3 messages: 1)------------------------------- -------- Original Message -------- From: "Peter Picerno" <ppicerno@nova.edu> Subject: RE: Library failure (RE: NOT the "Serials Crisis" -- Dan Lester) -- Rick Anderson Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:53:21 -0400 Strictly speaking, the requests below are failures. Put back into the restaurant contexts, however, if one goes to a MacDonalds (or Wendy's or whatever) and asks for pasta primavera and white wine, that's also a failure? If one goes to Antoine's in New Orleans and asks for a taco salad, that's also a failure? I believe that the managers of the two places in question would refer the customer to either a chi-chi fern-restaurant (in the first instance) or to a Mexican restaurant (in the second instance). The point, which should be obvious by now, is that no library can possibly have everything every patron wants: indeed, I can think of many libraries which *shouldn't* have Gutenberg Bibles or rare books printed in the 18th century. That's why there are such things as archival institutions and special colletions (duh!) ... just as most libraries do tend, I believe, to specialize in the needs of the majority of their patrons. In the case of a library not having what the patron requests, the real failure in service would be to not be able to direct the patron to a library where that item/service IS available. Peter Picerno 2)------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 11:52:27 -0500 From: Karen Chobot <karen.chobot@ndscs.nodak.edu> Subject: Re: Library failure (RE: NOT the "Serials Crisis" -- Dan Lester) -- Rick Anderson Sorry - this just caught my eye and I don't agree with your definition of failure. Maybe there was more there in the original, which I seem to have missed. But your definition seems to be that anything that is asked for and not received is a failure. Further, I am not sure about your definition of "information." A Gutenberg Bible is not information, it is a physical object. I can supply a great deal of information about that Bible, without the physical item. The burden should not be on every library to supply everything. You may consider that "rhetoric." I consider it "common sense" not to set ourselves impossible standards. Every library has a mission, a clientele, and a "territory". This may include support for an organization, a school, a geographical area, or whatever you define yourself as. This defines how collection development is done. Success then comes not in supplying anything in the world, but in supplying those items which fit into the definition of who you are. There are many things which are nice to supply, but they are not essential to who you are. Gutenberg Bibles fall into this area. If I am a major theological research institution, such a Bible is essential. For a junior high school library, it is not. It is a failure for the one not to supply, but not the other. In my opinion, most libraries DO have their faces to the customer, within the boundaries and definition of who they are. In fact, many times we go far beyond our own borders to locate things people want that are not our focus. This is simply good service and good PR. But the true test is whether we supply what we say we will to those who are our patrons. No one library can supply everything. The rest of us have choices to make about what we can and cannot do. If you define failure that way, no library anywhere can succeed. In my opinion, that serves no one. Karen M. Chobot, MLS Director, Mildred Johnson Library NDSCS 800 N. 6th St. Wahpeton ND 58076 701-671-2385 Karen.Chobot@ndscs.nodak.edu 3)------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:10:16 -0400 (EDT) From: dgoodman@Princeton.EDU (David Goodman (dgoodman@Princeton.EDU)) Subject: Re: Library failure -- RickAnderson You are not necessarily a failure. The policy of a library, as Rick correctly says, should be should be "based on what our patrons need." But these examples are not necessarily what the patron needs; they are not necessarily even what the patron wants; they are merely what the patron asks for. In the first case, You probably merely want to see a reproduction, and a good research library should not merely have a reproduction, but should suggest it. If you need to see the original, there are copies on public display in a few locations. If you need not merely to see it but to work with it, then of course you will also need an appropriate introduction to the curator of the collection, and arranging for this is part of a librarian's job. In the second case you may well need it; you do not necessarily need the original. There are microform and electronic collections of books from that period, and a really good research library should have these collections. If it isn't in them yet, then the library should offer to obtain microfilm, and pay the cost. If in either case you actually do need the original, then the obligation to supply it rests on not the individual library, but the library system as a whole. Appropriate referral is part of library work. In my experience, in the 3rd case it is likely you do indeed need what you asked for. It is a library failure, --in this case because of an unreasonable policy. In my opinion it is the obligation of any academic library to have at least one back-up reserve copy of the textsbooks used in the current courses -- if for no other reason than that the instructor may come in to check in quickly before class! It is also in my opinion appropriate policy not to supply these in sufficient quantity to substitute for purchase of the textbook. Not all desires in the world can be satisfied, but many of the ones in our domain can be at least partially met. David Goodman Princeton University Library -------- Original Message -------- From: "Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu> Subject: Library failure (RE: NOT the "Serials Crisis" -- Dan Lester) Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 08:20:09 -0700 > If I come in and seek the Gutenberg Bible and > don't get it right away, is that a failure? Yes. > If I come in and ask for > a rare book published in 1775 and owned by only thirty libraries in > the country, is that a failure? Yes. > If I come in and ask for a copy of my > English 101 textbook, and the library, by policy, doesn't purchase > textbooks, is that a failure? Yes. In all three cases, the library has failed in the attempt to provide needed information to its patrons. That doesn't mean that the library isn't a good library; all libraries (like all people and organizations) will fail sometimes. But the standard against which we measure ourselves should not, in my opinion, be what librarians consider to be good information service. It should be based on what our patrons need. If we can't (or simply don't) give them what they need, that's a failure whether or not our level of service is consistent with professional standards. I'm not a big fan of corporate management rhetoric, but I've always liked Jack Welch's observation that in too many organizations, "Most people have their a--es to the customer and their faces to the chairman." Substitute "patron" for "customer" and "professional standards" for "chairman," and I think you've got a pretty fair assessment (no pun intended) of where we stand as a profession right now. ------------- Rick Anderson Director of Resource Acquisition The University Libraries University of Nevada, Reno "Beware any theory that 1664 No. Virginia St. explains everything and Reno, NV 89557 predicts nothing." PH (775) 784-6500 x273 -- Richard C. Galbraith FX (775) 784-1328 rickand@unr.edu -- Stephen D. Clark Acquisitions Librarian College of William and Mary Earl Gregg Swem Library Acquisitions Department P.O. Box 8794 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8794 757.221.3107 fax: 757.221.2635 e-mail: sdclar@wm.edu
