Edtechkat

There is an interesting conversation happening on a few blogs about how we prioritise clients who are asking reference questions via different means. They are worth reading in full and the comments are just as interesting as these posts. The two posts below provide a background to the discussion:

• Ask-a-Librarian Services Need a Reboot . David Lee King looks at various library’s policy documents about how they will prioritise clients seeking service in person, via telephone, via email and via chat. He is deliberately provocative:

Please don’t tell me that you can somehow only serve those customers who actually walk into the library and up to your physical reference desk, but can’t get to the customers who call or email or IM or txt you in a timely fashion. I’m not buying that.

The problem isn’t the volume or the format of the question, but the way your reference services are arranged. Rearrange it. Now. Please.

• Separate but not equal? Meredith Farkas looks at the discussion generated in the comments and adds the perspective of serving the distance learner in a university library.