Episode 904: Access Services - Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange

Welcome to Season Nine of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff.

This season we are going to focus on topics that are important to library support staff. We will be discussing each of the ten competency sets in the American Library Association’s Library Support Staff Certification program. Some of these may overlap with our Library Basics series from Season Seven, but this season we will be looking specifically at the material the ALA has identified as important. We will link to the ALA’s program, if you want more information or want to sign up for one of their classes.

We have talked about the three required courses in this certification program. This week we are talking about one of the competencies that is optional: Access Services. “Access Services include on-site use and the routine circulation of resources in all formats, special circulation of course-reserved or other restricted-use materials, on-site and remote reciprocal circulation with users of partner libraries, interlibrary loan, and document delivery.”

Let’s take a look at each of the 13 different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one.

Library Support Staff (LSS) know the traditional and nontraditional organization schemes for collections. Most libraries are using the Dewey Decimal system or the Library of Congress cataloging system. But there are many others that may be better suited to the needs of other types of the collections they are sharing. Know what type of system your library uses, and get to know how it works to make your collection accessible to the community you are serving.
You want to know how to apply and manage the appropriate processes, technology, and equipment for circulating library materials, resource sharing, reserves, and user services. This is a very traditional skill library staff will master. Knowing how to circulate material is a fundamental skill to make the library work. Depending on the size of your library, everyone may be involved in these tasks, or there may be a dedicated support services staff who handle some of the behind-the-scenes work. Even if these tasks are not part of your regular work routine, it’s good to know how they work so you can talk about them to patrons.
Library staff need to understand and apply copyright principles and policies pertaining to access functions such as reserves, document delivery, and interlibrary loan. This does not mean that you need to become an expert in the ins and outs of federal copyright laws. But again, you want to be able to explain to patrons at least the basics of why they cannot photocopy an entire book, or why you cannot scan and send them an entire journal. And you want to be able to talk about why some books or articles or other materials are behind the desk and available for only two hours, or two days, or why other restrictions exist.
It’s important for all staff to understand and apply the principles, policies, and procedures regarding user privacy in library services. We have talked about the importance of privacy in several other podcasts. This is part of the library code of ethics: we take the privacy of our users seriously, and we protect that information from the prying eyes of other people.
Staff members need to understand and apply the policies and procedures for resource sharing among libraries. One of the great things about libraries is our ability to share resources. When something is not going to be needed by more than a couple of your patrons, it may be easier and cheaper to just borrow it from another library than to add it to your own collection. This may not be your daily task, but it’s good to know generally how it works so you can give patrons an idea of how long things will take and the process they can follow.
Library staff need to understand and apply the principles, policies, and procedures of security for people, equipment, and collections. This is not the fun part of the job, but it’s important to know how to keep things and people safe in your library. Most of the people who come to your library will be fine – never causing a problem. But a few will be destructive, steal things, or cause behavioral problems. We all need to be thinking about strategies for keeping things, and ourselves, safe from these small numbers of people.
We talked about this in last week’s class, but it’s important for staff to understand and use effective communication skills to explain access services policies and procedures. Yes, it would be great if we just gave things out to anyone, anytime, for any amount of time. But we have some rules about how these things work, and you want to be comfortable with explaining them to patrons. (As a side note: hopefully there are not TOO many rules; our job is to say yes and to connect people with information, not to have fussy rules.)
It is a key skill for every person in the library to understand and apply customer service strategies to establish a welcoming atmosphere for all library users. You want people to feel comfortable when they come to your library, to have a positive experience, and to know that the staff is interested in helping them to find what they are looking for every time they visit. We have literally no more important task in a day.
Not every day in the library is easy or smooth sailing, so staff need to be able to assist people in emergencies, diverse situations, and with diverse needs. Weird things will always happen in libraries – some will be scary. So know the basics of what to do in a fire, where to go if a tornado comes through. And you also want to know what to do when a patron comes to use the library with different kinds of physical disabilities. It may be “go find the person who is trained to be useful” but you want to know that.
Library staff should be able to perform applicable financial transactions and record keeping. THis probably is not going to require significant math, but you want to be ready to know how to make change, how to use Excel charts to track books coming in from various orders, or other basic tasks. As with many of these, you do not need to be an expert, but you want to be comfortable with using computers or other devices to track material in your library.
One of the most common tasks library staff will do is to maintain collections by shelving, shifting, and shelf reading. If you have been in any library, anywhere, for more than five minutes you know that the shelves get messy. Things get out of order, and once that happens they are just gone. Keeping the books in order, keeping them looking nice – this makes the collection more accessible and also makes them more appealing to people who may want to check them out.
One of the possibly less-fun tasks staff need to be comfortable doing is to identify and solve problems related to circulation and resource sharing processes. Sometimes it is a technology problem, sometimes it’s a time problem, and sometimes things just go wrong. It’s good to get comfortable with talking through problems with patrons, and working on de-escalating problems before they get out of control.
Finally, library staff need to be ready to assist with collecting and reporting data on collections and services. It’s not enough to know in our hearts that the library is doing great; we need to have data, numbers, and stats to show to funders – and everyone else – to prove how much value we are providing. Our return on the investment made in libraries is pretty staggering, so do not be afraid to ask people how they like things. It’s okay to hear some bad news with this; not every program or material is a winner, and it’s better to know than to have people muttering unhappily behind your back.

Do you feel like you have a quick understanding of these components of access services? There is, of course, a lot more to learn. We can all spend our careers working on enhancing these skills! Use the CMLE podcast resources as a place to start, and if you want to sign up for the ALA/APA classes to get more information, we link to them in our show notes.

