The Desk

Like many libraries, ours is making some changes. We're looking at a "new service model," that gets people out from behind the desk and gets us to meet the "patron at their point of puzzlement" (P@tPoP?). In recent redesigns, many libraries are opting to get rid of their so-called bunker desks in favor of minimalist wire and formica stands or doing away entirely with any sort of fixed fixture to allow/make staff roam/rove with the patrons. Viewing this model in action at several places I'm wondering if we're overreacting.

The venerable bunker desk does present an obstacle to good service. Patrons and staff are stuck on opposite sides of this barrier. Physically a desk may have inconvenient openings that prevent staff from getting out to where patrons obviously need help. Perhaps the gravitational pull of the desk prevents staff from moving too far away from it. However, the desk also provides some benefits to service.

The desk provides a place for people to find you. Library staff can't be everywhere, so when a patron has a question, they know where somebody who can help them will be. If you've been to a big box retail store, you know how annoying it is to wander the aisles looking for help. Is it worse to wait at the paint counter for the next person to help you or to wander around the paint department looking for a staff member?

The desk also provides a convenient place to put things you frequently use, like ready reference items, phones, computers, the free county map that you give out 5 times a day, or the library newsletter telling people about storytimes and computer classes.

And, perhaps most importantly for the future of the profession and improved library service, the desk is a place where ongoing, usually informal, professional development occurs. We know that each day there's some bit of the mass of information overload that we need to try to absorb, and frequently that information is best absorbed when filtered and shared by a colleague at the desk. The other day I had to find the prevailing prices charged for writing different types of documents. What source would you use? If you didn't know, but happened to be at the desk with me, I could have told you that there's a 10-page section near the beginning of Writer's Market (page 70-ish) that shows a range of prevailing rates. Several of my colleagues were with me at the desk. Several of them now know this information.

Yes, I could create a list of "Sources I found useful today" and email it to people I work with, but what's more efficient and effective? I can take the time to create the list and send it to you, and maybe you'll read the list and then go look at the sources I recommended and teach yourself how to use it. Or I can show you when you're at the desk with me, and I can leave the book at the desk and you can show it to other colleagues who are working at the desk.

I have no great love for staff stuck behind a desk waiting for patrons to come to them. That's bad service. But I also have no great love for for leaving patrons adrift looking for staff who have no desk and for leaving staff adrift without the resources they need, including useful interaction with their colleagues. That's also bad service.

Since this an early post and you might not know it yet, I would suggest compromise, a theme which I hope will become apparent in future postings.