Ask D.O.A.: Name That Title

So a middle grade boy comes in with his mom at the end of the night and he wants a book he read before "about a kid who plays baseball and there is lots of rain."    There's a toughie.

I managed to get out of him that the kid was a pitcher on his team.

So I Googled  "baseball books for kids pitcher rain".    Voila!  A booklist from B & N   had the book cover and description of Rainmaker by Kevin markey (Super Sluggers Series.)  AND it was on the shelf!   I personally was impressed, though the kid and his mom seemed to take it for granted.

The fourth and final book in Markey’s rollicking Super Sluggers series after Slumpbuster, Wall Ball, and Wing Ding, will certainly fail to disappoint. Penned in much the same quick-witted and giggle-worthy style as the others, the crux of this latest edition concerns the catastrophic effects of rain on the game in more ways than one. After four years of playing together, you’d think the Rounders had the chutzpah to take anything standing up and still win. But an especially wet season (not to mention the pitcher Slingshot Slocum’s inability to forget mastering a split-finger curveball and snap out of his funk) threatens to wreck the team’s chances of beating their long-time rivals, the Haymakers. What’s more, the team’s confidence is nearly ruined when their ill-fated rafting trip (remember: a lot. of. rain.) sends them careening down the river and into underwater caves at top speeds. Teamwork saves the day in both situations and readers will cheer, once again, for Markey’s quirky storytelling capabilities. Ages 8-12

So, what's the most interesting question you've ever had?

We get students of some ilk or other in periodically with a list of questions about the Mysteries of the Library. 

Where is the card catalog (scratch paper gone long ago).

What do you like about working in the library (the peeps, kiddo).

Can you use the Internet without a library card (sort of yes, sort of no).

Do you have a catalog and databases on separate computers?  (All on everything)

WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING QUESTION YOU'VE EVER HAD????????????????????? (So, of the perhaps thousands I've answered over the years, you think I have a favorite?  I do not.  I like every question I get that isn't a math or car repair question.  I love recommending books and authors to avid and returning readers.)

DOA's Reference Services Thoughts via Wayback Machine (2005)

I wrote this waaay back in 2005 in response to a call for what we needed to improve in the interest of the "future of reference services". I edited out a few specific references to my library, but dang, I still feel we need to address everything I wrote:

Before we move forward, we should take a look at where we are now.


Promotion of existing services, databases, materials, equipment.

We need to promote what we have. The general public still has a vague idea of what libraries have to offer. We need to target our strengths and promote them tirelessly in as many venues as possible. We need to study our current users and what they use most and promote those things to the larger populace. We need to study what the most typical information needs are of those who come in after “not having been in a library for years” and promote those things. We need to find out what we offer that our customers don’t find anywhere else, promote that and offer more of it.


Interpreting the library catalog for current and new users


We need to do a much better job of interpreting our online catalog. It is not friendly to new users. Customers have ongoing problems seeing that an item is in at the branch, deciphering which branch does have the item, and telling which collection or shelf the item might be filed in.

Partially because we do not use the same interface to the catalog as our users, we are often not familiar with it and are not able to help them effectively. When changes are made to the customer user interface we are often unaware of it until the customer asks for help.

How responsive are we to these difficulties? Do we provide tipsheets to the catalog? Do we try to address in a timely manner problems the public encounters? Why are many of the search mechanisms in the public catalog not useful? How can these things be improved?


On the Web


Everything we do needs to be on our web page in an accessible and attractive format. We need to offer tutorials and tip sheets on our pages for using the library catalog, the electronic resources, and frequently asked questions from the public using our Internets and Word Processors. We need to offer Mouse Practice or links to Mouse Practice sites.

We need forums for public feedback, or places on the page for discussion and/or reviews of books,movies and CD’s by staff and the public. It needs to be alive and interactive.

The library web pages should reflect the communities in our area. You should be able to get a good snapshot of the county and what it has to offer from the library page. Perhaps each community library needs a page to help break it down into smaller segments. Education, entertainment, local government should all be reflected.

We need far more Reader’s Advisory on the web. If you like…. Lists need to be added.



Community Libraries

The people behind the public service desks are the library to most people. Our past ratings show appreciation for our service efforts. One of the things we offer that is getting increasingly hard to find anywhere is good service. We need to make sure we are there to answer questions of all types, and to make people of all ages feel welcome. We need to be there to interpret our catalog, act as a guide to our large collections, give advice on Internet searching, help with basic Microsoft office and the various information storage devices.

What we offer gets more complex every year, and we are in a unique position to make sure the public gets the most out of what we can give. We need to find ways to work with other organizations in the community such as schools, businesses, citizen organizations, literacy groups, social groups. We need to know our community well and be able to refer our customers to other groups who might provide services we don’t offer.

Today's Answer

Although the day is only partially over, "Where are the books I put on request?" is the top question of the day, and for whatever reason, most people who ask today don't actually have anything here.

Closed Stacks: Just because you want it doesn't mean it exists

A few weeks ago I wrote about the many types of questions we get on a typical day.

One type of question that stands out is the question that hasn't got an answer. Not the sort of answer the person wants, in any case.

Usually, the person is trying to make a point or settle a bet, so they want research or statistics that back them up.

They might have an assignment and they want to answer it in very literal terms based on what their teacher wrote on the assignment sheet.

I was pleased to see a discussion of this very frustrating phenomenon on the Closed Stacks Blog, with plenty of discussion in the comments.

Interestingly, the discussion turned at times to the attitude of the librarian being asked the question. Were they approachable, did they do enough work on behalf of the customer? Did they explain to the customer where they had looked, and what roadblocks there were to finding an answer?

When is a question not a question? During Survey Week!

CLICK TO ENLARGE


We are always counting what we do so that we can report on the state of things in the library world. As with any sort of statistical presentation, we apparently only count certain things, rather than attempting to accurately portray the work we do every day.

Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

In the case of libraries, for some reason we want to conceal that we are helping people with questions galore, but not apparently reportable, fascinating questions.

In my opinion, we should count every person we help. They matter. Their questions are important to them and they trust us to be able to answer them, large or small. If someone cannot get you to answer a simple question for them, why would they ever think you could answer anything complex? DOH!!!