This morning I was poking around the Apple website, pretending like I was going to buy an iPod touch (so very tempting, so many reasons not to right now…). Anyhow, I was struck by a few things.
First, I was interested in whether the 8 GB Touch was in stock in my local Apple Store. But from the main (online) Apple store page, I couldn’t find any sort of reference or link to Apple retail stores–this is in pretty sharp contrast to other online stores, where “Store locator” or “Find in a store” links are often prominent.
I found the page for my local (Holyoke, MA) Apple store by Googling apple store holyoke (they don’t teach you this shit in library school). When I opened the page, the display was all wonky (on my Macbook Pro running Firefox 3). Based on what I could see, there didn’t appear to be a way to search inventory.
There was plenty of other good stuff, though.
Featured on the homepage is a schedule of workshops and events, which appear to be free. Workshops range from getting started with a Mac to more in-depth sessions on particular software packages. You can reserve a spot or just drop in. There’s an RSS button right at the bottom of the list so that you can keep up with new workshops as they’re scheduled.
There are also links to other types of personalized services, two of which caught my eye: Genius Bar (bring in your hardware & have it looked over by an expert, who can explain your options for getting it fixed); and Personal Shopping (with an emphasis on no obligation to buy). These both appeared to be free.
If you’re like me (God help you), you’re already making analogies to drop-in library workshops and research consultations. I wonder if the people who work at the Apple Stores had to sit through tons of hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing meetings and overcome arguments like “We tried that before and nobody came” before they were able to institute their workshops? I bet they have nobody show up a lot of the time, and don’t bat an eye.
I’ve run a couple of evening drop-in help sessions for undergrads at my library. With no idea what to expect, I set up in a computer lab that’s open for use in the evening, armed with a pile o’ work to do in case no one showed up. I announced to the mostly-full lab that the room was open for drop-in library help now and that if a lot of people came, they might be bumped, but they were welcome to keep working unless/until that happened. I started doing some work, keeping an eye on the door for people who looked like they might be coming for library help. A few came. We sat down together at open workstations and I was able to help them work through a few problems they were having (mostly with our catalog and locating physical items in the building). A doctoral student showed up with some questions about his dissertation, which I was able to provide tentative answers to while referring him to follow up with his subject specialist. All in all, pretty successful; pretty low-threshold. The people working in the lab were minimally disrupted; the people who came for the workshop seemed grateful for the help.
Getting back to “Genius Bar”: While not the most obvious term for what it denotes, it sure has a flair that “consultation with subject specialist” just doesn’t. I’d love to come up with a better way of marketing that particular service that we offer.
And Personal Shopper: what if there were an easy way for someone to click a few times and set up a short, individual tour of the library and overview of its services?
The distinction between the online Apple store (store.apple.com) and the page for Apple’s retail stores (www.apple.com/retail) strike me as we move forward in my library trying to define the library as timeless, placeless research outlet (services, access to collections, transactions, all happening online) while figuring out what the role of place becomes (computers, group study rooms, quiet study space, copiers, printers, scanners–but also programming and face-to-face services). The retail store page’s tagline is “Come to shop. Return to learn,” and content on the retail store pages seems to emphasize the value-added services that you get by coming to the bricks & mortar store, while the online store is really focused on selling products (with some DIY-type support info).
Do we need to build this type of dichotomy into our academic library web presences?
Post a Comment