Skills for reference staff

[Susan Gilkeson]

Ruth Hartman - Adult Services - Ventura Library System wrote:
> 
> An interesting issue has surfaced on Cristal-ed, and I'm curious as to how
> people on this list would respond.  How much technology should a reference
> person be expected to learn?  The argument of some staff is that they need
> only be able to use the computer to access material, but anything
> "mechanical" is not their responsibility.  Should they be expected to do
> maintenance, rebooting, simple repair, etc.?
> 
> 
> Ruth Hartman

As someone else said, I can't imagine NOT doing basic trouble shooting.
In my previous job at a university branch library "they" slowly
insinuated a computer lab into my library yet there were no on-site
computer people. It came down to either calling them and waiting and
telling students "no, I just can't fix that little problem" and feeling
like I was failing them in service OR learning to do it myself. Needless
to say, my clerk and I got VERY good at fixing the little problems that
arise. Only total meltdown was really worth a phone call and making the
computer unavailable for use. Annoying as it could be to have to deal
with the small problems I just couldn't possibly NOT help in the best
way I could to get computers working for the patron. That was, and is,
after all, my primary goal. Connect the patron to the information. :)

Of course, don't ask me to repeat that in a couple weeks. I've just been
made manager of a business school library/LRC where there has NEVER been
such a thing so I'm starting from scratch. Which is, of course, why I've
been reading this list for about a month now. :)

Susan Gilkeson
cowgal at ptd.net
(no, that's not my work email.. they don't have that yet.. this is gonna
get frightening..)