“It should be easy for visitors to approach us and ask questions, they should not be hindered by a huge counter”, says Carolina Engfelt, librarian and developer at Stockholm University Library at Frescati who works with user support. A few years ago, the long counter was transformed into info points with neat standing tables.
The group that Carolina leads is the library’s face outwards, they take turns at the info points in the library and the various digital channels, as well as the telephone and e-mail.
Eleven people work at the info point and the same amount take turns working with the digital channels, the groups partly overlapping each other. In total, there are a little over 100 employees at the library at Frescati.
Previously, all loan matters were to be handled at the counter. “Now we have more self-service in the library, it emerged in a user survey conducted in 2015 that students preferred to be able to manage more by themselves in the library and, for example, pick up their reserved books without asking us”, says Carolina.
Anyone who needs help takes a queue note. When Carolina Engfelt started to work at the library in the late 1990s, there could be a ten meter long queue in front of the desk. “We had no digital channels at all, digitalisation has made it easier for both visitors and us who work here”, she says.
Elisabet Alm, library assistant, looks out through one of the return hatches. She is part of Carolina Engfelt’s team. Besides working at the info points and managing all digital channels, she takes care of returned books and puts reserved books in the library.
The chat got a boost in March 2020 when the university went into distance mode. “From one day with about 19 questions in the chat, we got about 80 questions the next day. We have had a huge increase in activities in all digital channels and it was good that we had started the chat before the pandemic came”, says Carolina.
“Pling” – the sound comes from the computer when a new question enters the chat. Every day between 9–16, a team answers questions here and deals with other questions in other channels. “It is mostly students who get in touch and most questions concern loan matters, such as that it is difficult to return books when you have to avoid traveling”, says Carolina.
“We also get a lot of questions about e-resources, many people think that the e-world is complicated”, says Elisabet.
In addition to the chat, visitors can submit a question to an open question forum, Ask the library, where all questions and answers will be public.
A sorting machine hides behind the return hatches. Here the books roll in, they are registered automatically and end up in different boxes depending on the subject, for example, all books marked with an “O” end up in the box for Social Sciences. Elisabet then sets them up in trolleys and takes them to the right shelf in the library. “At the end of the semester, the machine runs all the time, there are many books that are returned then”, says Elisabet.
The most common books that are borrowed are course literature, they are included in the so-called course book collection. Last year, about 100,000 printed books were lent out. “We usually say: The rumor about the death of the printed book is very exaggerated”, says Elisabet.
Returned books must be put back on the shelves. “This workplace is usually so full of energy, with the flow of all the people who come and go, and the mix of people of different ages and from different parts of Sweden and the world. I miss that now”, says Elisabet.
Even if the library is open, it is not at all the same pressure as a normal year. “You do not feel the annual rhythm in the same way during the pandemic, at the start of the semester we usually have an insane amount of visitors and we usually get many questions from those who come. It does not matter that the questions are the same: Where is the print machine? How do I get a library card? That is why we work here, because we like the meetings with the borrowers”, says Elisabet.