Great leaders listen. They listen to the people around them; they listen to their community; they listen widely; and they listen well. Librarians, like great leaders, need to listen—for a number of good reasons: Guiding the planning and implementation of programs and services; Informing collection development choices; Formulating library policies and procedures; Evaluating programs and personnel; Assisting in management decisions; and Advocating for good libraries.

POWER OF LISTENING

“Librarians must not underestimate the power of listening. To excel at it, they must always have their antennae up, picking up the signals user community members emit all around us. Doing so allows them to gain sensitivity to user needs and expectations” (Bell 2011, 171).

I recounted the story in an earlier SLM article (April 2011) of my 6-year-old grandson who told me he was unable to check out books in one of his favorite book series, the Magic Tree House, from his school library. According to policy, he couldn’t check out a “chapter book” because he was in first grade. At the time, he wasn’t too upset because he was pretty sure the public librarian would let him check them out—and he was right.

Unlike the school librarian, the public librarian was listening and adapting to the customer’s need. In this case, the young reader was obviously familiar with the series of books, had read them before, had copies of his own at home, and wanted to check out more.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

The librarian that listens can ask a child to read a few pages of the desired book and then ask him/her a few questions. If the child can do this with no problem, she can let him/her check out the book. Or, the librarian can discuss the reading level of the child with the teacher and ascertain if the child can read that book before making a decision. Or, the librarian may just let the child check out the book, whether he can read it or not, and suggest that he have his parents help him with it if he has problems. A listening librarian will try to accommodate the customer’s need, even though it may not fit original expectations or policies. Exceptions must be embraced when appropriate.

We need to listen to our customers: the students, the faculty and staff, the parents, and anyone else who is using the school library. This is a customer service driven world. People are impressed with good customer service. When the doctor calls the morning after a procedure to see how the patient is doing, or the grocery store sacker routinely double bags for frozen purchases on a hot day, or the local public librarian searches everywhere on interlibrary loan for a book desperately needed, the customer sees good customer service.

These actions all come from the implementation of good procedures in a customer service driven environment. They are easily adapted and changed, as needed, to meet the needs of the customer. Policies and procedures are meant to be guidelines; they shouldn’t be literally set in stone. Like businesses, librarians need to listen and adapt when necessary.

THINK ABOUT IT

In school libraries, good, thoughtful customer service is not always the norm. For example, in one school, a middle school student has never seen her school librarian in the library. Instead, there is a paraprofessional, who is not very friendly, and the librarian is only glimpsed in the back room at the desk. In another case, a teacher at a local high school tells me that she is never allowed to bring her students to the library for an activity unless her lesson plan has been filed with the librarian a week in advance.

Such actions do not encourage library usage: the first grader who has to go the public library to get the book of choice; the middle school student who only goes to the library when her classroom teacher makes her go and never checks out a book because she is afraid to ask anyone for help; the high school teacher who never goes to the school library because of the demand for a lesson plan to be filed ahead of time. These examples reflect a waste of resources, time, and personnel, and each creates a problem for the library programs.

If customers are not listened to, services that are needed or desired remain unknown or unacknowledged. Politicians and other leaders go on listening tours to find out what their constituents need, want, and think about regarding current, past and future issues. Businesses and government entities bombard customers with phone surveys, opinion polls, focus group opportunities, and other tools so they know what people are thinking. Why should school librarians do less?

A PROPOSAL

School librarians should begin a concerted effort to listen to their customers so they can facilitate needed changes. In a world where school librarians and libraries are being marginalized, customers are of paramount importance. Otherwise, like my grandson, our customers will take their business to the local public library or to the Internet, thereby diminishing the need to even have a school library.

School librarians must design ways to record data, take time to analyze it, and consider what changes need to be implemented. Most school librarians are required to design end-of-the-year evaluation instruments that give insight into customer reaction to programs and services. But that end-of-the-year broad look is not enough; analysis must be ongoing, and sometimes immediate adaptations must be made.

Hernon and Matthews have this advice for academic and public libraries, but school librarians can learn from it also:

• The director… of the library provides enthusiastic support and makes an ongoing commitment to listening to customers and acting on what they learn.
• The library is obsessive about really listening to all its customers and learning more about their information needs and expectations.
• The library gathers all of its voice-of-the-customer data into a single repository.
• A staff member is responsible for ongoing analysis and presentation of the voice-of-the-customer data.
• The library only hires staff who are people persons and take delight in serving customers.
• The library provides staff with training to improve their customer-listening skills.
• The library is committed to being the most customer-focused library possible (2011, 178).

Of course, in most school libraries, the staff consists of the librarian and maybe one paraprofessional, but Bell’s suggestions can still apply. The data gathering may not be as sophisticated, but it is still possible. The effort must be made to always listen carefully to every question or request, and to think carefully about the response. Policies and procedures should be used to guide, not dictate, professional opinion about how services can meet customer wants, needs, and expectations. School librarians can always be “on” the floor and “on” for service during the designated hours. It is possible to be flexible, sensible, and sensitive to the time constraints of customers.

Having notebook or recorder handy for documenting observations is helpful so that the data can be systematically analyzed later to determine what changes to programs, policies, procedures, and services need to be made. An advisory committee of the school administrator, parents, teachers, and students can be convened to help analyze data collected from surveys, group discussions, and other input from customers over time. The analysis can then be used to implement change in services, programming, collection development, daily operations, and interactions with customers.

REWARDS

Wonderful customer service will be rewarded with loyalty over time. Good service is valued and creates advocates for school librarians and school libraries when hard times come. But more than that, good service helps school librarians fulfill their purpose. There is nothing sadder than a library with all shelves in pristine order and no customers.

There is a positive in the ingrained service orientation of school librarians who love what they do and focus on listening to their customers. These are school librarians who think about their own behaviors, policies, procedures, and actions—and change them when necessary.

END OF THE STORY

Last spring, my grandson, still in first grade, came to my house with a very advanced Star Wars hardback chapter book. He was thrilled and glued to it for the entire weekend. I noted that the book was from the school library, so I asked his mother how he came to have it. She said that he saw the book on the shelf in the library and wanted to read it so much that he took it to the librarian and said, “I know I am not supposed to check out chapter books, but I really want to read this, so can I, please, please, check this out?” Of course, the librarian’s immediate answer was no because he was not in second grade. But, he then asked her if he might read a few pages to her (to prove he was capable of handling a chapter book). She agreed and he proceeded to read without error and answered all of her questions. She then said, “OK, you can check it out!” He was thrilled and so am I. The school librarian proved we can do this. We can listen.