[LINK] Looking for a real book in a library

[Tom Worthington]

While on holiday I got a message to say that a book I had requested was 
ready for collection from the library. Back from holidays I went to the 
library and asked at the front desk for the book. But was told that 
because I had taken so long the book was no longer there.

What I found somewhat perplexing was that the person at the desk seemed 
to have no way to find out where the item was now, nor any interest in 
helping me find it. After some time standing there waiting for them to 
tell me where the book was, I asked them if they knew where it was. The 
response what as my book request had expired all record of it had been 
deleted from the computer. I assumed the staff would then look up the 
location of the book in another system and stood there a little longer. 
But getting no response I said "perhaps I will look in the catalogue?".

The catalogue said the item was on the shelf. So I went looking for it. 
As with many modern libraries there are no books on the main floor, just 
computers. The books are hidden in the basement and on the upper floors. 
Finding a sign which indicated these books were in the basement, I 
entered the lift and pressed the button for the lowest level. Nothing 
happened. Then I noticed a sign against that level saying "staff only". 
So I went to the information desk and asked how I got books out of the 
basement. The staff member looked at me like I was an idiot and said: 
"use the stairs".

After finding the stairs to the basement I was confronted by a row of 
shelving which seemed to stretch to the far distance. There were one or 
two people down there who looked like they had not seen daylight for 
some time. In the place where I expected to find my book on e-records, 
there were books in Thai. So looked in another section, then on the 
sorting shelves, then on the upper levels of the building.

Giving up in frustration, I went back to my desk and sent a query to 
"Ask a Librarian", which Australian libraries seem to have standardised 
on. I asked "Is there somewhere else I should be looking?" and commented 
"I realise that it is a somewhat old fashioned concept, but it might be 
useful to have some staff in the library to help people find books." Ten 
minutes later there was email from the library. I thought "that was 
quick". But the message was telling me another unrelated book had arrived.

When I collected that book the next day I found the one I had been 
looking for also waiting for me. Then an apology arrived by email, then 
another apology from someone else at the library and another.

It turned out that the people I had asked where the stairs were was the 
reference desk for the library and I could have asked for help finding 
the book there. But the desk was labelled something like "iHelp" and was 
stocked with pamphlets for computer courses, so I assumed this was just 
for help with computer use.

Perhaps I should see this as success with the process of turning 
libraries into online information centres, but it is a little sad to see 
the passing of the era when libraries were about books (that is "paper" 
books).


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra