Um...: The Sequel

We were wrestling today...again!...with the frequent, annoying glitches in our public computer network's sign-in process. PCs that have just logged out will show as "faulty," customers won't be released from PCs they've already been booted off of, etc., etc., etc.

Of course, this is all happening after a network software upgrade last fall.

One of my techie buddies thinks the actual problem is that the old PCs aren't up to signaling quickly enough to the new network. A PC knows it's available and says so on its screen...but the network doesn't know until a few minutes later!

And...of course...thanks to yet more property tax cuts, the City budget can't cover an upgrade of the several 1000 PCs on the library network.

*grrrr...*

When we heard this probable explanation, I turned to Trapdoor Spider and recited one of my decades-old mantras: "I HATE 'New & Improved'!"

Trapdoor promptly giggled. My words had reminded her of a gizmo her father had years ago which was designed never to become obsolete. On a lark she Googled it and, sure enough, here it is!

The Improved #7 BUNAB,
from Orville K. Snav & Associates

According to Jack Lynch, "The Improved #7 Bunab was the flagship product of Orville K. Snav & Associates, of Mason City, Iowa..., run by the late Al Crowder, Assistant to the President.... [The BUNAB was] first introduced in the 1950's....

"The improved #7 Bunab was attractively priced, in spite of its cutting-edge technology. If I recall correctly, when I bought mine (late 1970's), they were $1.35 each, or two for $2.75....

"Each Bunab came with a set of instructions and was marked with its own serial number. The number on my instructions is "41400."

Lynch includes the text of the instructions:

THIS GENUINE IMPROVED No. 7 BUNAB
will, with reasonable care, give years of trouble-free service. It has been scientifically inspected and checked against the master model at the factory.

#7 Improved BUNAB will meet, or exceed, specifications set up by the industry for accuracy, durability, and simplicity of operation.

NO MOVING PARTS insures constant stability. Elimination of springs, cams, splines, etc., insures against variations due to changes in temperature or humidity.

NON-FADE COLORS make it practical for use in bright sunlight for long periods.

For periodic cleaning, use only mild soap and warm (not hot) water. Naptha, carbon tetrachloride, or alcohol are not needed and might result in damage if such solvents are used too often.

WARNING . . . In spite of the simplicity of design, your #7 BUNAB should be treated with the respect due any delicate instrument. When not in use it should be kept IN THE BOX. The box is designed so that the BUNAB may be safely carried in the pocket or purse. Damage may result from careless handling.

SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN assures perfect results, even in the hands of the average housewife or small child. With a minimum of practice, results equalling those of a skilled technician using the conventional instrument may be expected.

LOW COST, due to mass production and control makes it practical to invest in a spare BUNAB. Many users keep a new spare on hand for critical testing. After prolonged use the BUNAB may indicate a variation of one or two percent when checked against a new BUNAB. In that case, the old one should be discarded immediately. Satisfaction in positive results will readily offset the slight cost of replacement.

BE SURE TO FILL OUT THE REGISTRATION CARD AND MAIL IMMEDIATELY. In filling out the card your comments on your experience with the BUNAB will be appreciated. Also any suggestions for improvement.

The improved #7 BUNAB is a product of

O R V I L L E K. S N A V & A S S O C I A T E S
Mason City, Iowa 50401

And here is a picture of the Improved #7 BUNAB:

Notice, BTW, that the instructions don't give you any idea what it's for...but that's the beauty of the thing. Properly cared for, it NEVER becomes obsolete!

Lynch tells about other Snav & Assoc. products:

• Zudirk, a small board game whose details I can't remember, but you were definitely not supposed to play it with strangers. In fact, you were clearly instructed: "Don't play Zudirk with strangers!!".... Here are the instructions and board.


• The PMM Shield. Geared to those people who can't stand the morning, it protected them from the onslaught of the AM hours. It consisted of a black semi-circle which you were supposed to paste over one half of your clock face.


• A record for those who liked to listen to records while watching TV. It was priced around $15, according to my Dad, and was completely silent on both sides. Mr. Crowder was once asked on a game show why it cost so much if it was only silence. Crowder defended the price well, saying that the production costs were tremendous. Imagine, he said, getting a full 40-piece orchestra into a studio, getting them all tuned up, and then asking them to remain silent for two 20 minute periods. Invariably, he went on, you'd be seven minutes into a take and someone's chair would squeak, or someone would cough,forcing you to start all over.

If you want testimonials about the BUNAB and other Orville K. Snav & Associates products, check here and here.

