1. Demystifying the Dragon Creating and Transforming a Library Service Philosophy into Professional Practice Jeanne Le Ber Education Librarian Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library jeannele@lib.med.utah.edu http://medlib.med.utah.edu/faculty/jeanne.html 801-585-6744

2. Libraries are service organizations Eccles Librarys culture of service Supported by our administration Individuals who model quality service Service ethic not formalized Remedy the situation

3. Goals of this Presentation Identifying need Identifying service ingredients Writing the service philosophy document Communicating service ethic to customers and new employees Evaluating employee performance based on delivery of service

4. Identifying Need Informal process Observation Team meetings –Supervisors Group –Planning Group Create something unique

5. Identifying service ingredients Set up an initial meeting Established guidelines –how we want our service to be perceived by our customers –how we provide service to each other Set up additional meeting dates and times –used a video to stimulate discussion Recorded discussion

6. Treat customers as you would want to be treated Dont say NO, offer alternatives Be polite, but not familiar Take responsibility; seek a solution Acknowledge the customers concern and frustration Express empathy-I understand how frustrated you must feel... Do not be defensive-be willing to help and find a satisfactory response Refer a difficult customer to a co-worker

7. Identifying service ingredients Prioritized and refined list Emailed meeting notes to employees Asked for feedback Continued discussions in meetings

8. Writing the service philosophy document Preamble How we plan to deliver quality service –list of seven tenets Revision

9. Our Service Philosophy We are committed to providing the highest quality service. We are here to assist any person who seeks our services, and to provide instruction and access to information through the wealth of print and electronic resources. As a user-centered library, we treat people with dignity and respect. All questions are valid and answered to the best of our ability.

10. Communicating service ethic Posted document –for our customers –for our employees Supervisors use document to train new employees Encourage good service by being flexible Model good service

11. Evaluating employee performance Service is included in job description and recruiting One measure of success is how well employee delivers service Annual staff evaluation process Faculty PRT evaluation Evolving process

12. Conclusions The Dragon is Demystified! 5 Step process –need, meeting, writing, communicating and evaluating Team effort to produce Ownership of values Revisit document periodically Reminder to give good service Thank you!