Customer Service & Interpersonal Skills
As our profession contemplates the future of libraries, a recurring theme surfaces: that the public trust and faith in the institution is not so much about information retrieval or document management as it is about the intangibles—the relationships, the place, the environment for learning. It is top-notch customer service that will sustain and grow libraries.
Guides to Personal/Interpersonal Resources
Overview
- Pierce County Library System's 'Skills & Qualities': a short, universal list of personal skills or qualities every employee needs to be successful
Guides by topic
Guide to Customer Service Resources
General
- Serving the 21st-Century Patron: Archives and related resources from the Dec. 2010 online conference
Patron-focused spaces
Customer service practices
- Customer Service in the Library: M&M's: Making Customer Service Meaningful and Memorable
- Customer Service Models for the Special Library: Exploring three customer service models for the special library
- The Customer Focused Library (webinar archive): the Metropolitan Library System (Chicago) study of the customer experience from a retail perspective
Diversity and cultural difference
- Customer Service for the Multicultural Community (webinar archive): how cultural differences impact customer service
- Reaching out to learn about the Spanish-speaking population at Columbus Met: One librarian’s efforts to learn more about the needs of the Spanish-speaking population in her community
- Walking the Talk - Diversity Workshops: Three sessions with streaming video and handouts on fostering an inclusive environment
- Welcome, Stranger: Public Libraries Build the Global Village (PPT): slides from the webinar on the 2008 report from the Urban Libraries Council
Difficult situations
- Difficult Patron Behavior: Success Stories from the WebJunction Community: from chicken soup and comic relief: how WebJunction members handle difficult patron situations
Guide to Ethics and Values Resources
Library ethics
- Everyday Ethics for Libraries: A series of programs presented by the Kansas Regional Library Systems and the State Library of Kansas, exploring how library professional ethics, as presented in the Library Bill of Rights, along with intellectual freedom concerns and privacy, impact library operations, collection development, policies, planning and customer service.
- ALA Code of Ethics: the ethical principles that guide the work of librarians from the American Library Association
- Understanding the First Amendment: Educating Library Users about the Freedom to Read: A brief history and current state of first amendment rights and the right to read
- Equity of Access: Igniting a Passion for Change: the social and ethical ramifications of providing equal access
Privacy in reference services
- Layers of Privacy in Reference Service: explores privacy as it relates to library reference service is explored
- Privacy and Confidentiality in a Digital Reference Age: new services such as chat reference affect privacy concerns
- Virtual Reference and Patron Privacy: What Do Patrons Really Want?: does digital reference jeopardize patron privacy?
Ethics policies
- Code of Ethics and Behavior Policies from Georgia libraries for:
- Westport Public Library (CT) Confidentiality Policy