I had some rather curious customer interactions as they relate to the library recently. They point to something, I suspect, but I'm not quite sure what.
The first interesting case was a man who came up and wanted another book on CD by a particular W.E.B. Griffin. The name caught my eye because it was mentioned in the book and it sort of stood out. In any case, there were several options, but none of them were available in our branch right then. However, there was the option of putting any number of them on hold, and I selected a couple. The patron travels for his job, and he was more interested in having something available than having the titles in a particular order.
At this point I asked if he had one of the devices that would allow for downloads of audiobooks. Further, I checked the catalog and found that W.E.B. Griffin was in our library's list of downloadable audiobooks. When I pointed this out to the gentleman, his reaction was immediate and rather startling. He put down the audiobooks he had in his hand, he asked me to cancel his holds, and he told me he'd be back later in the day.
When he returned, he had purchased a tablet. From his comments (and the short time interval) I suspect that he went from the library to the store and back then back to the library. He unboxed his tablet and loaded his first audiobook. This necessarily included some instructions on how to navigate pages and launch apps, but it went rather well. He downloaded a book and was quite happy.
He came in a few days later and wondered about the process for downloading audiobooks at his house. With a short discussion of wi-fi networks, he was again on his way.
This patron had mentioned that he was considering buying a tablet, but when he learned of the downloadable materials, he bought the tablet immediately.
As a librarian conditioned to think about giving away (or freely renting) materials, it is sometimes difficult to remember that some of what I handle is valuable, compelling stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment