As the number and variety of available information providers continues to grow, the library is beginning to find itself left behind. Despite centuries of experience in organizing and disseminating information, as well as being a established community center, libraries must now compete with the Internet, large bookstores, music stores, publishing companies, and other organizations involved in providing information. The library holds a unique, non-profit, historical position in the information industry. Yet if it cannot change to respond to user needs, this will not be enough to keep it thriving.
Thus, for the purpose of this observation, I chose to focus on a small aspect of modern librarianship: providing good customer service. I was curious to see how things were currently being done and to perhaps learn what could be done to improve reference service at the information desk.