What Your Library Perhaps Should Do For You?
Any librarian who has worked on a Reference Desk has gotten those toughie questions – maybe we’re not all that sure we should even be asked. If you’re anything like me they pass by without a second thought – just part of the job. But Jeremiah, at the Barker Engineering Library at MIT, reported an interesting exchange yesterday:
Mystified in Manchester: “Sure. I want to print, but nothing will print.”
Caring in Cambridge: “Right. Could you be just a little more specific? Where are you printing from? What are you trying to print? Which printer are you sending it to? That type of thing.”
Mystified in Manchester: “Can you just log in and fix it?”
Caring in Cambridge: “I don’t know what you mean…”
Mystified in Manchester: “Like if I give you my IP address, can you log in and fix it?”
He is right, most reference librarians would have no idea how to do this if the printer were in front of them, let alone how to remote to a computer to troubleshoot. But as the number of folks seeking reference services decline and computer use increases, perhaps this is something more libraries should consider? How would you answer this question?
