Is this an indication of future roving service to come? In a great article in her blog Library Webhead *, Sharon Clapp describes her positive reactions to the pro-active, roving customer service provided at Apple stores – including instant check-out on the spot with the roving Apple staff member. Sharon speculates on the use of a similar service in Libraries and concludes, “So imagine what this means for libraries. The next big thing won’t just be roving reference, but roving circulation! We’d better limber up & get used to being proactive in our customer service skills, introducing ourselves and offering to help.”

We couldn’t agree more. For those Libraries who have already embraced and implemented Roving and Roving reference successfully we’d like to say, “Congratulations! Well done! Roving Circulation/check out may be a wonderful future enhancement to what you are already doing!” To those Libraries who are considering roving, or have not quite yet made it a fundamental part of their service – “You’re on the right track…but the bar for pro-active service and roving is continually  being raised. You may want to consider picking up the pace a little.”

See the whole article at http://librarywebhead.blogspot.com/2010/08/not-just-roving-reference-roving.html

*Library Webhead is the blog of “a Librarian who focuses on web technologies…She also highlights some of the latest trends in Web development and Libraries.”

A bit different than the Roving skills I teach in my workshops. I wonder – How can we support or help this effort? Are there any Libraries “adopting” this project or others like it?
Click here to watch “Library On A Donkey” on YouTube, or copy and paste url:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQMh8_TD2dI  )

Amid the flurry of hype, hurrah’s, opinions and blogs about the new Apple iPad I found this post by David Lee King on his blog. Davis feels that the iPad will be a natural tool for use when roving. You can see the rest of his article at http://www.davidleeking.com/2010/01/28/ipad-a-game-changer

Think Reference Desk and roving reference here. It’s the same price as a netbook laptop. But probably easier to carry around, easier to show stuff to people, easier to make the text larger for people who need larger text (you just touch and stretch the screen with your fingers to make the text larger – just like an iPhone). And has a 178 degree viewing angle, so it would work well to show stuff to patrons.

Many of our Library clients ask what tools they can use while roving. Here are some interesting and useful opitions:

From Justine Shaffner, the Librarian is IN, comes this from her post New Roving Reference and Assistive Technology Tools:

“Back in the days when libraries weren’t quite so busy, if I didn’t have a constant stream of questions at the reference desk, I’d get bored and start trawling the stacks for people who looked confused.  I was delighted when we got a tablet computer as I no longer had to drag the patron over to a PAC or run between them and my computer for call numbers and answers. Having the internet with me at all times helped a lot when I needed to show the customer searching the art books for Van Gogh’s Starry Night how easily she could find it on Google Images, but while I could see the same catalog interface as our patrons, there wasn’t a way in to the staff side of our materials database.  That put a damper on my speed as quick, powerful searches and circulation functions still had to be done from the reference desk.

So I was intrigued by three of the products in the May/June 2009 issue of Public Libraries. EnvisionWare now has a LibraryPDA(TM) that can evidently do all staff side functions (plus inventory).

And for those of you with a SirsiDynix ILS, there’s Horizon PocketCirc 1.0 with functions similar to the LibraryPDA but with remote access also available, so you no longer have to write down titles and barcodes while checking out books at a school, offsite program or town event.”