BTW, Trapdoor Spider still has her own BUNAB, and it still...um...does what it does....

:-)

Um....

Because she knows I like to follow Brian Herzog's Swiss Army Librarian, my friend Trapdoor Spider showed me the following:

Now, granted, I sometimes feel as if my customers expect me to be this versatile, but...

...how in the heck do you actually hold it to do anything?!

Mike

BTW, note the price: a mere $1,400 (plus $6.95 for gift wrapping).

Ask a Librarian...and beyond

[Yes, I know. I haven't posted anything here since December 17th. As Phyllis Diller used to say, joking about her supposedly unshapely body, "There's lots of reasons, but no excuse."]

One of the reasons is that I and my Remote Services colleagues have been busy with a major reorganization and expansion of our 21-branch library system's participation in Florida's Ask a Librarian (AaL) live chat reference service.

[You can learn more about AaL here.]

Until recently, many of us in librarianship have tended to think of customer service in silos. You know how it goes. These customers are Circ, these are Ref, these, Gov Docs. These are walk-ins, these are phone or email or chat. These are Main Library's, these are Branch X's.

We've tended to think of our staff in the same way. Even when the Main Library's geneology staff work the telephone Call Center, or when someone at Branch X works chat, we tend to think of them as people from those specific units, temporarily filling in on another department's tasks somewhere else.

However, in May of 2008, I attended the 8th Annual Conference of the Association of Government Contact Center Employees (AGCCE) here in Jacksonville.

There I discovered a whole profession of people who provide remote public information services. More importantly, I was introduced to the paradigm shift of organizing such services around customers, instead of around modes of communication.

Remote customers are not actually divided by where they are or how or when they get in touch with you. Nor are staff—at least, not when they have access to phone and email and chat and instant messaging and social software of all other sorts....

In remote information-sharing, perhaps the only division of practical significance is between real-time (phone, chat, IM) and asynchronous interaction (email, blogs). Even there, the body of information, the cohort of information professionals and the population of customers remain the same.

I learned at AGCCE that the real challenge is to devise seamless ways of letting the same staff get the same information to the same customer, regardless of the mode of communication. It's a matter of redesigning the integration of staffing, information access and technology.

Until recently, the Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) remote services model was the conventional one.

Staff from Main reference rotated handling email questions, other Main staff rotated covering hours in the Call Center, and staff from Main and a handful of branches made up the chat team, coordinated by me and my colleague Christa.

Individual chat team agents were responsible for specific hours on a biweekly schedule, and they had to find their own substitutes from the team.

However, inspired partly by my report from AGCCE, JPL's regional supervisors have decided to shift to a new model, one with several goals:

• for all branches and public service departments to share ownership of remote services, rather than seeing it as an extension of Main Reference;


• for each branch and department to develop its own team of chat agents who can cover for each other;


• for branches and departments, rather than individual agents, to be accountable for regular chat hours each week (and for providing or finding substitutes when needed);


• for expansion of the chat team to allow continued expansion of the number of days and hours when JPL can deliver Local Desk chat reference, rather than Collaborative Desk.
  
  [Local connects Ask a Librarian customers who log in through the JPL website with JPL agents. Collaborative connects customers with whichever Florida chat agents happen to be logged in at the moment.]

This last goal is significant as part of the paradigm shift I described above.

Once local customers are able to have real-time exchanges with local JPL staff, the boundaries between Circ and Ref and other public service points, and those between Main and the branches, effectively disappear.

Customers can use telephone or chat (with email follow-up, if needed) to get any sort of remote services, without needing to know which location or person to contact.

Staff can use any remotely assessible resource in the JPL system (plus anything online) to provide their customers with quick, locally relevant service.

Just one example:

Recently I was doing chat reference with a customer who needed in-depth statistical information about a federal government activity.

[ALARM BELLS: Government info is not my strong suit.]

I remembered that our system has a Government Documents department. I phoned that manager, learned from her which website the customer would need, typed the link into the chat...and sighed with relief.

The customer was happy, I was happy, the Gov Docs manager was happy...and it didn't matter at all where each of us was physically located.

Neat!

There's much more potential in this rethinking of remote services, about which I will write in later posts.

For now, I just want to celebrate that my library system is moving ahead.

And that even "old dogs" like me can learn new and arcane technological tricks.

:-)

Thanks,
Mike

Addendum, 2/12/09: Since February 20th is Ask a Librarian Day in Florida, we decided at work that I should promote the service internally to all of our staff. Today I published this post on the JPL STAFF news blog.