Go the Extra Mile or …

Go the Extra Mile or …

            Ever since I became a public librarian, once in a while, I would hear people tell me that I would go the extra mile to serve my patrons. From the beginning, I didn’t know about the meaning of “the extra mile.” Then I got the point later on when more such comments came to me. To me, every case is the same: to meet a patron’s need and to satisfy my curiosity and my own standards.

            I have the book “L’etranger” by Albert Camus on my desk at this very moment. It’s a request I did for a young lady last week. A branch called first for a shelf check. After I found the book and had it ready at the circulation desk, the patron came. She didn’t have a library card. All she wanted was to read the book in the library. The problem was she would like to read the earliest version by a specific translator at the year of 1946. We have the book. Still she was not satisfied. According to her, these translated works are not the same as the original work. So I looked up at the catalog, found the book in French, and called the floor in which has the book.

            “I am sorry to tell you that I didn’t find the book. Still, please go ahead request the book in hope that we will locate it later.” And that’s what I did; I used my own card to place the request. The moment I got the book I email this young lady to let her that the French version is here ready for her to read in the library. The joy and excitement at the sight of the book were still with me. It is the cooperation between branches that made such mission completed.

            How do you spend your time at work and what’s your expectation from you at work? The sense of accomplishment drives me at work. Ever since I was a page whose primary task was to shelve books I enjoy working in the library. There are plenty of opportunities to exercise my brain, my head, and my heart. No one asked me to write or submit any report. Still, I designed my own format of reports and submitted to my supervisor and the branch manager to state my progress, map the areas I had done shelf reading, and share interesting finding and helpful ideas. Once in a while I even sent them articles about how to become more effective and efficient at work detailing how and what I have done. To me, autonomy is demonstration of mature adulthood; it’s a product and merit from different educations I have acquired over the years. No one needs to tell me what to do to gain excellence; excellence becomes my guideline and personal evaluation.

            Do you go the extra mile to satisfy your curiosity and, then, hopefully to fulfill a person’s need? If role switches are possible, what kind of expectation you would hold to get assistance from the other side of information counter? Questions help me think, ponder, and reflect. Do you have any question of your own? I do, plenty of them.