Many thanks to all of you who have shared with me your "pet 'pets'" - the
things that make your work days brighter and keep you coming back for
more.
So what is it law librarians really want?
We like customer service reps who offer good service and MIS staff who
help us do our jobs.
We like helpful colleagues - including those we meet on this list!
We like patrons who are willing to learn and to engage in their own
research. We are delighted when they come to the reference desk, asking
for help and saying they've already tried the catalog! We like it when
they take the time to learn (instead of snapping their fingers and
expecting us to hand them the answer).
We like to be treated with respect. We like to be acknowledged as
professionals. We like to have our expertise recognized. (Sometimes this
can be done in a lighthearted way, as when a student refers to someone as
a "reference goddess.") We like to be included in our organizations -
e.g., during tours and orientations.
Most of all, we like to be thanked. The thank yous can come in many forms
- people mentioned flowers, hugs, cookies, footnotes, contributions to the
library's party fund, even a contribution to an animal welfare charity in
memory of a librarian's cat. But many correspondents said that, while
cookies and candies are nice, what they really appreciate is a simple,
sincere "Thank you!"
I am still collecting pet "pets" and will work on a more complete summary
later. If you have more you would like to share, please send them to me
directly.
I am going to sign off law-lib for a couple of weeks so that I'm not
overwhelmed when I return from my vacation. See you later!
Mary Whisner, Head of Reference
Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington
whisner@u.washington.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:57 PST