Always ask why

Have you ever checked your work e-mail on the weekend and found questions from students saying something to the effect of, “Hi, can you help me? My assignment’s due Monday.”

I have – in fact, I just got two. Yes, I’m kind of annoyed. Don’t they know that I don’t (usually) work on weekends? Then I stopped – because you know what? I don’t think they do. Why would they know that? To me, it’d make more sense for them to assume that we’re like faculty members, whose working hours don’t generally seem to fit into the whole 9-5 paradigm. So I’ve made a mental note to start including that little tidbit – I tend to work normal business hours – in my instruction sessions.

So then I started feeling annoyed with the professor for crafting this assignment the way she did – we’ve received several questions about it. See, she’s sending these students to look for something we don’t have. I found myself asking a similar question: doesn’t she know she should check to see if the library has that information before sending students on a wild goose chase?

I ended up with the same answer: No. Why should she know that? This particular professor is, I think, an adjunct. I’ve been a liaison to this department for almost two years, and I’ve never seen her name before. I’m fairly certain that she’s not on any of the e-mail lists I have for that department – so she probably has never received any my e-mails about book orders, instruction, or new resources. She almost certainly does not know that there’s a librarian here that would be happy to work with her to find the best library resources to support her assignment.

I’d like her to know this, though, and I’ve been trying to get a hold of her. It’s been difficult – she’s not in the university directory. I just asked one of the students who e-mailed me if he could share her e-mail address with me.

I’m not sure what I can do, in general, to communicate with adjunct faculty better. I know that some of them are temporary, or only teach during the summer (like I think this woman does), and that their responsibilities tend to be more limited to teaching. I think maybe I’ll discuss this with the chairs of my departments, and the department liaisons – I want to make sure that these adjunct professors are getting support from the library!

It scares me how often I find myself thinking, “Don’t they know ________?” It shows a trend toward arrogance, and it’s a slippery slope from that to turning into that persnickety, cranky librarian at the reference desk – the one that students don’t feel comfortable approaching. I need to get in the practice of doing what I did today – ask myself why they don’t know whatever-it-is-they-don’t-know. Sometimes the answer is as simple as, “Because no one ever told them.”

(Of course, other times the answer is, “I don’t know! I’ve told them twenty times already!” But I think it’s always good to ask.)