Covering the Desk While Supervisors Are Busy
Occasionally, we may ask you to help cover the desk during a supervisor or all-staff meeting.
Patron Questions
If you are ever on the schedule to be a Lead for meeting coverage, here are you expectations for fielding patron questions:
1. Do your best to answer any questions that you are equipped to answer.
2. If a question comes up and you are not equipped to answer it, do your best to refer the question to the appropriate library staff member (whether via phone or via Zoom chat).
3. It is totally fine to take a message! For example, if there is a specific reserve question that only a supervisor can answer, you can say something like,
"My supervisor is in a meeting but they would be the best person to help you with that question. Could I please take your name and contact information so that I can pass it along to them? They will get in touch with you when they are out of their meeting."
Write down their name and contact info, as well as a short summary of what their question was. You can either put this on a piece of paper and leave it on a supervisor's desk, or send a short email or zoom chat to the supervisor. You can also give out the supervisor's contact info (work phone and email) to the patron if they would like to get in touch with us directly.
If you are staffing the circulation desk alone, the on-duty supervisor may give their cell phone number to you so that you can reach them in case of an emergency. It is fine for you to call/text your supervisor if they give you their cell number, but do not give their personal cell number out to patrons. Instead, give patrons the supervisor's GU phone extension, which is listed on the phone directory near the circ desk phone.
Security Issues
If there are security issues during your shift, following these guidelines:
1. If the issue does not warrant calling Security, send a chat the Reference & Research Triage chat. All of your supervisors plus the librarians will see that chat.
2. If the issue warrants calling Security or 9-1-1, you are empowered to do so! Some examples of situations where you should call 9-1-1: patron is bleeding or unconscious, someone falls down the stairs, a patron is threatening you.
Please note that if you do call 9-1-1 for any reason, you should also call campus security as a follow-up. Click here to read more information about procedures for calling security and 9-1-1.
If you call security or 9-1-1 during your shift, you will also be asked to fill out an incident report so we can gather information about the situation. There is more information about incident report procedures toward the bottom of our "Personal Boundaries" page.
Updating Your Supervisors
Once your supervisor are back, make sure you let them know if they missed anything major (patron interactions, building issues, Security issues). If you did have to take a message, make sure that you have noted the patron's name, contact information, and the specific question.