What kind of metrics would you use to evaluate the roving peer program, and to evaluate individual roving peers?

It seems the Wal-Mart greeter has solid, measuarable goals. I would think at least one concern in a library would be creating an irritating distraction, at least after the initial entry to the library.

Only I would prefer to see the greeter set the stage, to create an environment that draws the user into the library, sets the user up for success. To find the answer that brings them to the library, and further encourages and inspires deeper research and understanding of their initial topic and related information. To prepare the entering user to immerse themselves in the available resources -- whether fiction, background research, or specific topical questions.

And again, I would want to establish criteria for evaluating and understanding the greeter and the greeter program, and the impacts on users and the library.

'If you want something to improve, establish a metric to evaluate progress toward success'.

Luck!

I'd like to think a college student would appreciate a job more meaningful than being the "greeter" at the library. What a wonderful future job we're training this bright young mind for! Be nice! To patrons! And hand out pencils! How about simply telling your librarians and student helpers to be more approachable while they go about doing their necessary library work?

I like your greeters concept, but in addition to students as greeters, I would also include library faculty and staff. It would be nice to meet and greet our customers, at least occasionally.

The semester after I graduated from library school (1977), I took one more course. In that course on collection development, we discussed roving reference as a means to engage students in library services. The faculty member actually tried it when he was a practicing librarian. I guess he was an early advocate of Library 2.0.

I just had to respond first to your comment about directional questions being a waste of professional librarians time. I would have to disagree with this because that type of attitude makes the overall environment less inviting. I think everyone needs to present a welcoming atmosphere.

I rather like the idea of a roving greeter or something to that effect. In our library, we find that when we're actually out from behind the desk helping a student, we'll often get other questions. So, I can see the usefulness of this. But I don't think many students would appreciate someone interrupting a study session, etc. However, if the greeter/rover was easy to identify (by a certain color shirt, name tag, etc.) students may be willing to approach them when they need help.

In general, though, I think it's the overall image you portray that will really define how approachable your library is. Do you reference librarians sit at the desk buried in the computer screen or some other work? Do you have someone at the reception desk who acknowledges people as they walk in (and it doesn't have to be verbal, it can be just a smile)? Do staff/librarians seem friendly and interested in the patrons when they are just walking around the building? Are your service desks covered in clutter, discouraging someone from coming up and setting down a backpack or book while asking a question? Take a good look at how you appear to an outsider first and then you'll be better able to evaluate what you need to do to improve.

Immediately I had to think on a staff member at the lending desk, where every user has to pass. He does just that - greeting user and building rapport.

I hate greeters. Maybe I want to walk into a library anonymously, and not be called out by some smiling weirdo.

Ditto, I hate greeters as well. They give me the impression that I'm under surveillance. The only difference between them and panhandlers -- also located near entrances -- is that the panhandlers accept change and cigarettes.

In Germany, the presence of greeters was one of the reasons that Wal-Mart tanked. It proved culturally unacceptable. I wish it'd be the same here.

I must disagree with the statement that greeters do no harm. I absolutely loathe them, and they always put me in a hostile mood. The very last thing I want to encounter on my way into ANY establishment is someone who is trying to distract me from what I am doing. I don't want to interact with someone who will slow me down on my way to whatever my goal is. I should stop thinking about what I am doing to say hello to a person who can't leave their post at the door to help me even if I wanted help at that moment? That's REALLY rude & unwelcoming! The front door area is almost never where I need assistance.

Mary, many do feel this way. This is why, as I ponder the idea, I mentioned expanding the role of greeters to be rovers, too.

Rovers MIGHT be less obnoxious, but a greeter who leaves the door isn't a greeter anymore. I do wonder where all these staffers are supposed to be coming from. If your library can barely keep the info desks & circ stations covered, just who is supposed to be out there wandering around? And finding a patron in the stacks who needs help, going back to the desk, or to a terminal elsewhere in the stacks for the answer, and then Back out into the stacks to try and find that patron again doesn't seen to me to be an efficient use of either the patron's time or mine.

How about rovers with handheld devices connected to our wireless network?

Also, I'm pondering the use of students in most or all of these roles. We have a very large number of student employees in my library. Training a handful of them to do this type of work might be an interesting experiment.

I think greeters are a great idea for any organisation that seeks to help people and offer services. the visitor should always feel welcomed and at home. those who propose that no greeter should is necessary at the entrance are not taking into cognisance the discomfort visitors feel in an environment where they are either new or unfamiliar with.

Terms aside, the best reference librarian I ever met is my friend D. D. works the weekends and has done so for years. He is a presence each weekend and some people know the library only through D. He is the face and voice and authority of the whole enterprise each Saturday morning. Why? Because he handles the desk, the reference stacks, and the sprawl of public PCs like it is as a good host would a party at his house. I drop in and find him sitting with someone working, sitting at the desk he is listening to someone's question, in the stacks finding something. He works alone all day and except for the time he is off eating his lunch, he is around. He circulates around the PCs, asking if everyone is Ok, do they need help. And people who not approach the desk, maybe even don't know if they need help, call him over and ask. He breaks down the barriers we have about bothering someone with a silly question. Library 1.0 or 2.0, D. is someone that you want in your library.