Try This Tuesday

For this week's suggested Try This, I'm recommending something I just recently started doing. Namely, try keeping a document, notes, or whatever with comments you hear informally from patrons. For instance, I jotted down a comment from a Social Work grad student who told me, "I feel stupid asking you for help because I should know how to do this stuff!", and one from a returning student in an undergrad program who said to me after an instruction session, "Nobody wants to come to these things, but I think it should be a requirement for all freshman. It was very enlightening for me."

I decided to write these insights down because they serve as a reminder to me of what problems students face, and can help me understand how best to appeal to patrons through understanding their points of view. It's very easy to forget what libraries are like from the patron's perspective, but understanding that perspective is key to good marketing.