Could get better......... (Library services)

Member Name: Trixi

Product:	Library services
Date:	26/09/01 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a wide range of resources, Provides PC training

Disadvantages: stocks can be limited

As a child our family made regular trips to the local library. I quickly grew to love books and I would borrow both fictional and non-fiction books. I loved reading The Famous Five, the Hardy boys etc. (I even remember borrowing an encyclopedia for weeks so that I could learn the sign alphabet.)

As I grew older the services at the local library were extended to include borrowing CDs etc but I found that my library visits became fewer as I began to utilise the school one more...

Despite my praise so far of library services, I believe there is still some way to go in terms of the types of improvements that can be made. In order to support this statement let me share with you a good and bad experience that I have had with my local library service.

Good & Bad Experiences.

Since I generally value library services, I will start off with the bad experience I had recently.

I am currently studying at University some miles away, so obviously I now tend to use their facilities. However since I commute to Uni at times I have been known to frequent the local library. Now I recognise that these two libraries have different clients and therefore the resources differ.....but I was disappointed in the service I got.

Let me give you an idea of what happened...

“Excuse me I am looking for a book, I was wondering if you have it”

“Sorry we can’t help you the computer system has gone down.”

“I’m sorry I don’t quite understand....Do you not have a back-up system?

“Yes, but it only allows us to lend or return books”

“You have no backup system that allows you to know the books that you have, like a card system.”

“No, they take up too much room....we have a modern computerised system now that links all the libraries in the area - but it has gone down.”

“You mean to say that no library in
the area can help me know if the book I want is stocked.

“Yes that’s right. But it should be fixed next Tuesday.” (This was Thursday)

Now I am all for modernisation but if you want to modernise there should be an adequate back up system available. I emphasised this in a feedback form but as usual my point fell on deaf ears.

Now for a nice story.........

Last year I discovered that at some point in the 50’s or 60’s a photographer had taken a picture of a men using the reference room, one of which happened to be my grandpa.

I saw this and I thought it would be really nice to try and get a copy of this for my dad’s Christmas. The problem though was that I did not want a photocopy, I wanted it to have quality.

Now my local library is currently trying to put a lot of local old pictures on computer. I thought it could scan the photo.... But they didn’t have a scanner.

No problem.

The librarian asked if I had access to a scanner.... “Yes”
“Well in that case, for a returnable deposit of £5 you can take away the photo for a few days”

Superb, I was able to take the photo away, scan it and print it out on nice photo paper.
And it was worth it to see my dad’s face on Christmas morning.

So there we have it a case of good and bad service from our local library. All in all there is still room for improvements.


UPDATE
I have noticed a couple of comments about computerisation and having two systems etc is impractical...... I agree with this but a back up system shoud prevent services for an entire District going offline for days.... All libraries in the area had the same problem... The back up for lending and borrowing was there why not for other services

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