Why your Library’s Web site should make it perfectly clear where you are
Kerstin Habenicht, a librarian at Waterloo Public Library, had a volunteering applicant stand her up for an interview last week. On Monday, Habenicht received an email with an interesting excuse.
The applicant arrived promptly on time at 3 p.m. in Waterloo, Iowa. The interviewer was ready right at 3 p.m. — in Waterloo, Ontario.
“Our summer reading club this year has a detective theme — Agent 009. Unfortunately, I just failed my detective exam,” Habenicht, children’s program coordinator for the Canadian library, said.
The entire time the two were e-mailing, they never realized they were communicating internationally, from 757 miles apart.
According to librarians, this kind of thing happens all the time.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
Kerstin Habenicht, a librarian at Waterloo Public Library, had a volunteering applicant stand her up for an interview last week. On Monday, Habenicht received an email with an interesting excuse.
