Your Money or your Items…. November 16, 2010
Posted by k3nd in Customers, Fines, Staff.add a comment
Overdue fees were introduced to deter customers from returning their items late. Right? To stop instances of the inconvenience of items being out for extended periods. Right? Well, sorry to shatter your beliefs, but this is false. It is a revenue raiser.
A parallel can be seen with speeding cameras. They are not there to increase road safety, but to rake in more money for the State Government (to not spend on roads). Many cameras are not at black spots, but at the bottom of a hill for example.
If the collection of fines dramatically plumetted, the talk would not be on the lines of how great it was people were bringing their items back on time. It would be that we need to be more vigilant in collecting fines.
The process of informing customers they have incurred a fine of whatever amount, can be an arduous, frustrating, time consuming and embarrassing exercise. It is usually a negative experience for both staff member and customer. In the case of an overdue item, simply withdraw borrowing privileges. If the items are not returned within a month, OK, then let ’em have it. Smack them with a replacement cost of the item, plus twenty bucks or so.
Also, the less money staff have to deal with the better. Less money amounts to less procedures, less staff time in counting it, and less chance of auditors sticking in their noses and changing work practices which function just fine.
Then there is the process of reminder letters, emails, and SMS . This is another time consuming exercise. Customers need to take responsibility of what they have issued to them. It is not the responsibility of staff to remind people what they have out. Customers can check their loans online or call the library.
There are countless other duties to perform in the library besides getting tied up with a customer over a piddling $2.00 fine. And if your library does not possess RFID or self checkers, the annoyance is doubled. Not only are you a glorified check out chick/dude, but a debt collector. The profession needs to move along, and discover other methods of revenue collection.
Back in my day…… November 10, 2010
Posted by k3nd in Knowledge, Technology, trends.add a comment
How did we ever live without mobile phones, twitter, facebook, youtube, instant news, etc. Well, not too badly.
There is an obsession to be continually in the loop. We expect to be alerted the second we receive a call, what so and so thinks about nothing, kept up to date with ball by ball comments on news events which are literally unfolding. Our brain is hard wired to the living organism which is the eWorld.
Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to be able to do these things, and I am guiltier than the next person. Ask yourself this. When was the last time you sat down and did nothing? Literally nothing? No ipad, no phone, no internet, no background stimulus? Just sit there and think. Not very often I bet.
We have acquired an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Not only knowledge for our own benefit. But knowledge of what others are doing, thinking, or thinking of doing. When the lines of communication are down, we fret, worry, become agitated, like a dog left outside a building waiting for it’s master. We call the system administrator with beaded sweat, hoping it won’t be long before emails can be checked, facebook updated or thoughts tweeted.
In many ways, we have become slaves to the technology. We somehow feel inadequate or incomplete if our web2.0 portfolio is not up to date. Worry if the latest information is not immediately uploaded to our website.
Having said that, our society will not be making a 180 degree turn back to the art of letter writing, letting our fingers do the walking, or not knowing what meeting so and so is chairing this morning. But sometimes ignorance can be blissful.
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