You’ve Got Mail
By Karen G. Schneider
American Libraries Columnist
Director of the Garfield Library in Brunswick, New York, and author of A Practical Guide to Internet Filters (Neal-Schuman, 1997)
kgs@bluehighways.com
Column for June/July 1999
Shortly before going on vacation, I went to library discussion lists Publib and Web4lib and posted a quick question about offering e-mail to patrons. Out of nearly 70 responses from a mix of public and academic libraries, all but five reported that their patrons were allowed use to Web-based e-mail (most often through free e-mail services such as Yahoo and Hotmail). “It has truly enabled many of our users to make full use of the Internet,” explained Bobb Menk, Internet librarian at Lane Memorial Library in Hampton, New Hampshire.
Years ago, many libraries initially balked at offering e-mail—usually rationalizing that e-mail is different because it is interactive. However, as our world rapidly becomes an “informated” environment, with computing ubiquitous and expected, librarians have had significant attitude adjustments, recognizing that even the simplest activities, such as shopping or talking to family and friends, now rely on having a digital presence. “To buy anything on the Internet you have to have e-mail,” pointed out Terry Beck of Roselle (Ill.) Public Library.
What’s in it for Yahoo, Hotmail, and those other free e-mail companies? E-mail is a great way to bring people back to the same commercial site on a regular basis, where we can be bathed with banner ads and commercial promotions just as regularly as when we watch television.
What’s in it for us? Free e-mail at the local library is an obvious boon to people who do not own computers or have personal Internet accounts. Another, perhaps more common enticement is that through these accounts we can access our primary e-mail accounts (work, home, etc.) from anywhere we can access the Web. So when I wanted to check on the latest responses to my post while on vacation, I registered for a half-hour session at the Provincetown (Mass.) Public Library (“You’re lucky it’s quiet. Sign up now!” warned the staff). As is the case with most libraries that responded to my query, I didn’t have to show identification—they just wrote down my first name. I caught up with my critical mail from my home and work accounts, and was ready to go play again.
There seem to be two flavors for offering e-mail: grudging and ungrudging. In the first camp are those librarians who kvetched that supporting e-mail “took too much time,” in the words of one anonymous librarian, or in the words of another, that “true information seekers are being denied access.” In the second, and thankfully larger camp, are those librarians who understand that access is a form of information (and that people get many things out of libraries unrelated to information needs). A number of librarians rhapsodized about offering e-mail to foreign travelers and students—“foreign” meaning everything from the next county to the next continent. Marijah Sanderling of Rochester (N.H.) Public Library talked about “an older couple who come in every week to check their e-mail” from family members—a scenario played over in hundreds of libraries every day, based on the messages I received.
Point-of-use instruction (considered an imposition by the “grudgers”) is a sacrament to this crowd. As Leone Cole of Watertown (Mass.) Public Library put it, “We help people set up Hotmail accounts [and help them] access Hotmail the next time they come back”—that good old added-value service Frederick Winslow Taylor talked about in 1911 in Principles of Scientific Management.
Some enterprising librarians have found even more reasons to give patrons e-mail. As librarian Dan Lee explained, Chandler (Ariz.) Public Library offers courtesy overdue notices by e-mail when items are two days overdue. This saves on postage and often gets books back earlier. (When I worked at a government library where all of our patrons had computers on their desks, all overdue notices went out by e-mail, as did the library newsletter.) Dan’s library, like many, now offers a magazine database through which patrons can e-mail themselves the articles. This not only saves paper and supplies, but it facilitates the research process since patrons can collect articles in their in-boxes to visit at their convenience. Less waste, less expense, and everyone’s happy.
Give ’em what they want
It may surprise some folks to discover that e-mail is expressly forbidden at some libraries, since for many libraries Web-based e-mail access is a “non-issue,” as Jill Patterson of Glendora (Calif.) Public Library put it. Jill’s library even pulled together a list of free e-mail services, which includes a Spanish-language e-mail service, www.loja.net.
Censorship issues aside, it’s hard for libraries to stop Web-based e-mail. Even if you tried to block all known Web-based e-mail services, another one would pop up the next day. However, on my home computer I was able to unintentionally prevent access to e-mail by using the X-Stop filter, which for no apparent reason blocked www.loja.net. Since I can’t read Spanish, I can’t tell what it is they’re protecting me from—but “Registre GRATIS seu E-mail, Reminder e Homepage” seemed pretty tame to me. (Random acts of censorship are amusing—if you have the power to override them.)
In the name of good customer service, public relations, and service to the underserved, don’t just open the door to e-mail—welcome your patrons, ungrudgingly. Listen to a librarian in an “e-mail-free” library who has patiently advocated e-mail access to her director and board: “These requests for e-mail are as legitimate as teenagers looking for pictures of ’N Sync, [people looking for] files of Bill and Monica jokes, and recipes.” Give the taxpayers what they want—and the next time you take a vacation, you’ll be glad you did!
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