This post is part of a series designed to further discussion of the PLA Results service responses, designed in 1998 to describe “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.” If you have an idea for a new service response, post it here.
There are 24 Comments to "Service Response Discussion: What’s Missing – Suggested New Service Responses"
Should there be a separate service response that addresses Readers’ Advisory services? I realize of course, that the actual performing of Readers’ Advisory is an action, but none of the service responses seem to address the role of providing guidance for those wishing help in facilitating their leisure reading experience.
I agree with Nanci Milone Hill (9.27.06) – where’s fiction in the scheme of things? Some fiction may be a part of some of the categories in the list, but what about leisure reading? It’s important enough to provide much of the fodder for censorship efforts, and judging by one of ALA’s most recent news releases, young adult and chilren’s books, reading, etc. are still heavily promoted. The emphasis seems to be on large research institutions or public libraries in large cities. Many of the rest of us still read fiction for entertainment. especially in smaller communities.
Podcasts. I think libraries need to reach out and remind the public how important and vital they are to the community.
Children, especially young children, seem to be missing in spirit from this entire project – at least, in any form that the public would recognize.
I agree that recreational reading as well as recreational audios and videos needs to be included. This is a big part of all public libraries. Children read recreationally too, as well as for school.
Recreational and/or fiction reading as well as Readers Advisory fit nicely into the Current Topics and Titles service response. In adding service responses, technology is definitely important and affects everything we do, but how would it work as a separate service response? Technology center, maybe? What would a library that focuses its priorities as a technology center look like?
It would be good to examine the term “service response” which fails to convey a pro-active or innovative approach. “Response” indicates a reaction or a lack of imagination while a term like “service initiative” indicates leadership, spirit and energy. I’m sure there may be another term better than initiative that can be used to describe the services we provide. We already have “first responders” in our community. I’d like to think our role is not that of second or third responders.
Reading for the joy of it
The great majority of our regular library users come to us because they derive pleasure from reading. While some focus on “Current Topics and Titles,” more of them also read retrospectively throughout one or more genres. They actively seek reader advisory service from library workers. They are largely responsible for many of our numeric measures. They are the reason we keep fiction titles available longer than book stores do. “Popular Materials” is also too narrow to cover these committed library supporters, as what they value about libraries is their breadth of collection that can serve individual as well as mass tastes. If you have read The Long Tail, you can see that libraries were serving these niche readers long before they had access to Amazon and Alibris. I found the first Results to be lacking in awareness of this core service that has been part of community libraries since long before Dewey. The Bennett sisters’ trips to their subscription library in Pride and Prejudice is precisely this kind of library use and the continuing readership for Pride and Prejudice, even when it is not an assignment or a movie illustrates the same phenomenon. I hope that this time around PLA’s Results will address what may well be the single largest usage of the typical branch public library.
I completely agree with Penny Welling. “Service response” is a passive term. A large number of public libraries have been too passive during the past 10 years. We need to roll up our sleeves, dive into popular culture, find the role(s) that need to be filled that we have the expertise to fill, fill them, market the fact that we are filling them, and become agile enough to continue to adapt to the accelerating rate of change of the information- and entertainment-seeking behavior of our customer base.
I would like to reiterate what Carolyn Caywood has said about the need to include as a “service” whether a “response” or not, the provision of materials for readers for voluntary reading for pleasure. It’s the main reason I use my own local public library, and having participated in and out of PLA in the renaissance of readers advisory services (equally awkward as “service response”), I think it is stupid to leave it out. I agree with Bill Crowley in his book, Spanning the Theory-Practice Divide (Scarecrow, 2004) that public libraries are selling themselves into oblivion by adopting the “information” umbrella so beloved by LIS academics (not me) and university presidents. Information and communication technologies can bring readers together with stories that give them joy and talk about the human condition as easily as they can be used to retrieve facts.
Being a good reader goes way beyond “basic literacy,” and I hope PLA would recognize that fact in these revisions. The division certainly does not mind making money off vendors and librarians interested in the promotion of reading at conferences. It would be nice to reading and readers valued in policies and PL role pronouncements, too.
Mary K. Chelton
I agree that reader’s advisory should be one of our service responses. In fact, it should be one of the most important. I have worked in a public library for over 30 years and no matter how much we bring in new technology or new educational services, most of our patrons still just want a “good book” to read. To ignore this function is to ignore our most basic service. I certainly understand the importance of technology, literacy, business, etc. but I sometimes think we overstate these since we ourselves don’t believe in the importance of just providing books and materials. I currently manage a branch where providing materials is extremely important. My most successful interactions with patrons are about discussing and recommending books. Although we have over 20 Internet terminals and provide business materials for the nearby area, we focus on readers’ advisory. Our circulation continues to climb monthly. We cannot omit or belittle this important service. We need to value it as much as our patrons do.
