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 the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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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.
