Thursday, February 08, 2007
I am not sure what to think. I am not sure what to say about this.
My library is going through a restructuring, a re-thinking if you will. All well and good. Any organisation that doesn’t reassess its structure and organisation is going to have troubles. However the two major proposed changes, (there are more, not counting possible staff razoring) that have been put forward are these.
1- Out of the eight remaining branches, designate half of them, the ones near major metropolitan areas, as “Tier 1″ libraries and continue offering fuller service. All others, in mostly outlying and/or residential zones., are now “Tier 2″ libraries. This is OK so far, apart from the fact that the tier 2 libraries, and these are PUBLIC LIBRARIES we are talking about, will now have no reference services at all anymore, only what the decision makers have called “leisure services”. After being questioned if this means no more Reader’s Advisory services (which, of course is a type of reference service), there was no answer.
2 - The collection will be redistributed according to the area. (I don’t know what this means either) . I think this means that if there is a demand for knitting books in the south, that all the knitting books will belong to that area’s library, (but won’t have patrons directed to them because there won’t be Reference services in the branch).
I’m sure they think this will work, but I don’t see how. I feel like it is more customer service out the window, we are no longer a library service, just becoming a bookstore that loans. Where is the information service of the library? I can’t answer that- that’s a reference question….
My library is going through a restructuring, a re-thinking if you will. All well and good. Any organisation that doesn’t reassess its structure and organisation is going to have troubles. However the two major proposed changes, (there are more, not counting possible staff razoring) that have been put forward are these.
1- Out of the eight remaining branches, designate half of them, the ones near major metropolitan areas, as “Tier 1″ libraries and continue offering fuller service. All others, in mostly outlying and/or residential zones., are now “Tier 2″ libraries. This is OK so far, apart from the fact that the tier 2 libraries, and these are PUBLIC LIBRARIES we are talking about, will now have no reference services at all anymore, only what the decision makers have called “leisure services”. After being questioned if this means no more Reader’s Advisory services (which, of course is a type of reference service), there was no answer.
2 - The collection will be redistributed according to the area. (I don’t know what this means either) . I think this means that if there is a demand for knitting books in the south, that all the knitting books will belong to that area’s library, (but won’t have patrons directed to them because there won’t be Reference services in the branch).
I’m sure they think this will work, but I don’t see how. I feel like it is more customer service out the window, we are no longer a library service, just becoming a bookstore that loans. Where is the information service of the library? I can’t answer that- that’s a reference question….
