The University of the workplace

While scanning the daily newspapers (I usually do the Guardian and Daily Telegraph) I found an article in The Guardian of today (23rd September 2008) about on the job training which is increasing and according to the article it brings the best out of employees: "We've always argued that the workplace is somewhere people learn rather than go and vegetate," says Liz Smith, director of unionlearn, the body that oversees the network. "The more people are engaged in learning, the more they will contribute to an organisation. They are more motivated, confident and adaptable."

I can't understand why some companies would not want to invest in training for their employees, I would say staff (like me) feel valued and feel they can progres in their professional careers, it can make them feel more motivated and do their job in a better way, so at the end of the it can increase staff retention as well.

Sure it costs money to train staff, but it is an investment because happier staff means they are happier to work for you and if they are happier to work for you they will make improvements and increase productivity. As a company you will end up with a skilled workforce making your company more competitive and that will show on bottom line.

Hmm, my witty colleague (Umm... let's just call him Mark) next to me just said "that is a bold statement, they would probably get all the training they can and then leave for a better job......" :s HMM!

Anyway, my organisation is a "training organisation" to begin with, we offer training and qualifications for marketers, so it would be appropriate for the staff here to be given a lot of free training. Personally I think I do get a lot of training, I am not sure if it is because I am doing the chartership only, but when I find an interesting course I do bring it up with my line manager and for some reason I feel this eagerness to learn and I actually enjoy going on courses and be trained in new things. I believe it is because I feel there is just so much out there happening and I want to become part of it and make sure that my organisation is aware and following the new changes. Besides I just love studying and learning new things...... so much more fun and valuable that sitting behind closed doors....... :)

Beyond Google....

In the 22 August - 4 September 2008 edition of Gazette from CILIP there was a little piece on how academic library and information professionals can educate students about searching beyond Google.

I ordered a DVD from University of Brighton as we do not have access to YouTube here at work (!) Had a look at it the other day, hmm not really for me/us here. As it said on the description it offers advice on developing training sessions, e.g. make sure you have eye contact, make sure you set up this and this.

But I am just pleased I had a chance to look at it and it just makes me more aware of how important it is not to think of Google as a universal library catalogue, I have learnt that that is far from the truth. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Google as a brand as anyone else does (after all it is the most loved brand according Marketing's annual league table), I love the fun of Google, the colours, their new ideas (Google Labs), the changing banners (Which brand do you know of that changes its looks almost every week, successfully?) but because I have now realised that for information retrieval purposes Google is not a solution, but merely a tool out of thousands of tools, I am looking at Google with new pair of glasses (pardon my poor translation of a Danish phrase).

Doing the customer service thing

My initial thoughts on customer service are:

• good customer service is something people remember you by
• good customer service is so important it can increase your profits
• customer service isn't about a one off experience, good service delivery has to be consistent

The reason I am looking into this now is because I have put customer service on my PPDP as something I want to see how I can improve my customer service skills. Recently I found a book on our "New Books Added to the Library Catalogue" about customer service. It's called "Wow! that's what i call service", its by Don Hales and Derek Williams and has some really good examples of how some employees in different industries have gone the extra mile to help somebody (customer). It is inspiring, and when I get positive feedback, I am always willing to go even further the next time.

Thinking about it, when have I offered good customer service? Hmm, I can think of examples of situations where I got really positive feedback from customers which means that I must have done something to impress them. We tend to get good feedback on our email enquiries and get many "thank you for your prompt response" emails. That is one way of measuring our service. We had a student who was visually impaired and needed a long list of publications in format that her software could read out for her so I made an extra effort to request the books through the publishers (and as many may know, publishers aren't the easiest people to deal with on this planet.....) and I gathered articles and changed their format and copy and pasted things to make all these document readable for her. It was a task that took a couple of months and although there was one book which I just could not get hold of in electronic copy, she was happy for the fact I put so much effort in for her. Another time, I hand delivered some photocopies to a student who needed these papers for an important conference she was leaving for at 5am the day after. Her office was only 2 minutes walk from my house and I would have to drive past it anyway, so I arranged with her to drop by after work and deliver the documents myself. She was a happy customer, telling me how much she appreciated my dedication and she was very amazed the my organisation would go this far for it's members. Doesn't that just make you smile dear reader? :)

I do feel that everything I do when speaking or emailing or talking to a customer/member/visitor/participant can become a positive experience. There are the unhappy members who are misrable from the time you say hello to them, but you can turn that around and even though you may not be able to help them, you can change their mood and make them leave happier than when they phoned. It is important to try, it is not only my job to dig out things a provide people information, it's to hand over a document with a smile on my face. Moods are contagious you know......

Just now, while writing this, I have taken a call from a member and I ended the conversation with a "thank you, that is very kind of you", because he said to me:

"You know what, you are a star, you have been a great help, I did not know about that source, thank you very much, what is your name?"

"My name is Maninder, that is spelled M-A-N-I-N-D-E-R" I said

"Thank you very much Maninder, it has been a absolute pleasure speaking to you".

