Customer service as a role of the faculty librarian in the academic library

1. Providing a Library where students are
comfortable, confident and happy in
their pursuit of knowledge at
Rhodes University
(Debbie Martindale:
Librarian: Humanities Faculty)

2. What is customer service?
Rhodes University Library
(RUL) before and after
October 2010
Customer service in my
personal workspace

3. “Good customer service is treating
customers with a good attitude,
helping them in a friendly manner
and efficiently, and making sure
they have a great experience with
your products. This service will
help customers make the best
choices. ”
 http://jobsearch.about.com/od/retailinterviewanswers/qt/goo
dcustomerservice.htm

4.  2 Reference
Librarians
 All faculty liaison
 All workshops
 All reference
queries
 4 Principal Faculty
Librarians
 6 Faculty
Librarians
 4 Faculty Library
Assistants

5. “What do I think
Customer Service means
to me in my job?”
Starting point :
past experience : Circulation
Job Profile
“Where do I want to be in 5 years
time”

6.  Front of house
 Rules, regulations vs
people (personal skills)
 Functionalities (Library
system)
 Supervision (up to 28
people)– training, work
flows and timetables,
acknowledgement,
counselling and discipline,
mediator
 Conflict management:
with library users, within
the team, between the
team and library
management
 Professional service
 Negotiating skills and
decision making
 Organisation and time
management
 Dig deep within yourself:
Listening, empowering
discussions, motivation
 Negotiating, problem
solving, rewarding

7. Service Delivery
Information Retrieval
Supervision
Marketing
Competencies

8. Faculty Communication and liaison
with students and staff
Communication (verbal, email, and
phone)
Raise awareness – library facilities
and services, technologies, new
trends
Its all about having the right
attitude

9. Smile
Eye contact
Personal touch Quality Service

10. Faculty liaison can lead to exciting challenges

12. Observation can lead to great changes: Art Lounge

13. Reference help
Make information easily accessible
Identify the needs of researchers
Assist with finding tools eg webpage,
OPAC, reference tools, online
databases, reference management
tools

14. You do not have to know
everything.
But make sure you find out and
get back to that person.
It goes a long way

15. Researchers
Identify their information needs:
- Attend their staff meetings
- Use the institutional Annual
Report-search their articles
and set alerts to their articles
– notify them when their
articles are cited.
- Create alerts using their
keyword terms and notify
researchers
Postgrads with their research -
alerts

16. Reference Management Tools

17. Communications with faculties
Exhibitions, displays, library
tours
Attend faculty functions eg art
exhibitions, inaugural lectures,
author launches, drama
productions (even after office
hours)

18. Displays
Learn more about the subject
Competitions to stimulate
interaction
Marketing
Faculty Liaison

19. Types of displays
Popular Reading
Current topics eg 20 years of Democracy
Term themes eg Art Department and History (poppies)
Database

20. E-Book Open Day : Collaborative

21.  Continuous improvement
 CPD – Continuing Professional Development
 Brown bag sessions
 Librarian forum
 Opportunities to grow
 Problem solving
 Initiative

22. It takes courage to:
- Attend dept. staff meetings. To speak about workshops, current
trends (e-books or open access to aged academics)
- Request Dept Booklists to order books. To create relevant
displays without interferring with course work
- Use social media (FaceBook, Twitter) in support of our academic
environment
- Create meaningful and useful LibGuides

23. Working
Together
Self Motivation
Leading
the way –
Motivating
others

25.  Within your team
 With colleagues and other units in the library
eg cataloguing, acquisitions, circulation, IT

26.  Technologies – Ongoing learning process
 Attend talks and workshops eg Camtasia,
LibGuides
 Teach yourself eg Microsoft Publisher,
Reference Management Tools
 Read widely – trends eg e-Books, Open
Access, Open Scholarship

27.  It is hard to leave the Comfort Zone. But the
rewards are worth it.
 Take ownership and pride of your own
development
 Remember: Quality and Friendly Customer
Service is the measure of our success