Advice vs Information

As a librarian, I'm prohibited from giving out legal advice.  I can understand why.  A person could get into a lot of trouble if they were given incorrect advice.

As a librarian, I can give out information.

The line between advice and information can be quite fuzzy.

A question like "I'm getting a divorce, and I need a lawyer.  Do you know a good one?" can be both informative and include advice.  As a librarian, I would answer this question one way.  With the information.  Such as, "here's a list of local lawyers, a legal help group and the web address to a great legal help website, Michigan Legal Help".

The advice is the part where you say "oh, I've heard Gary Doe is a great lawyer".  Don't do that.  As a librarian, you can't give advice.

You stick to information, which is something that you can tell everyone, no matter what side of the question they ask.  Such as where legal help books would be, how to find a statute, a list of lawyers, help finding a certain form for court that the judge has requested.  Those are all information that we can give out.

A tip to knowing whether something is advice or information is this: if it starts with 'should I...' or 'is this a good idea'...those are both advice.  You might be able to move those around, flip around the question to turn it from advice to information by rephrasing the question posed, though.

CultureGrams

We've been get a lot of students needing information about certain countries.

For up to date information, I steer them away from books, which are usually outdated by the time they're published, and towards one of my favorite websites.

It's a database, to us, provided by the Michigan Electronic Library.  CultureGrams is an amazing resource for any person, student or just curious web-surfer.  It has up to date information about different countries, states and more.

Reference Interview - my style!

It usually starts out with me saying "Hi, how can I help you?" to a patron that's either standing/walking around awkwardly, or someone who's just come up to my desk.

When they tell me what they're looking for, let's say, in this instance, they're looking for books on psychology.

I ask if it's for homework or just for personal reading as I search to keep the conversation going.  I also repeat their request at least once, sometimes several times.  Not only to make sure I heard them right and that they requested it right, but also to keep it in my mind.

As we make small talk, I'm searching the catalog for books that will work for them.  I write down the call number and author, with the title underneath.  Between each book, I draw a line to differentiate the different entries.

From there, I hand them the paper, tell them about where the book is located and then ask if they need anything else.

If they don't, they go about their merry business, sometimes coming back up (maybe 1/4 of the time) when they can't find it.  Usually, it's on the shelf where it's supposed to be.  Sometimes, it's just a little off.  Sometimes, it's not there at all.  Either another patron has it, it's on a cart somewhere or it's just plain missing.

In those cases, I ask the patron if they'd like me to order it.  If they brush it off like it's a big step, I laugh and say it's no problem.  Usually, maybe 8/10 times, they'll have me order it for them.

If they weren't done when I asked if they needed something else, rinse and repeat.

Sometimes, I end up ordering everything from another library.  Either through our Consortium, or through MeL (the Michigan Electronic Library).  While MeL is an extra step, since I have to do another search, and if I find the book, put the patron's name and library card into the website, it's no problem.  I've done it (probably) hundreds of times for myself, and to do it for another patron is no problem.

If no library has it, I ask if they'd like me to request to purchase it.  I explain that the request doesn't mean that it will be purchased, since it's up to someone else, but if it is purchased, we can reserve it for them.

Some of the more popular stuff, like the next season of Downton Abbey, or the new Stephen King, will be purchased but it's too early to order it.  I keep the forms for the things I'm requested to purchase, order them when I can, and reserve them when they're ordered.

Overall, I make sure my reference interview has the main steps (from Wikipedia, but also what I learned during my MLIS):

1. Welcoming
2. Gathering general information from the user and getting an overview of the problem
3. Confirming the exact question
4. Intervention, such as giving information, advice or instructions
5. Finishing, including feedback and summary

Yes, I can get that number for you!

Generally speaking, I can get any phone or address for a person.  I say generally, because although I'd love it to be, not every number is online.

If I can't google it (or whitepage.com it), and it's not in my area of Michigan, I'll tell the person to call the library nearest the person/place they're trying to reach.  They'll generally have a Polk city directory and be able to look it up much better than I can, since I only have 2 counties worth of Polk city directories.

