GIVE 'EM WHAT THEY WANT--AND MORE

There's a good post by Michael Casey on LibraryCrunch.

"Library customers do not always want librarian answers. Sometimes customers want soft data and not hard data." By soft, he means documents, but connections to other people with similar concerns. For instance, when a woman comes into your library looking for information on her newly-diagnosed breast cancer, along with articles and books and websites, you may want to direct her to a local support group or a web-based bulletin board.

"In many ways this is simply an extension of model reference behaviors--making sure our customers get the answer they want and need and not simply the answer we want to provide them." Good words, Michael.

To read the entire post, go to http://www.librarycrunch.com/2006/02/the_answer_and_nothing_but_the.html