Hopefully he will remember that I provided him good service with a smile and he will know he can contact us when he needs help in the future.

Going home now with a smile on my face :o)

Crome? Croming?

I've downloaded Google's new browser Crome, was really exited, but the only thing I have managed to figure out is that your search box is same as your url box, which is great because you do not have to open Google's page. But this also means that you are using Google without realising u are using it! ...... hmmm

Non-Google Day link

Some weeks ago (or was it months?) I mentioned my commitment to non-google day, and since then I have using different search engines on Wednesdays. If there is a week where I can't think of a new search engine to use, or I do not have time to look for one (usually I find them on Karen Blakeman or Phil Bradley's website) then I just continue using any of the previous search engines I've tried. But this one is new for the list of search engines to try: http://www.cluuz.com/

I found a reference to it in Karen Blakeman's Tales from the Terminal Room newsletter of August 2008.

I could also use these, which I've got in my favourites list in my browser:

Ask.com
Canuckster.com
Exalead.com
Live.com (used on 17/09/08)
Yahoo.com (used on 10/09/08)
Graball to compare search engine results side by side
Copernic Agent to search multiple search engines
www.intelways.com
www.zuula.com
www.akacrawiki.com

This will be an opportunity to learn the features and weaknesses of these search engines. It will be an opportunity to get out of the Google rut.

A visit to the CILIP Library - after the visit

Although the CILIP library is the size of one of our bookshelves in my organisation's library, it was a grrrreat experience to visit the team! I would say that it is something everyone ought to do once in a while (visit a library that is), chartership or no chartership.

Today I was the member who knew only the average 10% of the services offered by the membership organisation! It was very eye opening because usually I explain our members about all the services that they may never have heard about even though they have been members for a decade! I was basically the lacking-knowledge-of-membership-organisation's-services-type-of-member this time :) Which was a good thing, because now I know what it feels like. There were two good things about this visit:


1) I became aware of a lot of the things my membership organisation can offer me and I am now going back with a bunch of ideas and knowledge in my bag. Things like the CILIP blog, the CILIP forum, the type of questions CILIP can advise me on etc.


2) I have visited another library "behind the scenes" for the first time, and it was an eye opener to see how the same things can work differently and how different things can work the same way.


I will now see if I can visit a public library, I have a feeling I will enjoy that too!


This is what I have learnt/experienced today:

• I was asked if this blog can be aggregated by the CILIP Members Blog Landscape: I was informed that a lot of people underestimate how useful a blog can be and been offered to make it available as a CILIP BLOGGER as they call it here. Sounds good to me, as it will get me motivated to write more, more properly and it will mean that my thoughts might be useful to someone else.
• Because this was not a library at the same scale that we are, the way the department was organised was completely different, less library like and more like a academic/corporate organisation.
• Some of the tools used to promote CILIP and LIS were more advanced than my organisation's, this includes things like:
  1) Staff have created a FAQ database accessible for all staff at CILIP, it is continuously maintained and can be time saving when you have to answer the same sort of questions, e.g. where can I find information on data protection etc, but it also gives more consistency in answers and it is a way of sharing resources.
  2) The Information and Advice team has got their own blog (http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/informationadvice/default.aspx) and update it with new websites they encounter while answering the enquiries from their members or information that may be useful to LIS people like me from news and e-newsletters. It's a good initiative and I generally like anything that shares information with others. I am not sure such a blog would work for my information and library team; if we have a website we like we send it around so staff can bookmark it, or we can choose to add it to our catalogue or website. Kinda simple, but with our current website design, I don't see a blog happening.
• Some people actually complain about the CILIP Salary Guides saying that they earn alot more than the average and that the average salaries presented by CILIP are too low!?! :s (Team Leader Jill Duffin told me and I was chocked, wish it was me!)
• Generally the CILIP Information and Advice is different than us because they also offer advice on for example copyright or career, while here things like enquiries take up most of our time.

Sometimes you don't walk away thinking, oh I must go home and do this, this and this, while other times, like this, you go you home thinking, it was good I came, at least now I know. :o)

A visit to the CILIP Library - before the visit

I have arranged a visit to the CILIP library at the CILIP headquaters tomorrow. This is one of the good things about doing chartership, you get a good excuse to get out there and peak into the LIS world. I dont know if I will get such opportunities later on, so I want to explore as much as possible now when I have the chance! :o)

I will see how it goes tomorrow, and if "needed" I might consider going to another library and see how things work there, maybe a public library? When will I get the chance to visit a public library "behind the scenes"? :)

As it is a membership body such as my own organisationI am planning on looking into the following areas tomorrow:

• Number of members
• How many work in the library and how many are actually librarians and chartered?
• Type and number of enquiries received
• Sources, in house, alternatives
• Software used
• How do they market themselves
• What is their policy on

Oh and while I am there I must ask them about the changes being made to the CPD scheme and on behalf of my manager ask about the revalidation scheme, maybe they could need some tips from us?

Generally: to pick up ideas about how another professional membership bodies' library works compared to ours and to liase with other professionals about current issues in CPD, LIS and the general status of the library world!

Let's see!