A senator/representative is sometimes much harder to get a phone number from. Some of them seem to be only through e-mail, which for someone who doesn't have a computer or access to a computer is very limiting.  So I do my best, and give them the best information I can.

Are you a psychic?

Then no, I'm sorry, but you don't know that those prints are yours.  There are forty-some other computers hooked up to the same printer as yours, and most of them are occupied.  While most people don't print anything, there are, say, one out of every four people that do print.

Which makes it unlikely that you know that those prints are yours.  As in impossible for them to belong to anyone else.

Please, sir.  And no, I won't leave fingerprints on them.  Not visible ones, at least.  I touch the edges of the pages, not the center.  And I haven't been playing with graphite.  So, no, no visible prints from this librarian.

Tax booklets yet?

Yes, yes we do!

For the last two months, we've been getting non-stop question about whether we have certain tax booklets.  Mostly centering on the 1040.  We finally got them in last week.

So I can finally tell the patrons, yes, yes we do have them!

The only thing we don't have in paper are the odd forms that we can print right off of the IRS website!

Magazines, magazines everywhere...

So, in the last year or so, we've found parts of magazines all around the library.  By parts, I mean the back cover.  Which has the barcode.  Sometimes, only the barcode.

So there's a thief (or thieves) in the library, stealing magazines.  It's usually the popular ones.  Cosmo, people, US weekly...ones like that.  Sometimes, there's an odd one.  Dog Fancy, Dolls etc.

But considering our hours (we're usually open for 10 hours a day, except on Fridays and Saturdays), there's no real reason to steal one of the magazines.  At least, no good reason I can think of.

Different names for companies & Tax Information

Got a question a couple days ago.  A girl needed information on a local company.  She called the company (not the real name) "United Chemical Company".  In the area, it's known as something else.  So we ended up finding it under "North American Chemical Company".  I'll remember that next time!

And no, we don't have all of our tax forms in yet.  That's the most common question within the last month.  For awhile, we had only a couple forms and no instruction booklets, but that's slowly changing.  We still don't have all the forms, but it could be worse.

Computer Questions

Let me preface this by saying that I'm pretty good with computers.  My dad and husband both have comp. sci degrees, and I've been around them since before I can remember.  I know how to do a lot of things with and to them, and I'm pretty used to running checks etc so they stay working.

So I get a patron who asks if our wifi is down.  I tell him, no, it's still up.  He replies that he can't get into his e-mail.  I cock my head (over the phone, so he can't see the gesture) and ask him if he's in the library.

No, he's at home.  But he can't get into his e-mail.  He's just making sure that our wifi isn't down.

Upon further questioning, I find out that it's just his e-mail that's down.  He can access other websites except for his e-mail.

Now, to my knowledge, that's a problem with his e-mail.  Host, server, they're doing something.  Maybe updating, maybe it's just down.  But it happens to websites - sometimes, they go down randomly.

I tell him this, that it's a problem with his e-mail, especially if he can get into other websites.

So he wants to speak to our tech page certain name.  I shake my head and tell him that he's not here right now, but even if he were, he'd probably tell him the same thing I am.  That if he can get into other websites (which he says he can do), then it's a problem with his e-mail and there's nothing we can do.

I had another patron (a few days ago) wanting to talk to our tech guy to help retrieve his facebook password.  That he'd put in the day before.  And hadn't saved.  Now, to my knowledge, without a keylogger, there's no way to retrieve a password like that.  And our computers wipe the drives (or something like that) when they're shut down, so there's no way to retrieve the passwords.

He was very disappointed, but understood where I was coming from.

GED books? Sorry, we have none.

They seem to have grown legs and walked out.  Or somebody decided to keep them as a new pet.  Or  a way to keep their coffee table level.  Or to learn how to walk properly.

Either way, we don't have any on the shelf.  Actually, most libraries around us don't.  They seem to be the most popular book that people either like to keep or steal.

Luckily for us, we do have access to an awesome database.  You might have heard of it.  It's called the Learning Express Library.  It's not just for GED, either.

