Are we asking our academics what they think of the library?

Recently, an academic (who is also a librarian) wrote a post on the Social Justice Librarian blog on “how academic libraries annoy academics”. It was linked to by several people on Twitter and so I’m afraid I don’t know who to credit for bringing it to my attention. The author centred their post on an experience with their institution’s library, in which they couldn’t find a book which was supposed to be available, after spending time logging into and searching the OPAC and hunting on the shelves for it. They used a “report problem” link on the OPAC page to explain that the book didn’t appear to be on the shelves after all, then returned to their office to an email explaining that they needed to report circulations problems in person at the desk. This left them feeling irritated about using the library; they had found the experience frustrating and unhelpful due to the systems in place. The reactions to this post were mixed; some blamed the author for not going to the desk to ask for help while they were in the library, while others agreed that academic libraries need to assess how well their systems are working, and that if they are not working well then that’s the library’s fault, not the user’s. Katie Birkwood wrote an excellent and thorough blog post which covers much of what I would like to say on the topic; if academics are having these kinds of experiences in the academic library, then we are “doing it wrong” and we risk alienating our academic colleagues. 

The whole blog post has made me think about my library’s relationship with the academic staff who use it, but one section in the final paragraph set my chain of thought in motion to the point of writing a blog post on the topic: “Maybe academic libraries aren’t concerned with how the power faculty at their institutions perceive them. Maybe it’s all about the students and the have-nots of academia these days. Maybe it should be. I dunno.” Academic libraries are extremely student-centred. My library service, and I’m sure others too, put out surveys to find out how students feel about the library. We take into account comments made about the library in the National Student Survey, and improve our service accordingly. We have a comments and complaints box into which students can drop quick notes on anything they want to mention. Scan the professional literature and you will find plenty of case studies and papers which focus on student experiences of the library.  My library service’s core values document and my institution’s objectives both emphasise the importance of a good quality student experience. Students are the centre of our attention, and, as the author suggests, they should be. University is an extremely expensive financial investment for students, and they rightfully expect services within the institution to provide good value for money. However, in our efforts to provide an excellent service to our students, are we forgetting to ask what our academics think about the library?

Our academics are not paying for a service in the same way that the students are. They are paid to be a member of the university. However, a library, any library, is there to serve all of its users, and academics invest a great deal into an institution; where would the university be without their intellectual and emotional contributions? Perhaps, then, we need to be taking more time to address their particular needs. I feel that, in my library, we have good relationships with staff in the departments that we support; my colleagues and I share a belief in the importance of effective academic liaison. Since reading this blog post, however, I have begun to question whether this is enough, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, just because they feel happy to talk to us about stock needs for modules, book orders and teaching sessions, does that necessarily mean that our academics feel able to talk to us about other aspects of the library? Would they expect us to be able to sort out problems with circulation of stock, for example, or might they think that that’s not an aspect of academic liaison? Would it even occur to them to ask for help with or make comments on their own personal use of the library, or might they presume we are just there to help them in terms of their teaching? With the pressures of marking coursework and exams, meeting research deadlines, supervising and teaching, do our academics even have time to contact us to talk about something which isn’t working for them? Or will they just find an alternative solution, as the author did? We cannot presume that, just because the academics with whom we liaise fairly frequently do not tell us that they have a problem with the library, everything is working well for them.

There is also the issue of whether we are reaching all academic staff in our liaison work. Some academics are bigger library users than others, depending on the nature of the modules they teach, and their own personal work. Some engage with their academic librarians more than others. Staff leave and new staff take up positions on a yearly basis. Some will be away from the institution for a significant period of time on research leave elsewhere, and so may not need or be able to come into the library or contact staff. Academic staff who don’t know us very well might not feel confident about putting forward a complaint to us, or even know that we could help. Again, just because we don’t receive any complaints from academic staff about the library, this doesn’t mean that we are offering a satisfactory service.

Additionally, it is near-impossible to measure library non-use. We just don’t know how many, or how frequently, academics are using other sources for their information needs without considering the library. We basically have very little idea about how useful the library is to our academic staff.

