Customer Service

Building Relationships with Youth and Families

The most effective engagement can start with those who are already in your library building. You may start to notice regulars at the library, especially in the youth services section. Building rapport and friendly relationships with these families and youth is not only a wonderful perk of the job, it also provides ample opportunities for you to give fun tips and ideas to encourage the practice of early literacy skills at home, to assist with homework, and to mentor tweens and teens. You may find that it is easier for you to do this during a program, or in the chit-chat before and after a program.

Besides your regulars, you may also notice folks who are new to the library. While some people are comfortable browsing on their own, others may appreciate a quick tour of your library so you can point out relevant collections and areas.

A few suggestions in creating a welcoming, friendly environment are:

• Provide a quick tour of the youth services space to families;
• Wear staff name tags and offer name tags to program participants;
• Move around the room and interact with families as they utilize the materials, rather than staying behind the desk;
• Introduce yourself to patrons you see regularly, especially to tweens and teens, and learn their names;
• Have a pleasant expression and maintain eye contact when greeting patrons.

Reference Interviews

The reference interview is an important part of any public-facing library job, and there can be some unique challenges when working with young children, tweens, and teens. We will give you a broad overview and introduction to the reference interview, which is applicable to any patron, and will also delve briefly into additional considerations for youth services library staff.

First, it’s important to understand, “What IS a reference interview?” A reference interview is the conversation between you, a librarian, and a library patron, where they are asking you for help to find something. Sometimes, the conversation can be a very short, straightforward one, such as the patron asking where the bathroom is or where the DVDs are. Sometimes, the conversation can be longer and you will need to ask questions to clarify exactly what the library patron is looking for so you can better assist them. You will have many opportunities to practice your reference interview skills on-the-job at the library, but here are some good guidelines to help you out as you get used to navigating these conversations in your daily work.

The five main parts of a good reference interview are:

1. Visibility/Approachability
2. Interest/Non-Judgement
3. Listening/Inquiring
4. Searching
5. Follow-Up

Visibility/Approachability

In order to have a reference interview, library patrons need to be able to see you and find you in the library. Depending on your library’s space, you might have to get creative in order to make sure that you are visible and easily found in the building. Some libraries have an established reference desk that is staffed at all times, whereas other libraries have “roaming” librarians that regularly walk through the building so that library patrons can stop them as needed. Check with your library director to see what routines they already have established - you can always change things as needed when you have a better feel for what works.

Once your patrons have a reliable way to find you, it’s important you make yourself approachable. You can do this by greeting patrons first if they are waiting to talk with you - and making sure that you aren’t occupied when people approach you. With young children, tweens, and teens especially, patrons might feel very shy or that they are bothering you. Engaging first can help create space for them to ask their question, and start the conversation.

Interest/Non-Judgment

It’s very important that you show the patron that you are interested and invested in their question, but you are not judging them for it. All questions should be treated with respect and enthusiasm. Maintaining eye contact and focusing your entire attention on the patron are excellent ways to do this. In some cases, especially with tweens and teens, you may find patrons asking questions that are more sensitive in nature or on topics that might be embarrassing. It’s very important to make sure that your body language, tone of voice, and expression remains friendly, polite, and welcoming, as you don’t want to make your patrons feel even more self-conscious than they already do.

Listening/Inquiring

This might be the most important part of the reference interview - listening to your patron, and communicating with them. Frequently, when patrons ask their question, you are only getting a partial picture of what they want. Asking further questions to understand what the patron’s goals are, how they are going to use information, and why they need it will allow you to better connect them with the information they need. Some good techniques to keep in mind:

• Allow the patron to fully state their information needs before responding;
• Rephrase the question/request and confirm your understanding;
• Use open-ended questions to ask the patron for more information, like “Please tell me more about your topic,” or “What additional information can you give me?;”
• You can ask clarifying questions like “What have you already found? What type of source do you need? Do you need current or historical information?”

Please note that some young patrons may have trouble communicating exactly what they are looking for. This might be because they are still learning how to talk, or they are misremembering a key piece of information, or they are too embarrassed to be more specific. Try to be patient with both the patron and yourself, as you will eventually figure out what people are looking for.

Searching

When you actually start searching for the information, you can take cues from your patron to see how involved they are. Some children will want to know exactly what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how they can do it later. Other children might just listen, and still others might only be interested in the final result. Regardless of the situation, it’s always a good idea to lightly narrate what you are doing - not only does this help the patron learn about the search process, it gives them a chance to jump in if you are going down the wrong path.

Keep in mind that older children and their parents may need help searching for reference material beyond the basic Google search. Remind them of the importance of using a variety of sources including non-fiction books, periodicals, and any state supplied, age-appropriate electronic resources and databases. Helping parents and children search within the library’s resources will ensure relevant, reliable sources that will more likely provide information that better answers their questions compared to conducting general internet searches.

One important reminder when you are searching - it is okay to let patrons know when you don’t know! While librarians are information professionals, it is impossible for librarians to know everything, and you will inevitably encounter a reference question that might stump you. Your goal is to provide your patron with information they can begin to work with, so remember to rely on your colleagues, or even refer to specialists/experts in your community who might have more resources at their disposal. And you can always ask patrons to give you some more time, and let them know that you will reach out once you have done more research.