It has SAT, ACT and a few other practice tests.  It has computer tests, career tests, tests to help you remember your English lit and your history.  And a bunch of other tests.

Not just tests, either.  Just e-books and courses.  And it's free as long as your library subscribes to it.

Thankfully for all of our GED-seekers, my library does.

ETA: We had a 2005 GED book returned the other day!  No idea where it came from, but it was in such bad shape that I pulled it.

Spelling is important & yes, I know how to research.

And knowing how to spell, as a librarian, is very important.

I had a teen come up to me asking if we had any books on fersous?  (That was about how it was pronounced.)

After a few questions on my side, she told me she really needed books on the elements.  Especially zinc and fersous.  When she said elements, I asked her if it was phosphorus.  Her eyes lit up.  Bingo!

Another variation of needing to know how to spell is authors.  Now, I don't know all authors.  That's just impossible and silly.  But knowing how to spell the most popular author names, like Clancy, Steele and Auel comes in handy when we get the questions about a new book they've put out.

The second part to this post is something that sometimes irks me.

When a patron calls up with a specific request.  Something like "I'm looking for an encyclopedia about criminals published in the 30s."

Okay.  So I do my normal searches.  Library catalot.  MeL catalog.  WorldCat.  When those three fail, I go to my backup.  Google, Abebooks and Amazon.

When those three fail, I tell the patron that I'm sorry but I can't find what he's looking for.

He proceedes to tell me "Did you try google?" "Can you search by copyright?" "Did you search in MeL by date?"

Now, like a lot of reference librarians, I went to school (graduate school) for what I'm doing.  I took classes on searching, reference, cataloging and more.  It's a rare thing when I can't find the answer to  a reference question like that - if the answer exists, more often than not, I'm going to find it because I know how to search for books.

When a patron acts like I need to be told every step to take to find a specific book he wants, it's annoying.

Like any good librarian, though, I hide my annoyance.  I tell him that while I didn't find that exact book, I found others that are newer.  They aren't what he wants, though, and he questions my searching skills.

On the other hand, I get patrons who just want me to google something for them.  Which I do happily.  Then, I pick the best two or three links that explain what they want to know.

Lost & Found in a Library

In a large library, we get a lot of patrons who bring in their personal objects.  Phones, laptops, iPods, we get it all.  Glasses, hats, gloves, necklaces, we've found them all.  Wallets?  Got those, too.  Strollers?  Surprised?  We've had two name-brand, expensive strollers left behind from children's events.

What's surprising is the number of things that are turned in.  Wallets and phones; that winter coat?  We've had them all turned in to us at some point.

Sometimes, though, they go missing.  Flashdrives are a common thing for people to pocket since they're palm-sized.  Another thing that goes missing are phones.  While they're usually turned in, sometimes we'll get a phone call asking if we have one that isn't in our lost and found basket.

Weirdest thing I've found?  Someone's hoodie in the back of the stacks.

While weeding older books in the science section (500s for you DDC people), I've found flowers and leaves dried in the appropriate classification books.  Bookmarks that are old, recipes, prescriptions and notes are all pretty common things to find in older books.

Hmmmm...self-repairing books

I had a book come to me today for non-fiction repair (I decide what gets repaired or discarded).  This was a sex book (by some Doctor about different positions).  There were pages torn out.  There were pages torn out, then taped back in with masking tape.

Pretty sure our library doesn't use masking tape to fix books.

Getting the right information

If a patron gives me the wrong information, it can be very hard, if not impossible, to give them the books they want.

For instance, a patron asked me for books on WWII.  So I confirm that's what he is looking for, and tell him where the section is (940s).

About fifteen minutes later, he and his mother come up to the desk.  He hadn't known that it wasn't the war that he needed books on.  It was WWII weapons.  Completely different section.

So I look them up and take them back there.  No books checked in specifically on WWII weapons (tanks and bombs, to be exact), but there were to giant encyclopedia's on the shelf on weapons that had what they were looking for.

