I'm planning on running a week where our tech staff has to use all the public services we offer, as well as "act like a user/client/patron/community member/whatever-you-call-em-doesn't-matter-to-me": use the public entrance to the building, check out an ereader, reserve a study room, etc etc etc.
If you've done this in the past, what did you include? How long did you run it for? How did you get buy-in?
jambina
I'm still a student and have not done this for work yet. One thing we did for class was to go into an unfamiliar library and act on a user and report our findings to the class. It was for a reference course rather than tech. services, but if you library has several branches could you send them to a branch other than the one they work in? Perhaps the slightly unfamiliar surroundings would break them out of their current thought processes and they could come back with some user-oriented ideas?
I've not run a Work Like a Patron Day at my library, but have found Brian Herzog's posts on it to be enlightening.
He & others linked from his posts on Work Like a Patron Day recommend having staff call the main line & navigate the phone tree, use the OPAC for book searches, check out items from the other side of the counter, use public computers, read posted signs, and sit in patron furniture.
Depending on the size of your staff & library, you might want to have them work this in shifts, sending one or two out for an hour or so. It might be useful to have a checklist of recommended patron activities and encourage them to try to hit a certain number of them.
As for buy-in, incentives can be a good motivator, even if it's merely a token. You could even do the checklist scavenger-hunt style and have the most checks win something. If you need administrative support, there are good arguments on Herzog's blog (see link above) as well as the Library Success Wiki's page on WLAPD, and Walking Paper's post on it for the benefit of viewing the library as a patron.
Dsalo alludes to having the staff bring other people to the event in the comments, and I agree, the more the merrier, but it may also be very helpful to you to have them bring friends or relatives that may have some form of impairment (visual or auditory, etc.).
There may be no written requirement to adapt to such needs, but it may be very helpful know when a stage of your circulation or other process might rely on having information that is not otherwise available to someone without the ability (e.g., if the font on your catalog database system is so small that it might require assistance to read, or how to get closed captions on a library video station).
So, in addition to running a simulation with the staff, their families, and associates, I think having the staff see scenarios that might be pertinent to a small but important subset of patrons would be invaluable.
Work Like a Patron Day is a great idea and program to get the staff to understand how the patron sees the library. I agree that Brian Herzog's post on it was a great push to that understanding. However, I would also add that it is important to have some level of cross-training as well. It's not just to get the patron's perspective, but how we treat co-workers internally. Many may not have any idea what another department does, creating misunderstandings and even resentment. Setting aside some time for staff to "shadow" other departments on a regular basis can help emphasize that. Incorporating the "shadowing" with Work Like a Patron Day can help staff work together.