Virtue of receiving criticism

I recently compiled a list of comments we received from patrons last month. There were some positive ones that make us feel good and serve as positive reinforcement, such as "I can always find something I want in your New Book area."

Most, however, are comments we record because we were unable to meet the needs of our patrons. There are titles or authors or subjects that we're lacking in. For instance, how did we end up with no books on Louis Comfort Tiffany? Or we had 10 comments from people who wanted access to books that we hadn't brought upstairs during our renovations.

Most people don't like receiving criticism, but if you can get over the initial feeling of hurt that "Hey, you guys blew it" brings on, it's true that we can learn from mistakes. We can learn that just because a book on Tiffany is old doesn't mean that it should be weeded unless you are pretty darn sure that you have other books that do what that book does.

If one is defensive, however, and refuses to accept the criticism and admit that "mistakes were made" then one hasn't learned anything, nor has ones collection improved.