Customer service at your fingertips? #AskALibrarian


As is the case with many organizations that have social media accounts, libraries have become more accessible to the public in many ways due to their increased online presence. For libraries that use twitter, one amazing kind of immediate customer service that occurs is through #AskALibrarian. Patrons can tweet at the library using this hashtag to get a response. People ask for book recommendations; library hours, services and policies; and even guidance for bookish gifts!

Need a good read? Just dm or tweet your librarian!




Not sure about what goes on at the library or what they can help you with? Just ask.



Even if it seems a bit obscure, the library might just be able to help you get a gift too.




While in most cases this is all-around awesome for patrons and staff alike who get to interact this way, the question becomes - where do you draw the line? When should the #askalibrarian service ever not respond, or be concerned about a post? Especially on twitter, there's plenty of sarcasm and strangeness to go around, so public institutions like libraries still sometimes have to be careful about what they say, and how they say it. Take the following interaction:

That response could have gone wrong in numerous ways, but the staff member for that library system did an excellent job of making the interaction a positive one. When it comes down to questionable statements and messages being sent to the library, there's no one way to handle it, and each library's social media team will need to address these events when they occur, taking their context and potential consequences into consideration, and doing their best to be a positive accepting presence online.

So when it comes down to it, you can now (as before) as the library whatever question you want. Now, however, since libraries have made themselves on social media they have opened to door for every question under the sun at any time. While this is certainly a presentation of values-based service extending over into the digital realm, it is important for libraries to know what they're doing on social media and have a well-trained staff before they dive into using twitter for customer service and interaction. So far, it's looking good for the librarians!

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