Readers’ advisory and pleasure reading should absolutely be included somewhere. Many public library patrons use libraries primarily for obtaining fiction or nonfiction for recreational or leisure reading. We can offer these services either “in person” or, increasingly, through technology (readers’ advisory databases such as NoveList, OPACs that allow patrons to submit reviews or comments, software that suggests titles based on what readers have chosen in the past, etc.).
Every time our library has done our long range plan we have been stumped as to where to put a comprehensive approach to youth services in the various service responses (we just completed our 5th plan). In our latest plan, we created our own service response to meet this need. It is one of our six key roles and seems to express for us our commitment to a singificant amount of time and energy in this area of service. Our service response is as follows:
Youth Services–provides literary and cultural opportunities for youth and supports the formal education process of the communtiy
Using the old “Planning and Role Setting for Public Libraries” we had combined the formal education support and preschooler’s door to learning roles in to a single role called youth services. When updating to our current plan, the planning team did not want to lose this significant part of our services so we created our own as above since there was nothing of this nature in the current list of suggested service responses.
Our complete plan is available on our website and this key role is reflected many of our goals and objectives, particularly in our programs and publications section.
I think that rather than creating a new response for RA and recreational reading that Current Topics and titles could be revised to include these activities. I think that RA and recreational reading is too narrow for a response alone. Maybe Current Topics, Popular Titles and Leisure Activities. That way we are not limiting to books but could include other formats as well.
[...] What’s Missing – Suggested New Service Responses (14 comments) [...]
A short and sweet comment – Carolyn Caywood is right on !
I agree with the comments by Carolyn Caywood, Mary K. Chelton, and others that the experience of reading and reading for pleasure do not get much emphasis in these service responses. The Basic Literacy response addresses the acquisition of reading as a skill, and many of the other responses deal with information in utilitarian ways, but these give short shrift to the complex and pleasurable act of engaging with a text as an aesthetic, emotional, narrative, and cognitive experience. Reading the pdf breakdown of Current Topics and Titles reveals some inclusion of reading, readers’ advisory, and reading promotion, but it unfortunately is restricted to current titles – ignoring “the long tail” that libraries have served so well historically – and it also tends to ignore the idea of the cultural record and enduring historical or literary significance.
Survey after survey indicates that the public most strongly associates public libraries with books and reading, and the recent OCLC “Perceptions” report concluded that “there is no runner up.” I would like to see a service response that addresses the joy of reading as a top tier priority. Maybe we could call it Engaged Literacy, or simply Reading for Pleasure. Using language similar to the other service responses, a description for this response might read something like: “Addresses library patrons’ appetites for reading and the experience of engaging with the written word.” All activities in the service of bringing readers and texts together could be included here – collection development, displays, author programs and story-times, readers’ advisory, electronic reader’s advisory tools, book discussion groups, booklists, book blogs or current awareness efforts, etc. As the list in the previous sentence demonstrates, public libraries already are doing a lot in the interest of books and reading – we should formalize this important activity in our major role-setting policies and planning documents.
Scott Condon
I was surprised to find that readers’ services aren’t one of the existing service response categories, as this has been one of the most important and valued of traditional library services. People’s passionate responses to and memories of library services don’t usually focus on convenience of information access–they focus on interaction with dedicated staff who help connect them with books and the world of ideas.
In my opinion, RA in the broadest sense isn’t just a glory of the past–it’s also one of the most important library services for the coming generation. As access becomes more and more of a non-issue for the majority of our customers, evaluation will conversely be a greater and greater need, as the universe of information and entertainment choices for people expands. And the kind of personalized, passionately informed evaluation assistance that future generations of library users will probably come to expect is the kind of personalized, passionately informed evaluation assistance that RA has been providing leisure readers for years.
I personally believe that this is why RA has undergone such a renaissance recently and is expanding into nonfiction RA, viewer’s advisory, listener’s advisory, etc. If there’s anything public libraries are uniquely in a position to provide well, this is it. And if there’s anything that will help us connect to a new generation of passionate users, this is it.
I know that book is a four letter word, but I think it is wrong to totally avoid it in the PLA service responses. I also think that our services to young people need to be emphasized in the service responses. In our community, our children’s services are the most valued by the general public and our funders.
Thank you for asking us for input and especially for extending the deadline. You can see that I’m getting in just under the wire.
I come to this discussion as a public librarian who has always been involved in outreach and in initiating services to senior adults, new adult readers, and people with disabilities. To accomplish these services, I, and other staff members, have worked with community agencies and constituent advisory committees and have employed programming for seniors and in American Sign Language for the Deaf community. We have also used adaptive technology.
So I see the need to emphasize outreach services and, more specifically,
services to senior adults, services to people with disabilities, and services to people for whom English is a second language. I don’t think the term immigrants is now politically correct. There is still need for literacy classes or tutoring for Americans whose first language is English but who are lacking in reading and writing skills.
Diversity and Access are key words in library and ALA parlance. I would think that “services to diverse population including….” could incorporate
the above groups and that Access relates more to a Library philosophy which would be reflected in services to these diverse groups.
