culture of “no” to culture of “why?”

I wish I could remember where I saw this (perhaps in one of the many recent ALA Annual blog posts? If you know, let me know!) but here’s a brilliant idea: get all your public service desks to keep a “No List” — a list of all the times they say “no” to a patron. At the end of the month, collect the lists, figure out the policies that required the staff member to say “no”, and review those policies.

Seems to me that “we’ve always done it that way” might come into play without ever saying those words, so perhaps we need to start by asking ourselves why we say “no” to our patrons.

2 updates: Michael pointed out in the comments that SJCPL keeps a “no” list. Cool! Also, Katie Clark emailed me to let me know that she heard Dan Barlow from Westerville Public Library mention the “no” list at the Lita Next Gen Catalog meeting at ALA (I probably read about it in a blog report about the same meeting). Thanks, Katie!

Hey, who needs to fact-check when you’ve got such awesome readers? (kidding! About the fact-checking, not the awesomeness of my readers)

You have to know - poker games play -instant play

That was my former library SJCPL!

OOps..amongst others!