_____

Another with the wrong information is if they don't have the right title or author for a book, but that's easily fixed.  If I don't know it, and can't find it within a handful of different searches, I pop the name and/or title into Google and Amazon and run a search that way.

Kill 'em With Kindness

If not kindness, at least politeness.  When a patron gets upset, the only thing I do is stay polite.  Usually, that calms them down - especially if you show them that you're trying to work with them.  If it doesn't calm them down, it just makes them angrier, in which case, there's nothing you can do about their problem.

Databases

We get quite a few people doing homework in here.  Most of them are helped by us finding books for them, for stuff like book reports.  Others need a print source but we don't have any or enough up-to-date information in book format.

Which is when I introduce them to our databases.  If it was printed in a journal or magazine, online or otherwise, it counts as a print source.  And we have access not only to our databases, but to the Michigan Electronic Library's databases, which are even more extensive than our own.

And even better, is what some of those databases hold.  One is my favorite.  It's called the 'Learning Express Library' and it's amazing.  Those GED books that grow legs and walk out?  I don't worry about them anymore. 

Because the LEL covers that.  If you create an acount, it's got tests.  It's got e-books.  It's got courses.  And not a handful, either.  Not only does it have GED, but it also has SAT prep.  ACT prep.  Civil-service tests.  And that's just a few in the dozens of specialized categories.

Another one of my favorites is Mango.  Mango is an online language database.  Basically, you can learn a new language learning it.  It has courses, lessons and a handy translator tool.

Samurai sword?

No, just an umbrella.

If it were a snake...

One of the things I'm best at is finding books.  That are already on the shelf.  In numerical (DDC) order.  By author.

When a patron requests a book (at the counter), I look it up on my fancy-schmancy catalog.  I'll write down the call number, author and title for them.  So it might look like this:

616.89 Clark
   How to tell if you have diabetes

Then, I'll tell them that it's 'half-way back to the right', or wherever in the stacks it's located.  80% of the time, they'll find it just fine.

The other 20, though, they'll come back up and tell me that they couldn't find it.  I'll check the record and see when it came back.  If it's been back for more than a week, it's either on the shelf or 'missing'.  If it's less than a week, it's a gamble if it's downstairs waiting to be shelved, or on the shelf.

So I'll write down the info about the book on a slip for me, and I'll slide out from behind my desk and go hunting.  Usually, it's right where it belongs.  Exactly where it should be.

Patrons (adults and children) just aren't taught how to use the DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification), so a lot of them just don't know how it works.  And I can understand that.  Usually, once I show/find the book, they'll browse that section, and hopefully figure out how the system works.

It's actually really easy, and even before I became a librarian, I had many call numbers memorized.  True crime, ghosts and animals were my go-to sections at my small-town library.

Down Internet means not much to do

That is, not much of my regular stuff I can do.  Almost everything I do relies on Horizon (our library software).  From downgrading DVDs from new to regular, to indexing the newspapers, I need Horizon.

While the staff computers were down, the public wireless was up, so we were able to use the laptops and the iPad to do our routine reference  questions.

The reference questions, however, I can either use books, my memory of the library's collection or the iPad.  For most of them, I was able to use the iPad (to check our collection through our website) to see if we had certain books.  For general books, like on music or collectible figurines, I can take the person back there, or go look to see if we have a certain book.  But for specific titles, I need the catalog.

My favorite type of request

Books.  Anything to do with books.  As much as I like finding other types of information, I really love finding the books more than anything.

I had a conversation the other day with a patron about Fifty Shades of Gray.  She'd heard about them and wanted to know if we had them.  I told her we did, but there was a huge (over 500 people) waiting list.  She laughed and said nevermind.  I told her that they started out as Twilight fan-fiction, and she'd heard that, but just wanted to see what they were about (and if they were as awful as she'd heard).  We laughed as she walked away.

Yesterday, I had a patron needing books for a book report.  That was due in a week.  And we'd had the book list for well over a month.  Most of them were checked out, but luckily we had three of them on the shelf.  One was an automatic 'no'.  (Too long).  Thankfully, the other two were acceptable.