Library or hospitality business???

Today I attended yet another training seesion which was originally designed for the hospitality/tourism sector. This is just one of a series, first it was Welcome Host which is customer service training aimed at the tourism sector. Described as mandatory training as part of my libraries bid for Customer Service Excellence I was a bit apprehensive about sitting through yet another training session telling me how to be good at my job which I had been doing for 5 years at that time. However, this was a bit different, it covered things such as body language and emphasised the importance of this rather than just what you say, it was more holistic than other training sessions I have been on.

This was shortly followed by Welcome All, this is a follow up to Welcome Host but focuses on disabled users. Again this was aimed at the tourism sector but was mandatory training. This didn't really cover anything new, the only newish thing about it was that there was the opportunity to see things how visually impaired people saw things by way of glasses which changed our vision to fit the different types of visual impairment, for example, tunnel vision.

Today it was roving training, my library is following the trend of taking the service out to users rather than forcing them to come to the enquiries desk. This training was aimed at the hospitality sector but tailored to suit library needs. I have never 'roved' before but am looking forwards to starting. The session itself was interesting, but again highlighted the shift away from the traditional library.

I personally love the 'traditional' library with books from floor to ceiling on wooden shelves with moving ladders, the stereotypical librarian perched on a seat behind a tall desk who knows everything about everything and total silence. This is my dream place, however, it is just a dream. As a job I don't think it would be the sort of place I would enjoy working at, I like being approachable, I like talking to people, while I like silence on the silence floors the whole building shouldn't be silent.

Now there is more emphasis on being customer friendly, the students are no longer students who come to find knowledge, they are customers. They must be treated differently, we should approach them rather than wait for them to approach us. The librarians no longer rule the library the students have significant input into how they want their service to be run and what to include. We have a Facebook page and Twitter account to communicate with the customers using media they want to use rather than using notices only in the building itself or an email to their student email accounts. Now with the students paying even more to come to university there will be even more focus on how to help them, hence the roving service, and what they want out of the service rather than the library simply telling them what was available.

Whilst there does need to be a balance between staff and student input it can only be a be a good thing to listen to the students, they have always been vocal about telling us what they want, what they like and what they don't like. At my library the students were vocal about wanting the library shop open whenever the library was open, this happened, along with an increase in catering facilities provided. Perhaps treating the library more like a hospitality business is the way to contact with customers which, in reality, is the only way a business will thrive.


(picture from www.english.heacademy.ac.uk)