Books Read

Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that we love: sharing a book we are reading. We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!

Pink Is For Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals (The World of Weird Animals),
Open and Shut, book #1, by David Rosenfelt

Conclusion

This was a quick overview of the skills of access services. Stay with us all season to get an overview of all ten of the ALA/APA’s certification topics for library staffers. And if you want to find out more about getting certified yourself, check the website (linked in our show notes), or just email us at admin@cmle.org.

Thanks for spending time with us today. It is always great to have this time to chat with you about libraries and the skills we need to be successful. Come back next week, because we have more information to share about libraries! This is just the beginning, and there are so many other great things to share!

Let’s take a look at each of the 13 different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one.

Library Support Staff (LSS) know the traditional and nontraditional organization schemes for collections. Most libraries are using the Dewey Decimal system or the Library of Congress cataloging system. But there are many others that may be better suited to the needs of other types of the collections they are sharing. Know what type of system your library uses, and get to know how it works to make your collection accessible to the community you are serving.
You want to know how to apply and manage the appropriate processes, technology, and equipment for circulating library materials, resource sharing, reserves, and user services. This is a very traditional skill library staff will master. Knowing how to circulate material is a fundamental skill to make the library work. Depending on the size of your library, everyone may be involved in these tasks, or there may be a dedicated support services staff who handle some of the behind-the-scenes work. Even if these tasks are not part of your regular work routine, it’s good to know how they work so you can talk about them to patrons.
Library staff need to understand and apply copyright principles and policies pertaining to access functions such as reserves, document delivery, and interlibrary loan. This does not mean that you need to become an expert in the ins and outs of federal copyright laws. But again, you want to be able to explain to patrons at least the basics of why they cannot photocopy an entire book, or why you cannot scan and send them an entire journal. And you want to be able to talk about why some books or articles or other materials are behind the desk and available for only two hours, or two days, or why other restrictions exist.
It’s important for all staff to understand and apply the principles, policies, and procedures regarding user privacy in library services. We have talked about the importance of privacy in several other podcasts. This is part of the library code of ethics: we take the privacy of our users seriously, and we protect that information from the prying eyes of other people.
Staff members need to understand and apply the policies and procedures for resource sharing among libraries. One of the great things about libraries is our ability to share resources. When something is not going to be needed by more than a couple of your patrons, it may be easier and cheaper to just borrow it from another library than to add it to your own collection. This may not be your daily task, but it’s good to know generally how it works so you can give patrons an idea of how long things will take and the process they can follow.
Library staff need to understand and apply the principles, policies, and procedures of security for people, equipment, and collections. This is not the fun part of the job, but it’s important to know how to keep things and people safe in your library. Most of the people who come to your library will be fine – never causing a problem. But a few will be destructive, steal things, or cause behavioral problems. We all need to be thinking about strategies for keeping things, and ourselves, safe from these small numbers of people.
We talked about this in last week’s class, but it’s important for staff to understand and use effective communication skills to explain access services policies and procedures. Yes, it would be great if we just gave things out to anyone, anytime, for any amount of time. But we have some rules about how these things work, and you want to be comfortable with explaining them to patrons. (As a side note: hopefully there are not TOO many rules; our job is to say yes and to connect people with information, not to have fussy rules.)
It is a key skill for every person in the library to understand and apply customer service strategies to establish a welcoming atmosphere for all library users. You want people to feel comfortable when they come to your library, to have a positive experience, and to know that the staff is interested in helping them to find what they are looking for every time they visit. We have literally no more important task in a day.
Not every day in the library is easy or smooth sailing, so staff need to be able to assist people in emergencies, diverse situations, and with diverse needs. Weird things will always happen in libraries – some will be scary. So know the basics of what to do in a fire, where to go if a tornado comes through. And you also want to know what to do when a patron comes to use the library with different kinds of physical disabilities. It may be “go find the person who is trained to be useful” but you want to know that.
Library staff should be able to perform applicable financial transactions and record keeping. THis probably is not going to require significant math, but you want to be ready to know how to make change, how to use Excel charts to track books coming in from various orders, or other basic tasks. As with many of these, you do not need to be an expert, but you want to be comfortable with using computers or other devices to track material in your library.
One of the most common tasks library staff will do is to maintain collections by shelving, shifting, and shelf reading. If you have been in any library, anywhere, for more than five minutes you know that the shelves get messy. Things get out of order, and once that happens they are just gone. Keeping the books in order, keeping them looking nice – this makes the collection more accessible and also makes them more appealing to people who may want to check them out.
One of the possibly less-fun tasks staff need to be comfortable doing is to identify and solve problems related to circulation and resource sharing processes. Sometimes it is a technology problem, sometimes it’s a time problem, and sometimes things just go wrong. It’s good to get comfortable with talking through problems with patrons, and working on de-escalating problems before they get out of control.
Finally, library staff need to be ready to assist with collecting and reporting data on collections and services. It’s not enough to know in our hearts that the library is doing great; we need to have data, numbers, and stats to show to funders – and everyone else – to prove how much value we are providing. Our return on the investment made in libraries is pretty staggering, so do not be afraid to ask people how they like things. It’s okay to hear some bad news with this; not every program or material is a winner, and it’s better to know than to have people muttering unhappily behind your back.

Books Read

Pink Is For Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals (The World of Weird Animals),
Open and Shut, book #1, by David Rosenfelt

Books Read

Conclusion

Books Read

Conclusion

Partnering with libraries for visioning, advocating, and educating