The current concern with the coming senior status of the Boomer Generation further stresses the need for services to senior adults who have now been categorized into three age groups. Savvy seniors will need the Zoom Text enlargement on computers, computer literacy training, FM Assistive Listening devices in the Lecture Halls, and information on volunteer opportunities.
Having been involved in programming not only for special audiences, but for general audiences, ranging from directing the National Endowment for the Humanities Learning Library at the BPL to organizing celebrity author series, ethnic celebrations, foreign affairs, Great Books, and other book discussion groups, I know the power of such undertakings to contribute to lifelong learning. And I hope that programming and discussion groups are not ignored in any listing of services that reflect the Library’s core values.
I think any inventory of services must be predicated on a philosophy of library services or core values. An expression of these core values or philosophy should be contained in an introduction to an enumeration of these services. I confess that I am not aware of the core values that I think ALA articulated a few years ago.
I don’t know whether these core values have been incorporated into “The Library as Place,” which, I believe Carol Brey endorsed or whether the concept of “Libraries Build Communities” which has been another motif
is considered a valid core value. It seems to me they are as well as “lifelong learning,” “the information function in daily life, student education, consumer guidance, etc.” “the educational, social, and recreational role of the Library.” And, of course, reading.
But I think these values or philosophy should be enunciated clearly and forcefully. I agree with Penny Welling that we should be proactive, that the Library should be seen as it is in many cases, and can be in others–a dynamic, vital entity that interacts with the community so that the Library may even anticipates the public’s needs.
Technology is the important element that has become a part of the Library’s core values and operation over the last ten years. I think special attention needs to be given to the role of technology in public libraries, not only in the information literacy aspects but in how technology will further interaction with the public through blogs, wikis, etc making the public’s participation in Library policy and procedures greater and more significant.
One of your commentators has mentioned gaming on the Internet as a possible new service and it is one that is increasingly endorsed by Young Adult librarians.
Getting back to philosophy of library services, I think the best expression of what this philosophy should be was carved on the ediface of the Boston Public Library. “Free to All. Built by the People of the City of Boston and Dedicated to the Advancement of Learning.”
Sincerely, Kathleen B. Hegarty
In an article we have done for the Public Library Quarterly, “Public Libraries and Human Rights,” [in press] we suggest to U.S. public librarians that articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provide a way to think about public library service. We assert that these articles should inform the philosophy of public library practice. Also, we must incorporate the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Public Library Manifesto into our practice.
I have been reading articles such as:
(#1) O’Reilly, T (2005/9/30). What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the
Next Generation of Software. O’Reilly Network, Retrieved 10/25/2006, from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
(#2) Mossman, K (2006/7/15). Serving the Niche. Library Journal, Retrieved 10/25/2006,
from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6349032.html
(#3)Fallows, J (2005/11/6). A Journey to the Center of Yahoo. New York Times:
nytimes.com, Retrieved 10/25/2006, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/business/yourmoney/06techno.html?ei=5088&en=11aa3a8e097005a7&ex=1288933200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
In light of these and similar discussions, I see the development of library community as taking place on multiple fronts. In order to stay relevant, we must embrace practices that include continuing two-way interaction with our patrons. This is a user-centric era and it becomes more so all the time. As more and more people become active participants in Internet-based activities (an occurrence that libraries are facilitating) their expectations of interactivity and responsiveness will grow. We must find ways to incorporate this into our way of providing service.
I have just found out about this discussion (thanks to snail mail arrival of Public Libraries Sept/Oct) and am interested in the comments. Here in Victoria, Australia, we did a lot of work a couple of years ago on a research project “Libraries Building Communities” – which included all 44 Victorian public library services and draws on the views and ideas of nearly 10,000 Victorians. The LBC study showed that libraries and librarians make a fundamental contribution to our communities in four key areas: they provide free public access to ICT resources; by helping people locate information they create better informed communities; they run programs that promote lifelong learning and literacy in the community; and they build connections between individuals, groups and government. A copy of the report can be found at http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about/information/publications/policies_reports/plu_lbc.html
At Yarra Plenty Regional Library we are exploring how we might use the social networking technologies to do what Cheri talks about – getting people participating and involved, rather than just providing them with services. We think that the role of public libraries is changing fundamentally as we move into a new age of technology and a new digital lifestyle. Increasingly people are becoming creators not just consumers.
We have rolled out the Public Library of Charlotte Mecklenberg County’s 23 Things training and it has been wonderful to watch staff actively take on new learning! We have identified 4 areas that we are concentrating on growing our staff skills in – finding information; enabling learning; creating content; and celebrating culture.
Just one thought to add–A courteous, safe and relaxing haven with access to both the young and the old: Helpful, friendly staff willing to provide a safe, clean and welcoming environment to all. (Most people feel safe and relaxed in libraries. It’s a place where they can find enough peace to sit and read, research, and/or visit or meet with their group.)
Everything else seems to be covered.