All that I’ve just suggested about academic staff and library usage – the possibilities that they don’t know that librarians could help, perhaps don’t feel able to make complaints, or don’t necessarily use the library as a source for research and academic support frequently or at all – sounds very familiar; they’re all issues that came up in my dissertation project on student perceptions of academic library staff. Even though students and academics have different information and research needs, some of the potential barriers to effective and satisfactory use of the library sound fairly similar – so why not try to find out about the needs and experiences of academics in the same way as we do with students? I am sure that there are some academic libraries out there who are surveying their academic staff, gaining feedback and improving the library service for academics and researchers as a result, actively asking their academic colleagues how the library could be more helpful. I really think that all academic libraries should be thinking about doing the same. Of course, there are difficulties in work like this – time being a major one – but if academics are having experiences like the one the author of the blog post in question describes, then we are not providing the service that we should be. If we want to try to ensure that academic libraries do not irritate any more academics, then we can’t afford not to find out, and act upon, what they think of the academic library.

Difficult behaviour and good customer service

Difficult behaviour is something that anyone working in any kind of role where they interact with customers will experience, and libraries are no exception (I shall say now that I use the phrase “customer service” when referring to libraries – I know some don’t agree with the use of the word “customer” but, in my sector at least, our users are our customers). I’ve experienced argumentative, upset and aggressive users in pretty much every library job I’ve had. I’ve been thinking about this this week for a couple of reasons: over  the past couple of weeks I’ve dealt with a few argumentative to mildly aggressive users – it’s a somewhat fraught time of year for students, with coursework and undergraduate dissertation deadlines looming – and on Thursday I attended a course about dealing with aggressive behaviour. I feel fairly confident about dealing with such behaviour, and my main concern is ensuring that I continue to deliver good customer service even when I have to say or do something that the user doesn’t like or agree with. I think that the balance between being firm, and being abrupt, can be a delicate one, and that it’s important we don’t let our behaviour be influenced by the aggression or emotion that we’re facing. I hoped that Thursday’s course would help me to ensure that I continue to get this right.

Although I’d already covered a lot of the material in previous training, the course was indeed helpful. It was useful to share and discuss experiences with members of staff from other areas of the university, and the trainer gave some really good advice. The tip that I am definitely going to remember in future is to try to ensure that you don’t cast the user as unreasonable: for example, rather than go straight in with “you can’t do that here”, start with “I’m sorry, you might not have seen the sign, but you can’t do that here” (even if the sign is massive and obvious!). I’m going to use this one if I have to speak to students about noise levels in quiet areas, or phone calls in the library. And of course, we presume that the user is just ignoring the rule or being thoughtless; perhaps they genuinely haven’t realised that the library is any different to a shop or other public space where they could use their phone? Either way, I think this tactic could help to avoid situations becoming difficult.

Something, however, that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with, was the suggestion from many of the other course attendees, and the trainer, that we should, when dealing with  a user who is acting aggressively, tell them that we won’t be spoken to in that way. I realise that in some situations we may need to take such a step to attempt to stop a situation escalating, and also to begin protecting our personal safety, but I do think that this must be used carefully. I often watch the repeats of Airline on weekday evenings (don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into a post about my terrible television viewing habits!). If you’re not familiar with Airline, it was a reality television programme about airport staff. The check-in desk staff, as you’d probably guess, have to deal with difficult behaviour on a daily basis. Sometimes this is dealt with very well, but at other times I am appalled by the level of customer service offered, and often this is when a member of staff refuses to continue to speak to a customer, because they perceive the customer to have been too rude to them. For me, that is patronising towards the customer, and is only going to cause the situation to escalate (and on Airline it pretty much always does make things worse). Obviously, if the customer has been threatening violence, or throwing personal insults at the member of staff, they should say something about the customer’s behaviour; but there are surely better ways to explain that they need to treat you with respect than to simply refuse to talk to them. I have never  asked a user to speak to me more politely, or told them that I won’t continue the exchange if this doesn’t happen, and I have had some fairly hostile words thrown at me (not in my current role, however). Perhaps this is a case of me being too “nice”. Or perhaps in the past I wasn’t confident enough when dealing with such behaviour, and if faced with it now would find myself explaining that I won’t be spoken to in that way. However, I still can’t help feeling that this is one example of how we need to be careful that we maintain a good level of customer service when dealing with difficult behaviour. 

I expect that we will experience further incidents of difficult behaviour as we head deeper into a very busy and stressful time of year for students; I’m hoping that the course, and the reflections that it has provoked, will help me to deal successfully with incidents that come my way.