Follow-Up

The last part of the reference interview is following-up with patrons, and making sure that they are satisfied with the information you provided them. This can happen right after the interview, with you asking, “Is this what you were looking for? Is there anything else I can help with?,” or maybe encouraging them to come back to you if they need additional help.

Other Considerations

While what you’ve just learned is relevant to each reference interview with any patron, there are other things to keep in mind when working with youth:

1. Reference interviews with youth may happen not just with the child, but also with the parent/guardian, or additional family member. The accompanying family member can often help clarify the child’s question, so don’t be afraid to involve them in the conversation as needed.
2. Some children will feel intimidated at the idea of approaching an adult stranger and asking for help. While it may be tempting to get additional work done when you are waiting for reference questions, be aware that looking busy might dissuade some young patrons from approaching at all with their question.
3. Teens and tweens might have a subject they are intimidated or embarrassed to ask about face-to-face, so be sure to offer some passive materials such as bookmarks or flyers that point them in the direction of tough topics.
4. Youth appreciate making their own choices, so be sure to offer a selection of materials to pick from, even if you have a favorite of your own.

You will have many opportunities to practice and use these skills, so don’t worry if you feel unsure in the beginning! Confidence will come with time, and you will soon develop your own personal method of answering reference questions with your patrons.

Reader's Advisory

Reader’s advisory is the act of recommending books to a patron, and is another staple service of librarians. With youth services, you will get many questions about what books to read both from children and their families, and while you will assuredly build up a repertoire of favorites and classics to readily recommend, there are lots of wonderful resources you can use to help you with reader’s advisory. Here are some things to consider when doing youth services reader’s advisory:

• Interest: Above all, matching the reader with their interests is key.  Have a conversation with the child and/or their caregiver to determine what they are most interested in reading.
• Reading Level: It’s important to match your young patron with a book that they will be able to read and enjoy. Many children’s books have general reading level categories that can be helpful for initial screening, but here are some other ways to help determine if a book level is right for a child:
  • Inquire about what they have recently read and enjoyed and offer books on a similar or slightly higher level of difficulty.
  • Ask for parent or caregiver input on where their child may be at in terms of reading levels
    
  • Utilize the Five-finger Rule: Have the child open the book and read a page aloud. Each time a word is unknown one finger (mentally) goes up. If the child reaches five fingers (five words) within one page, that book might be too challenging.
    
  • Become familiar with any book leveling systems your local schools may use.  Examples include Accelerated Reader, Lexile, and Fountas and Pinnell. Because of the limitations of these systems, most libraries do not organize their own collections based on them, but if you are familiar with how the systems work (their websites and lists), you can more easily locate books for your young patrons.
    
  • Above all--try not to discourage a child from attempting to read a book they are very interested in reading, even if it is too difficult.  You can always suggest they check out a few books that are closer to their level in addition to the difficult book.  This gives them choices once they get home.
    
• Reading Goals: It can be helpful to ask why children are looking for books, as there is a difference between searching for pleasure or fun reading and searching for school homework reading. Understanding your patron’s goals can help you recommend appropriate titles. 
  
• Books They’ve Read Before: Asking children about the books they’ve read and loved is a great way to understand what topics and genres they enjoy. Some children have specific kinds of books that they gravitate towards (ex: non-fiction books about animals, space science fiction, historical accounts, etc) so this can be a very helpful source of information for a librarian.
  
• Advanced Readers: Some children read well beyond their age/grade. Here you need to balance a challenging read with one that has content at the proper maturity level. It’s a good idea to become familiar with options ahead of time and make a list for yourself and other staff.  
  
• Struggling and/or reluctant readers: Some children either struggle with or just do not enjoy reading. Consider introducing these children to audiobooks, graphic novels, and non-fiction.  All three are often underrated but perfectly valid formats that might appeal to children for whom fiction chapter books are overwhelming.
  
• “Tough Topics” - tweens and teens often have special topics they may be researching for either personal or academic reasons but are too shy to inquire about directly. Topics may include mental health, drugs, sex, or bullying. We encourage libraries to provide bookmarks, posters, and websites for passive reader’s advisory.
  

The wonderful thing about reader’s advisory is that it helps both you and your patrons discover new books. It’s an art that is sometimes described as “putting the right books into the hands of the right reader.”  You may feel that this is an intimidating task as you first start out, but with time you will gain familiarity with your library’s collection and this will become second nature. However, being good at reader’s advisory does NOT mean you know every single title on the shelves by memory! This is where book reviews, library journals, blogs, and other resources are a great tool to have. There are many wonderful organizations to help you find highly-recommended, high-quality books that you can add to your recommending repertoire. 

Some examples include:

Reading Rockets

The Classroom Bookshelf

Unattended Children

As the library is a place that may be well known in your community for providing excellent services to children and families, you may find yourself dealing with the issue of unattended children in the library. While older teens are perfectly capable of being on their own in public spaces, it is important that your library has a clear policy that addresses at what age younger children may be at the library and/or alone in the youth services area, without adult supervision. Some libraries require adult supervision for any child under a certain age, while others may only require someone older than 13. Be sure to check on any state laws regarding ages of unaccompanied minors. Other libraries don’t mind having unattended children during specific times, for example when school lets out and all elementary and middle schoolers come to the library to wait for their parents to pick them up. Whatever the case may be, having a policy in place before this becomes a big issue is a good way to make sure that all young children are safe, especially as library staff are unable to keep a constant eye on them.