“Librarians at this university take their job way to seriously, we’re students not convicts.”
This comment kind of reminds me of the famous video, Give ‘Em the Pickle.
The moment that I am thinking of comes in another part of the full training video (not found on YouTube that I know of) where Bob Farrell talks about an experience going to a bank. There at the bank they have those pens that are attached to the counter with a chain. Farrell says the message you are sending to the customer with those types of attached pens is, “You are a thief and we know it.”
What are some of the messages we are sending our patrons without really realizing it?
Several years ago at my local library I returned a book to the main desk. The clerk, in an effort to be helpful, told me that I could return my books at the front of the library in the future. I don’t think she realized that she also told me this, “Next time don’t bring this here. Take it to the front instead of bugging me.” She didn’t mean this at all but that was the message I heard.
We need to be very careful how we help our patrons. We may be sending a message we don’t intend.
photo originally uploaded by I Am Rob
Posted by Gerrit 
Shaping Libraries 