both Jane and Liz to discuss possible changes to the web based registration form for the Summer Reading Program. On Friday, I delivered a document highlighting the proposed changes and a mock up of the revised form for their review. I told them I would follow up with them next week.