[Web4lib] Libraries: Standing at the Wrong Platform, Waiting for the Wrong Train?

[K.G. Schneider]

> Another point about Lisa's story is that we should all use our own
> libraries as our users would (not as librarians who are often
> afforded special dispensation). Often when I do this I am not pleased
> about one thing or another, and it's those things upon which we need
> to focus our attention.
> Roy

Most of us can't really use our OWN libraries as our users would, though we
can make an effort. (I'm also not opposed to membership having some
privileges.) But we can and should use OTHER libraries fully in this role,
without having to don costumes a la restaurant reviewer Ruth Reichl to get
the full customer service treatment (or not, as the case may be). 

Another point has to do with costs and how they are allocated. Nothing is
free. So the library denying Lisa a service (let us email you that article)
is making a cost decision. But the library is also taking Lisa, the
taxpayer/tuition-payer, out of that decision loop. (Not only that, it's a
typically loopy and inconsistent loop, like the justifications I've heard
for putting walk-in customers ahead of everyone else.) 

Amazon, on the other hand, hands a lot of cost decisions to the user. It's
never free (face it, they're rank capitalists), but the options range from
new hardcover to a used copy, from no extra charge for delivery if you wait
for it to luxury overnight service if you pay extra for it (with plenty of
gradients in between). 

The same thing that makes me hesitate about national health foments my
criticism of many library services. I remember from years ago Charles
McClure talking about how we focus on serving the underserved--a worthy
goal--but do not also focus on serving the well-off. He talked about the
potential for libraries to be information sources of FIRST resort (as well
as LAST resort). This is not only ensuring service to all, but is a
strategic self-preservation effort. Unfortunately, far too many libraries
operate from a monopolistic paradigm where the assumption going in is they
have no competition, when, in fact, our competition breathes down our neck
as we speak. There are larger reasons to have libraries, reasons worth
fighting for, but we aren't going to defend these reasons by failing to
revisit business as usual.

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com