Reference skills

Librarians know how to ask questions and how to answer them. The basic knowledge

of librarians in conducting reference interviews   asking probing, open ended questions;

verifying the reference questions through paraphrase/reiteration; and concluding with

follow up questioning of the patron to assure the reference question was answered is

taken for granted in librarianship. However, these skills do not seem to be routinely

imparted to council staff in other areas of the organisation. Reference skills could put

librarians potentially in the vanguard of the customer interface in all areas. 

Cataloguing: information organisation/management skills

Just as librarians were sizing down and outsourcing their cataloguing function, along

came the Web and metadata, calling for those skills that libraries were disassembling in

favour of  front office  work. The message for library management would appear to be

to retain technical staff and build on the skills of the latter, so that they may readily

embrace the new challenges of information organisation. Alternatively, libraries can

source, and enhance in house, metadata with their products and services.

Customer care

One of the most profound changes in local government has been the adoption of customer

service as a core value. For many years, local governments did not have a customer 

service culture. Dealing with government was confusing and organisations were siloed,

so finding the right person to contact could be a daunting experience. Increasingly, 

customer service contact has been streamlined and improved. Call centres and customer

service centres now provide an integrated face to council. Libraries in their traditional

role as book lenders did not figure prominently in the equation, customers were used to

dealing directly with their local branch. In the e world, customer contact centres, where

enquiries by phone, e mail, click to chat and other means of communication are all

answered by the same staff, are beginning to emerge. The most important value that can

be retained in this e world contact centre is the sense of being personally attended to by

a human being. Most people do not like finding their way through the maze of 

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephony. This type of system has been introduced for

the benefit of the organisation, not the customer. Properly run call centres can greatly

enhance the level of customer satisfaction. 

Such contact centres imply a whole new set of skills for staff. People are employed in

call centres for their verbal skills   answering e mail is quite a different skill requiring

good written skills. Click to chat is new to us all   and knowing how to guide someone

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