7.2 Staffing and opening hours
Preferably, the resource centre should be staffed whenever
it is open. Staff absences due to holidays or sickness should
be covered. Some resource centres set up a rota system, in which
various people, including health workers, tutors and students,
take it in turns to be on duty in the resource centre. Everyone
who does resource centre duty needs to be familiar with the
collection and the services that are offered.
A smaller resource centre which is only open to staff of the
organisation that it is part of, could be open when there is
no one to staff it. However, this would mean that the collection
would be less secure, and that no one would be available to
help users find and use information.
It is therefore important to think carefully about how many
people are available to be on duty in the resource centre, and
how many hours it would be useful for the resource centre to
be open.
7.2.1 Welcoming visitors
When people come to use the resource centre, it is important
that they feel welcome. The opening hours should be made clear
in any publicity material, so that people will not be disappointed
to find the resource centre shut.
It is a good idea to have a visitors’ book for keeping
records of visits. This could be an exercise book in which visitors
write down their name and organisation, and the date that they
visited the resource centre. It is useful to keep a record of
who has visited the resource centre, where they come from and
what they have found useful, to help evaluate the service. It
is also useful to ask visitors for other information as well,
such as their occupation, what subject areas they are interested
in, and whether they have any comments. These questions could
be included in the visitors’ book, or visitors could be
asked to complete a form.
next: 7.3 Introductory sessions
and information skills
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