As I sit here in our 'open plan' warehouse/office/book
store, listening to the monsoon lashing down on our tin roof and watching
through the loading bay doors the rain gusting about in every direction, I
wonder 'Why are public library services considered the poor relation in the
library world and more importantly why is ILL an added extra?'
Don't get me wrong, I think that Hertfordshire has a
wonderful public library service that I'm proud to work for - our staff are
dedicated to helping all comers, we have a wonderful Mobile
library service.
We offer all sorts of online services, including ebooks,
online audiobooks, language courses, online magazines, an enewsletter, access
to all sorts of online reference books, services and even online courses in
every subject you can imagine. But still ILL
is not advertised, never fully understood by either the staff or customers and
is still considered to be a premium service. Something that's expensive to do
and to use and difficult to understand how to use it!
All this despite us making it easier to request as
everything is done online via our library management system and yes we do
charge but it's a small amount in the great scheme of things.
Just look at some of the things we offer, a service where Joe Public can
send in a request for a book they heard about, read about, saw on the
television, not sure of the author or title but they know we'll get it for
them. Or we have the Joe Public who knows exactly the book he wants, right down
to the revised edition, with the forward by Sir Know-it-all published in
Timbucktoo - but not the one published in January but the 2nd revised published
on the third friday of July - yep, we'll get that for you.
That of course covers fiction and non fiction, don't worry
how old the book is, how obscure, how expensive, we'll track it down somehow
for you. (thank you OCLC WorldShare ILL)
The US a boon for those wanting to borrow that item published in 1780 or
actually worth £500 - no chance from anywhere in this country but you can
guarantee a US location will lend it and usually accompanied by a lovely
postcard from the lenders saying how wonderful it is to hear from us 'across
the pond'.
Then of course we also supply large print and talking
books.... and yes Mrs Smith we can get you that talking book on Cassette rather
than CD, despite most authorities abandoning their cassette collections many
years ago. We'll find it somewhere for you, even if we end up buying a second
hand copy from Amazon Marketplace!
Of course along with large print, we also supply Giant
print, braille and Moon - Giant print chick lit is amazing to see - so many
volumes for one book!
Next we receive a request for children's picture books and
stories in Hebrew - 'just 20 or so would be good, for a 4 year old boy and
7 year old girl. Whilst you are getting that collection can you also get a
collection of 15 fiction titles in Bulgarian for a 80 year old lady who only
likes romances, oh and a small collection of books on psychology in Malayalam
too'. Of course no problems, we are a public service and will supply.... and if
you are wondering, yes all of those requests were and are real. (Although I am
still sorry for the poor man at the local prison who wanted books in Somali and
at the time all we could get were books about Camels - including, he informed
us a book of poetry to a camel. He was still very grateful that we could
actually get something for him in his language! Thank heavens for Bright Books
and their wonderful language service.
This is all just one small part of the services we offer
here in ILL
in Hertfordshire and I'm sure this is duplicated across the country. So why
then do people not know what we do, why do we find it so hard to
advertise/market ourselves and our services?
Maybe it is time to stand up and say loud and proud
'I am an inter-library loan person and I can deliver'
...or maybe I should just attend the FIL Conference this
year for some ideas on marketing as this years conference is :
Northern Exposure: Marketing and Bench Marking for the
Future - 23rd and 24th June.
Well, the rains stopped beating down on the tin roof, we can
all hear ourselves think until the next wave comes over, so best get back to
phoning round to find that book with the green cover about a welsh district
nurse ' you know the one, I borrowed it about 20 years ago - can you get it for
me again'.
Tracey Jackson - a proud Inter-Library Loan person
Hertfordshire Libraries
