If you have a question about books, would you consider contacting your library, by email, phone, US mail?

Question

I am just curious. I do not work for any library. Reference librarians like to see themselves as having answers. Do you agree? My main interest here is at-a-distance reference service, not visiting a library in person.

Fireflie: Did you get good results by email?

Bin there dun that: Did you get good results by phone?

I guess my question is would YOU consider, not should I consider, contacting your library.

Deble_2000: Did you get good results by email?

Answer 1

I work for the Los Angeles Public Library and while I know that the library does provide service by email and phone (not so much reference service by snail mail. They probably could, but I would be afraid it would be lost in the shuffle if I did that), I would probably prefer phone. I know email seems faster, and it is possible that some libraries do it well, but the branches I have worked for often do not consistently check the email. Also, it is difficult to get all of the information you need from a patron by email. They may say: "I need information about turtles", but in person or on the phone the librarian could conduct a "reference interview" with the patron and extract more information to find exactly what they are looking for (Is this for a class? What grade are you in? Do you need to know how to raise a pet turtle? Do you need information on how turtles live in the wild?) That is very hard to do by email. So, I would just call!

Answer 2

I would contact them by email. That way the librarian has more time to look up the answers to you question, but your answer wouldn't take as long to reach you as snail mail. Telephoning them, unless you just want to question library hours or anything along that vein, puts the librarian on the spot, and they may not take as much time to research the answer as they would if they were able to give you a written reply. (Have you checked to see if your library has a web page? Sometimes the pages have a frequently asked questions section or tools in which you could research the answer yourself. For that matter, if you use the web, you can access libraries from all over the country.)

I do believe librarians like to have the answers, but I think, for most of them, it's because of a sincere desire to help others, not the need to be superior.

Answer 3

I am a librarian. The public library in Manitowoc County delivers books by mail. Many libraries now have email reference service and I have given answers by email to people when I worked the reference desk by phone and by email.

Answer 4

I have a library closeby and drop in enough times. But if I lived far away or was interested in an at-a-distance service, I would try the live chat which most of the libraries offer nowadays. There are decent good people out there who help you all the time. If this doesn't work out well, then email and then snail mail.

Good luck.
-Aski

Answer 5

I use email

Answer 6

Yeah. Same Same.

Answer 7

I would contact them by telephone.

Answer 8

by email, it is fastest and cheapest