Do We Like Our Patrons

I recently asked an instructor at our school to test drive a simple quiz that I created while playing around with PowerPoint. She found it quite fun and easy until she got to the following question: “When a librarian is working on something at the desk, it is impolite to interrupt him or her – true or false.” She was stumped. “I guess it depends on what they are working on,” she answered. When I told her that she should never be worried about interrupting a librarian for help, she was surprised.

My own experience as a patron or visitor to libraries is that librarians can often seem distant. They may not make much eye contact. They may seem reluctant to speak to a patron. They may not smile. They may not look up from the computer when a visitor approaches. All of these things give the impression to a patron that you we would rather not be with them. I know that I have been guilty of these things myself.

Recently, I read The Reference Encounter: Interpersonal Communication in the Academic Library by Marie L. Radford. Radford made an interesting observation that patrons often judge the success of an interaction on interpersonal aspects as much or more as on the successful transmission of information. Perhaps, we enter the field of librarianship more for the love of books or organization that we do the love of helping others. We are often characterizes as serious and quiet, despite the growing trend among librarians to move away from that stereotype.

There is a great deal of writing out there about how to do outreach. Perhaps the best outreach is to reach out first to the person across the counter from us. Are we genuinely happy to see them? Do they in turn seem happy to see us? If we value our patrons, and show them with our demeanor that we value them, then they will better value us.