Library of the Year: Gwinnett County Public Library Sets Strategies for the Future

摘要

Does being Library of the Year mean that we are on the cutting edge where technology is concerned? Unfortunately, we are like many other libraries. We want everything to be perfect before we go out on the limb. For example, we just recently introduced AskInfo, an e-mail reference service-not cutting edge by any means, e-mail reference has been around for years. This was included in the 1997 Technology Plan. What did we learn from the process? That Librarians need to become more like techies'and accept that improvements will be made in the next release. Everything doesn't have to be 100% perfect before we introduce a new service or a new technology. We haven't failed just because we need to make improvements along the way. Librarians need to begin to celebrate what we did right and stop worrying about how it could have been better before we implementation. We should not worry about being taken over by technology and being put out of business. Let's concentrate on our value added service which is really all we have ever had. We've always had competition for our customers concerning books. We've never been the only game in town. WE need to take credit for helping our customers be self sufficient in the 24/7 environment and then be their champions by helping them when they get stuck by showing them the difference between an information professional with expertise in finding and evaluating information and an amateur providing only service. In a profession where a lot of us are baby boomers and entering the end of our shelf life, we need to embrace this philosophy, so, we can adapt what the technological world has to offer in a manner that will best serve our customers. Imagine a library where users can initiate their own ILLs, can chat on-line with a librarian to get their questions answered, e-mail notification when new books arrive and a database created for automatic placement of holds and web-based readers' advisory. How about customers wearing beepers to be notified when computers or a reference librarian are available? Restaurants have embraced this idea and it is working. Customers could freely move around the library and do other things while they wait their turn. Mama. it aint the same old library anymore. Today the library is an environment where IT and library staff must work together as a team to develop library service that really is the champion of its users. And in the words of Martha Stewart, "That's a "Good Thing".